Kerry - Tuesday 05 Mar 20:41 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, From a previous message you will know dedicated club member and past Commodore Catherine Shanks passed away peacefully last Thursday evening. A service to celebrate Catherine's life will be held at Oaklands Chapel, corner of Halswell Junction and Wigram Roads, Halswell, on Friday, March 8, at 2.30pm, followed by a private cremation. We invite all club members and fellow sailors to join us in a Guard of Honour as Catherine leaves the funeral so please bring your centre boards, paddles to hold above her procession. Your Committee met on Monday evening and here are some notices to pass on. 1. We really do need a Canteen Manager, someone who can expand our food experience after sailing. 2. We have several combination locks securing our buildings. Once these are opened on sailing days could they please be closed again so as to avoid fiddly fingers resetting the combination. 3. Please welcome these new members to our Club The family of Garath,Eli, Jacob and Lilly Bain. The family of Reia Stannard, Matt, Inka and Joshua Sommervill-Smith. Junior member Lucas Stratton. Jumior member Harley Foote. 4. Just a reminder that if you want to catch up on what happened on a past sailing day, these are now stored on our sailing history page on our website. Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Sunday 07 Jan 08:05 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, With no Committee meeting in January this newsletter focuses on our sailing. We have six sailing days at our Club this month so it might be a good idea to check out our sailing programme on the Club website and mark up your calendar. As well as our own Club sailing there are events at other Clubs that I know members will want to attend and so where I have been given information such as a Notice of Race these are published on our Sailing Programme page. Also on this page is a link to the combined calendar for the South Island Clubs. Do not forget to help your Club by volunteering for the Roster. Looking further ahead to February we have scheduled a Junior Sailing Day on the 10th. Based on an idea that grew from our very successful Boxing Day sailing I am investigating how feasible it would be to run a junior two-handed sailing day. We have four Club sunbursts and possibly two others from members so could potentially muster six yachts for a possible of 12 crew. A possible event scenario would be five short races using progressive Mark Foy starts, allowing crews to stick with boats but still be in the race. The big question is - how much interest is there for this sort of sailing day amongst our junior members. There is a lot to organise including getting a senior member to champion each sunburst and help out. Looking at the calendar I must have enough positive replies by the middle of this month to have time to turn this proposal into reality. Over to you as members to email your reply to me. Summer is jam-packed with sailing but I have managed to start the New Year with a day windsurfing. Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Thursday 14 Dec 08:44 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, The rest of your Committee, except me, met on Monday evening for the last meeting of this calendar year. These are the items passed to me to write up for this newsletter. 1. Please welcome two new members. Daniel Smith, senior member sailing a zephyr. James Whiston from the learn to sail group. 2. Our sailing day this weekend is our five hour race. Please read the Notice of Race on our website and come and join in the fun. 3. Keep an eye on the website Snippets for another item about our travelling sailors. 4. We have scheduled a sailing day on Boxing Day. It is now only three weeks away. If you think this would be a great activity for Boxing day then please register your support early. It is a mid-afternoon start and I am thinking either a BYO lunch before sailing (cucumber sandwiches et al) or a BYO tea after. A lot will depend on what you as Club sailors think and the number interested, so register to make it happen. 5. Two of your Committee members have put in a lot of work to secure for the Club a flat-pack kitchen from Mitre10 at a very good discount rate. In the New Year there will be a series of work parties to build and install our new kitchen. We will publish an event 😁. The knowledge to set your sail to the best wind. Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Thursday 14 Dec 08:43 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, On a beautiful Monday evening your Committee met for the second to last time this calendar year. We have a couple of messages and reminders to pass on. 1. Our next sailing day is the 11ft regatta this weekend. Just a reminder that there is also Club sailing on Sunday and for both senior and junior members you will be starting last in the start sequence. Details at the briefing. 2. Please welcome our new Social member Rob van Peer. 3. We have scheduled a sailing day on Boxing Day. Yes I know it is a long way ahead but if you think this would be a great activity for Boxing day then please register your support early. It is a mid-afternoon start and I am thinking either a BYO lunch before sailing (cucumber sandwiches et al) or a BYO tea after. A lot will depend on what you as Club sailors think. Let us know. 4. This is a reminder that there are still a few subscriptions due. The knowledge to set your sail to the best wind. Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Saturday 07 Oct 10:25 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, Your Committee met at the Clubrooms on Monday evening and above the howl of the Southerly wind gusting to 47 knots we tended to the business of running of our Club. Well not quite as dramatic as that but it was not a good sailing day. Matters that we want to pass on to our membership are: 1. Thank you to those who attended and supported the Quiz night and a thank you to the wider membership who donated to the hamper. Once the Treasurer has done the numbers there will likely be a report published on our website. A successful event. 