Musings from the Commodore - August

It seemed like summer was never going to end, but now the nights are starting to draw in and the air temperature is taking on a bit of a chill at dawn and dusk but, hey, summer's not over yet!. August seems to have flashed by, Bass Week, Wednesday Night racing, lots of training courses, all done and dusted and hopefully you've had plenty of fun along the way.

I must say from a personal point of view I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of Bass Week this year. Although Mrs H and I travelled up to last year's event for the first time, we only managed to take in a few days, staying offsite in a local B&B, so missed out on a fair bit of the stuff going on. This year, armed with a new caravan, we were able to join the Chase crew on tour and really get amongst the fun. If you have never been before I can thoroughly recommend it, the Bassenthwaite Sailing Club is set right on the shore of one of the Lake District's most picturesque stretches of water and, sailing aside, the nearby towns of Keswick and Cockermouth give up plenty of things to do if you just want a holiday.

On the sailing front, the team at Bass S.C. put on a week-long sailing programme that I can honestly say is equal to, if not better, any Regatta I've ever sailed in and the social events calendar means there is never a dull moment. Perhaps I'm biased because I love the Lake District in general, but I would wholly recommend checking it out one year.

All that said, what about us? Well the 30 odd strong Chase Sailing Club crew did the Club proud, with Elsa, Mark, Russ, Gail, Mia, James and Elanwy all winning trophies with Elsa particularly excelling, picking up several awards. Congratulations to you all and I hope you enjoyed the week as much as we did.

I mentioned in a previous edition of Musings the unfortunate nuisance caused by the local youth and you will probably have seen some of the new signs that have been put up around the site and the combi-padlocks that allow members to go out on the water and be able to secure the compound whilst enjoying their sport. It's early days, but I'm pleased to note that it seems to be working. I would ask you all to remain vigilant, look after the Club, your property and each other, thank you.

During August we put on a number of training courses for Windsurfing, SUPing and Sailing and well done to all who took part and earned their respective wings. I'd like to take the opportunity at this point to thank all the people involved in organising, and then teaching, these most valuable Club events. We need to get people on the water knowing they have had the opportunity to pick up the skills that keep them, and others, safe in their sport. This takes a lot of time and effort on the part of a relatively small number of volunteers who put in the hours, sometimes without recognition. Mark, Richard, Rob, Gail, Isabel, John, Tim, Steve, Libby, Nathan, James and Darren - thank you!

We also ran an Assistant Instructor Course during August and It's really fantastic to be able to share with you that Anwen, Mia, Elsa, Huw, Will and Delyth all successfully negotiated a set of pretty intense training sessions and are now Assistant Sailing Instructors. We have the opportunity later in the autumn for two of the group to go forward to become fully qualified RYA Dinghy Instructors, Elsa and Huw will no doubt do themselves and the Club proud. Really super stuff and well done to you all!

On the Club racing scene Callum (and his Dad Chris) managed to hold on despite late pressure from both Eden and Josh, to win the Wednesday Night race series, Congratulations Callum, this is a cracking result and no mean feat for one of our junior members to hold off a National Champion.

There is much to look forward to in September, we have the Presidents Trophy Race to be contested, the Solo Association is holding an Open event and we are honoured to be hosting the Lightning 368 National Championships. Alex Walton (Sailing Secretary) and our Vice Commodore Dave Watkins have been working hard behind the scenes to make sure these events really show off what we can do. If you can offer up some time to help with these, or any of the future Club events please do contact the Committee, we'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy the remains of summer, get ready for some hopefully breezy autumn weather, and above all, stay safe.

See you on the water.

Humph