Club dinghies may be hired once again from Friday 29 May. Bookings are open as of now.

There are now 14 dinghies available for hire, each clearly numbered for identification. 

The Hire Dinghies page of the website has been considerably revised. Please be sure to read the new page before hiring your boat, because a number of changes have been made in order to enable all members to hire safely at a time when Covid-19 precautions are essential to safeguard both you and the hirer who comes after you (not to mention volunteer members undertaking any maintenance needed).

The disinfection protocol is drawn up as required by the RYA and must be adhered to.

You will see that hire fee payments involving handling of cash are not possible at this time. If you are not happy undertaking a bank transfer of the fee and wish to pay by cheque, please contact me.

The book for reporting faults or breakages is now in the Members' Room porch, thus avoiding any need for Members to enter the room at the present time.

I will update this article if necessary as the situation evolves.

Bon voyage!

Richard Fryer, Dinghy Hire Coordinator, 27 May

I am pleased to let you know that SYC will be open from tomorrow morning, Friday 15th May, for individual free sailing. There will be no safety boat cover.

If you decide to take advantage of the fine weather and venture out on the water, please make sure the conditions are suitable for your craft and your own capabilities. The RNLI is short-handed and would not wish to be unnecessarily called out. Also please remember the constraints of social distancing, which are a Government requirement. The Coronavirus has not gone away, it is just not currently acute in our area. Let’s keep it that way.

Some restrictions for Club use are already in place.

• The Clubhouse and Galley are strictly out of bounds. Make sure you bring sufficient food and drink with you. There will be nothing available on site. Drinking water can be run from the tap in the Members’ Room.
• Changing rooms have severely limited spaces and using them for changing into or out of sailing gear is discouraged. Please try to arrive and depart in your sailing gear or change in the car park.

The Club has been open for eight days now following the lockdown which began in March. Many Members have enjoyed the very pleasant weather and sailed, canoed or paddled on the river. It is sometimes difficult to maintain the social distancing rules but in general most people have adapted responsibly.

To make life a little easier, sanitiser dispensers have been placed at strategic points and shortly, wash hand basins will be placed outside the changing rooms to reduce the necessity of entry. Drinking water is available from the tap between Galley and Race Box.

The Sailing Committee has produced a list of two-handed boats that may be sailed single-handed and another of those which are strictly not to be.

Permitted:

• RS200
• RS400
• Merlin
• National 12
• Feva
• Small cruising dinghies such as Mirror, Gull, Wanderer
• Dart 18 and 15

Specifically excluded are all trapeze two-man boats, e.g. Hornet, Hurricane, Laser 2 , RS800, Fireball.

Please respect these rules to keep safe and reduce the risk of accidents. Check your rig to avoid breakages and do a wind speed check before sailing.

We hope you have enjoyed the weekly Virtual Sailing races made available to SYC members by the RYA (Royal Yachting Association).

The RYA has published this poster, plus other advice and guidance for a considerate and safe return to the water. We are all anxious to avoid incidents such as recent RNLI rescues of people who had put themselves unnecessarily in danger, with potential health consequences for the RNLI volunteers involved.

There's more - click on the image above to see the full poster.

SYC always welcomes new members and you don’t necessarily need to already have - or even buy - your own boat.

For more experienced sailors, the club maintains a small, varied fleet of dinghies that can be hired by members at very reasonable rates.

The Starcross Steamer, a winter-months 2½-hour pursuit race for monohulls, has become one of the classic British open sailing events, drawing competitors from the length and breadth of Britain. 

In the Eighties the popularity of the Pompey Perisher and Bloody Mary annual pursuit races, attracting large entries of small boat racers, emphasised the vacuum of a similar event in the South West. The first Starcross Steamer was created in the early months of 1991 by SYC’s then Flag Captain, Nigel Bath. It has now been repeated in the early months of the New Year since that time. The 2020 event was therefore the 30^th.

The thirtieth Exe Sails and Covers Starcross Steamer was held on Sunday 19^th January. This was also the 5^th race in the 10-race Sailing Southwest series where competitors compete in winter pursuit races all over the south-west. Due to high winds the Steamer last year had to be cancelled, so we were a little concerned that we might not get up to the 100-boat limit. We need not have worried: within 14 days of the entries being open we had a waiting list.    Photo Gallery by Garnett Showell is here

What a great day we had yesterday, with weather and turnout!

One incident marred the day for Mike Arstall, who skidded on the ice and turned his car over on the approach road to the Club. I spoke to him yesterday evening and he sounded his usual chipper self. He has just sent a message to say he had a good night and wishes to thank everyone who helped him yesterday. He is very grateful and says he will show anyone who wants see his array of 25 stitches, but by appointment only. Get well soon, Mike.

96 boats entered for this epic pursuit race and there were no incidents on the water.  Garnett Showell's photos