New Race Control Hut and System

The start of the 2016 season was heralded by the positioning of a new Race Control Hut on the North Pier. (photograph to follow).

Thanks to sterling efforts of Tim Rix and Mark Egglestone this magnificent UPVC construction is less prone to wood and metal fatigue which was the bain of its predecessor. Unfortunately it was originally put in place a little too soon in the season and what we hope was the last of the winter storms did some damage. Tim and Mark came to the rescue and revamped the set up. The door is now at the other end and the hut is more firmly attached to the anchor points.
There will be no more heaving of heavy wooden shutters as the roller blind can be operated from the inside.
Thanks to Sean Clarkson the hut has been fitted with a state of the art starting unit which operates the horns automatically all powered from solar panels charging the on board batteries.
Jim Evans has adapted the old steps to be a free standing unit and added grab handles for those of us that need them. He will be race officer for the first race of the season when we will attempt to make sure everything works as intended.
Jim Butcher has attached battens to the exterior so that 3 of the  existing course boards can be attached in the same way as before.

The Lights previously mentioned in this post have not proved successful and have been removed

Membership for 2016

The list of members to be sent request for 2016 subscriptions has been prepared. This year it has been proposed that a single family request will go to the lead member of each family. I have managed to assign all our cadets and most students to a member who will be sent the combined invoice. I hope you will recognise who you are being asked to pay for. If you think that they should be paying for themselves it can be arranged but perhaps a little reminder from you would be the best.
As there is no increase in fees this year you can refresh your memory by checking the membership tab above.
I propose to issue the emails the first working day in December.  Those emails which are bounced will be sent a letter by post. A second email will go to those whose email remains unopened in the middle of December. Letters will be sent to unopened emails after that. This should give everyone the opportunity to take advantage of the £20 rebate for all payments made before the end of January.
Finally a Merry Christmas and a happy New year to you all.
David Stamford (Membership)

Sailing Season Started

The 2014 sailing season is now well underway. After an initial hiccough with the positioning of the main club racing marks all seems to be working well.

I have been looking at an android app for my Phone and Kindle which works out the corrected time when you enter PY(BHS) number and time in Hours minutes and seconds. Its called SAILCALC and can be found in Google Playstore or Kindle Appstore. I believe there is an Apple Iphone version too.
Enter BHS without any decimal point and the elapsed time and the result pops up. The phone version allows me to make a custom data base so I can have a list of numbers for the boats we sail and pick the PY(BHS) from it. There is also the official 2014 RYA PY numbers for dinghies built in.  Once installed on your phone it does not need Internet so you can use it at sea if you have the time.

A few sessions in the race hut has convinced me that the temporary Horns need to be made permanent. I have done this and now the red plastic horns are an integral part of the system working with the trailing wire push button which also shows the lights. The compressor is now not needed and will be removed. There are brackets by the door of the hut into which a crome bar can be fitted so that the horns can be hung outside when needed and returned to the hut during the week. The batteries are charged by the solar panels so the system will be more reliable. Just remember to turn the green light switch on.
Happy Sailing for the rest of the Season.

RCP

Another Good Leg for Olly

OneDLL, the ‘big blue boat’ beat all expectations with a very fast finish in the closing stages of the shortened Race 9.1, knocking Mission Performance off its provisional podium position, beating its elapsed time by one hour 26 minutes. The team crossed the revised finish line at the Shanghai waypoint with an elapsed time of 5 days 16 hours 54 minutes. It will now make best speed to Qingdao under motor sail.
10 points for the 3rd position will increase Olly's overall lead as nearest rival Henry Lloyd looks like gaining only 4 points for 9th place.

All results remain provisional. The official verified leader table for Race 9.1, and updated overall standings, will be published on Friday 14 March.

 

RYYC records at the Treasure House

I was reminded that for the Centenary of the YOD class I did some research into the History of the class. At a later date rather than allow this to get lost I arranged to deposit the details at the ERYC Treasure House at Beverley. Should anyone be interested in the History of the club they should follow the following link to the Treasure House Catalogue. If you find something there that interests you a visit to Beverley, armed with the details you want would be rewarding. There is also a book by Arthur Credland (ex curator of the Hull Maritime Musem) about the RYYC at the same location.

History Repeats Itself

Those of you that follow the Clipper Round the World race will have read of the latest development which will serve to improve Olly and OneDLL's chances of retaining the overall lead.
Surprisingly it reminded me of one of the very early Clipper Races in the time when Andy & Penny Cawley were regular YOD competitors in YOYO. Andy was a senior executive in Noresman Gibb who had supplied the rigging for the Colvic Clippers. The fleet experienced dramatic bottle screw failures and Andy had to fly to the Antipodes to investigate and rectify the problem. (Penny was left to sail YOYO which showed that it was probably her and not Andy who gave the boat its' ability to do well).
Well this time similar forestay bottlescrew failures have caused the present leg to be abandoned and restarted after modification to the boats in Hong Kong.
Olly, who has at present diverted to Malaysia to allow a crew member who has suffered a bereavement to leave the boat and return home, will not suffer from the time lost by his chivalrous actions.
I am sure we wish him all the best in the future legs.

Ollie Still in the lead.

I am pleased to say OneDLL is still in first place in the Clipper race. The article in the Bridlington Free Press was superb but unfortunately it has inadvertently caused Ollie a problem as the followng message from his mother shows.

Jamie Cotterell David, it would appear that someone downloaded the BFP article to Olly.......whilst I am sure this was done with the best intent, at NO TIME EVER are photos to be downloaded to him. They are sent via sat, and has cost him a fortune, to the point that he has told us he cannot phone us anymore. Needless to say we are very upset. Please ensure everyone at the RYYC is aware of this. Thanks.

PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO SEND OLLY PHOTO'S