The club is very please to announce that it is re-opening for club members only to social sail in limited numbers. Anyone wishing to attend must make a booking through the Eventbrite link provided on the website page – here
There are very strict safety measures in place fully detailed on the page that must be adhered to. Your committee has worked extremely hard to put these in place so please abide by them.
The Summer newsletter has been sent via email for the first time direct to your inbox. If you haven’t received it check your spam folder or similar. Let me know if you haven’t received it at all and I’ll check the server. I hope you like it although it is different from the paper one you are used to. There are many links to articles and also content from other places, like facebook & youtube. You can also see it online – Summer Newsletter
Dear Member,
As you know, the Prime Minster made an announcement on Sunday evening of the Government’s change in philosophy from ‘Stay at Home’ to ‘Stay Alert’ whilst still combatting the virus and saving lives. He also mentioned some small easing of restrictions on travel, exercise and outdoor pursuits. The RYA has since issued detailed advice on how it believes clubs might organise a resumption of sailing in a manner which complies with the present Stay Alert philosophy. Whilst this may be applicable to coastal sailing and for those clubs where safety cover is not mandatory, we need to ensure that we can maintain the health and safety of all members whilst at Sutton Bingham.
We are determined to support the Government’s objective of keeping the R number below 1 and to abide by their rules. The current rules allow one individual to contact no more than one member from another household – and, even then, whilst maintaining the current social distance of 2 metres. It is difficult to see how we could do that at Sutton Bingham.
For the time being then, we are not in a position to allow sailing to restart until we have resolved the issues of providing safety cover, access to the Clubhouse, use of changing rooms and toilets etc. However, we believe that it is within the spirit of the Government’s current rules to allow members access to the Club grounds to collect boats, check on security and undertake maintenance, providing individuals adhere strictly to the Government’s rules of social distancing. The Clubhouse and Galley will remain strictly off limits except for essential use of the toilets, but responsibility for washing and de-sanitising hands will be with any member that needs to use those facilities. We are attempting to source sanitiser pumps to place in the Clubhouse but we would ask members to bring their own until such time as suitable pumps can be found. Remember that others may have touched the gate, padlock and other fixtures and fittings before you.
You can be assured that the Club’s committee is studying the latest advice and looking closely at how things might be organised in order to get members back on the water as quickly as possible. However, the health and safety of our members remain our priority. We will keep members informed as the situation develops.
Stay alert and stay safe.
Merv Clark
Commodore
Although there is no sailing at present we’ll still be creating a newsletter for the summer. Have you got stories of what you are doing to keep sailing in your mind? Our stories of sailing over the last couple of years that will give club members some enjoyment. Let us know.
#sbscweb
Here is the link to the first of the RYA rules webinars that are currently running on Wednesday evenings.
In anticipation of the Covid-19 restrictions being suitably lifted by July, we would like to remind parents that there is likely to be a rush to book up summer activities such as the very popular sailing courses at Sutton Bingham. To get your children off their mobile phones and into the beautiful surroundings of the reservoir in the company of terrific instructors, must be high on your list of things to do at this time!!
To request a place on your first choice course, please fill in a booking form and return it to Saffron, our Bookings Manager, along with a deposit of £18/place into the SBSC bank account (details on the booking form). If after booking the course you have chosen does not go-ahead as planned, we will try to arrange an alternative course and failing that, any sums paid will be refunded.
We may want to discuss your course choices to ensure the best instructing options, to bring about the best outcomes for your children based on numbers, particularly beginners and those few who wish to undertake advanced training courses.
We look forward to seeing you in the summer
With best wishes
Chris Hutton – Training Principal
The RYA are hosting a series of webinars for all of us sailing from home. These include the racing rules, futures of sailing, payment methods and many more.
We know that sailing is out of bounds at the moment, but is there anything sailing related you are doing at the moment? Here’s a photo of sunny sailing days with Chris Bottomley
I’m starting to think about methods of delivering the club’s newsletter. Currently as you know once every 3 months a nice shiny booklet will land on your doormat ready to be read cover to cover. This however isn’t the enironmental solution you may like even though you can recycle the things once you’ve read it. There is also a large cost 4 times a year to produce it, plus fetching from the printers, effort in enveloping it and posting, and so on.
Would you be amenable to receiving the newsletter in electronic form only? Perhaps the same print style format on the website with an email sent to you to notify its available? Or a purely electronic version like this – OK Dinghy Newsletter? Or would you prefer it as an email only, with links to articles on the club website? This latter one is easiest to produce and would still have the valuable information and articles but in a different format. Let me know what you think?