2. Please welcome these new members to our Club. Olly and Theo Leethem (jumiors). Tony Slattery and Sally Pearson (seniors). 3. Club Member training. This month there are three training courses being run by the Canterbury Yachting Association. VHF Course, Thursday 12th Oct 2023. There are only a few vacancies available for this 4hr certificated course at NPCL, starting at 1800hrs. Course cost $80pp. VHF Course, Thursday 26th Oct 2023. This new course 4hr certified course is planned for the MPYC starting at 7:30hrs.Course cost $80pp. Four hour Basic First Aid / Rescue Course, Monday 30th Oct 2023. This 4hr certificated course is planned for the MPYC starting at 17:30hrs. Course cost $70pp. Facilitator: Passmore First Aid Because these training courses are deemed as promoting the safety of our members while sailing, any Club member completing any of these courses may apply to the Committee for a full refund of the fee. The main criteria for a refund is that the qualification will be used in our Club sailing context. Email me for booking details and any other information. 4. Have you read our Health and Safety articles on the website? Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Saturday 23 Sep 20:36 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, This month there are many items of interest to pass on from our September Committee meeting. 1. The first item is a reminder that subscriptions are due by the 31st October. 2. The trophies that were won and awarded for last seasons sailing have now been engraved and are in the clubrooms. They will be stacked in the trophy cabinet where they can be picked up or not as you please. A thank you to Club member Brian Lord for getting them engraved. 3. Please welcome the following new members: Kieran McDonald a senior returning member. David and James Brandts-Giesen - Family members. Zsolt and Zsolt Baumann - Family members. Sam Foster - Junior member. 4. Our opening day for the 2023-2024 sailing season will be this Sunday, see our website for the details. Just a reminder that there will be an opening ceremony around 14:30hrs followed by a pot-luck afternoon tea. 5. For our up-coming Quiz night here are some important messages. Read the poster on the website. Register a team. If you have items that can be auctioned then send a message with the details to Gwenda. We are building a grocery hamper to auction and request a donation of one grocery item from as many members as feel able to put into the hamper. NO chocolates please. Bring items on opening day. 6. As the sailing season begins please read the Health and Safety articles on the Sailing Programme page. Any question then email me. Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Wednesday 09 Aug 16:35 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, Here is what you need to know from the regular monthly meeting of your Committee. 1. Please welcome new members Karen Coker (Senior) and Samuel Coker (Junior) to our Club. You will have seen them sailing at our Club already. 2. Our next sailing day is winter sailing this Sunday 13th. Start time and other details on the website. 3. The opening day for the 2023-2024 sailing season is Sunday 10th September. 4. Club subscriptions for the current year run out on the 31st August. For current members the best way to renew your subscription is by internet banking. You will recall from the AGM that there is an increase in some subscriptions for the coming year. The new subscription and internet banking details are on the members page under subscription information. There is also a handy subscription calculator here. Current members can find this same information in the online Membership Application form but do not fill out this form as you are already a member ??. I have already paid my subscription. If I cannot get line honours at any sailing race I do get line honours for paying my subscription. As always I am happy to answer any questions on the items above, just drop me an email. Thank You Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Wednesday 07 Jun 19:31 To All members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, The winter solstice this year is on Thursday the 22nd June at 2:57 a.m. So by the time we get to our 96th Annual General Meeting on Sunday 2nd July we will have begun to see longer daylight hours and be looking forward to a new season of sailing. The formal notice of our AGM has been posted on our website. Your Committee met on Tuesday evening and we discussed a number of reports and agreed on a budget for the new year. One of the reports was from our Vice Commodore Aaron who attended the Commodores Conference run by Yachting NZ. We will post his report on our website in a couple of weeks. A financial report will be presented at our AGM. Our Club exist for sailing and so there is a winter sailing programme. As the name implies it is winter sailing therefore there are a few rules we must stick to if we want to sail safely and these rules are posted on the website. When you are checking the Club website for the AGM details or the winter sailing programme you will find there have been many changes made to help with accessing the wealth of information the site contains. Keep an eye out for the coding Easter eggs tucked amongst this information. As always any questions please get back to me. You guessed it, email address on the website?? Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club. Kerry - Tuesday 02 May 10:12 To All Waimakariri Sailing Club Members, Here is the Monthly news round up from your Committee. Closing Day: This weekend is the last sailing day for our regular sailing season. See our website for the start time and a notice about the day. After sailing we will have a brief closing ceremony and then a pot-luck meal. It is also the coronation day for our head of state so perhaps that is the theme of our day. A Closing Day Raffle: Our Secretary will be running a raffle for a basket of "nibbles". Bring cash for tickets. Last Years Trophies: Closing day is a good time to bring back your trophies from last year and put them in the cabinet ready for the new recipient at our prize-giving in July. Engraving Trophies: Each year a Club member takes the list of trophy winners from our Racing Secretary and gets the appropriate trophies engraved with the names of the winners. For the last 20 years this person has been Murray McDonald and he has now retired from this job. We need a member to take on this role. Winter Sailing: The criteria for running a winter sailing day has been published on our website and the programme will be published soon. There will be a pre-registration page for each day and whether a day is run or not will depend on numbers interested. Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Monday 24 Apr 13:03 To all Waimakariri Sailing Club Members, Your Committee held our regular monthly meeting on the evening of Monday 3rd. Much of our time was spent discussing the maintenance required on our clubrooms and our sailing day roster. Our Club roster is of particular concern because as at the time of writing this message there was only one name on the roster for the five sailing days remaining for this season. With closing day next month two members have undertaken to clear out our storage sheds of gear that appears to not be connected with any boat in storage or is no longer used by anyone. Gear such as centre boards, rudders, spars and even sails that appear to have been used by boats long gone. Members with yachts and gear in the sheds are asked to ensure their spare gear is stacked on their yacht or if on a rack or shelf it is marked clearly with a sail number or name. Did you know that our website has a function that allows you to get an email each week which is a summary of our next sailing day. Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Monday 24 Apr 13:03 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, Here is the monthly news round up from the Committee meeting held on Monday 6th March. 1. Over the next two weeks there are several events associated with SailGP that our Club is involved with. They are: a. Sunday 12th - Community Day at our Club. Details are on our website. b. Tuesday 14th - Tech Tour. The list is now full. c. Thursday 16th - Meet our SailGP team, Canada, at the clubrooms at 18:30hrs. Keep an eye on the website for more information. d. Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th - Club sailing and then watching SailGP racing on our Club TV. See the website for a notice about this. 2. The Committee has resolved to refund some or all of the cost for training courses that lead to qualifications the Club needs. The refund is by application to the Committee. A more detailed article will go up on the website soon. For example: a. First Aid, CYA/YNZ Race Management and Patrol Boat courses: 100% b. Marine Radio Operation courses: 75% c. Day Skipper, Boatmaster and other approved courses: 50% 3. Please welcome the following new members to our Club. a. Erik van den Berg. b. Jim Anthony. c. Yang Qiao (FoW). 4. The results from our 11ft regatta last weekend have now been published on the website. 5. Some of our younger sailors have been travelling to other Clubs to take part in regattas and they have done very well. Read all about their achievements in snippets. Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Sunday 19 Feb 09:55 To All Waimakariri Sailing Club Members, Your Committee held our first meeting of the new year on Tuesday evening in our Clubrooms and would like to pass on the following information to members. 1. Please welcome these new members to our Club. Donald King, he sails the 3.7m. Matthew Hix, senior member. Poppy Milne, junior member. Kai Pavlovic, junior member. Russell Lory, social member. 2. Make sure you visit our Club website to get the latest information on changes that have been made to the sailing programme. 3. Running our sailing events requires a volunteer support crew. We have for some time now relied on a core group of Club members both regular sailors and non-sailors to operate essential roster positions. There are too few in this core group and already some sailing events have been and will in the future be cancelled because we cannot find volunteers for essential positions. There is a roster on our Club website to which you can add your name. Here is a brief summary of the roster positions: Duty Officer. Is a Club key-holder who can open the clubrooms and at the end of the day secure the clubhouse. There are 12 key-holders. It goes without saying that a key-holder is required every sailing day as Duty Officer. Race officer. Runs the sailing event. Alternately when backed up by the Duty Officer on a simple Club sailing day they can be stationed in the cab and operate the start lights, operate the base radio, act as an observer and record the finish times. A 20 minute training course qualifies. Support boat crew. We must have a qualified support boat crew. We should also have a support boat crew assistant. Two people particularly if it is windy. Canteen. If you want food and drink after sailing then we have to have a Club member run the canteen. There is a check list and a simple training session. Clean up. No one likes getting changed amongst the mess from the previous sailing day. There is a check list. No training required. The Roster. The roster is on the Club website. The check lists are on the Club website and there are documents covering the detail of the duties of DO, RO and patrol boat on the website. Adding your name to the roster could not be easier, be part of the Club. Any questions then email me (avoid hitting the reply button), my address is on the website. Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Tuesday 15 Nov 13:57 To All Waimakariri Sailing Club Members, Our Committee meeting on Monday the 7th November was mostly the routine business of ensuring the successful running of our Club. There were some matters that need your attention as Club members. 1. Any unpaid subscriptions are now overdue. Please have a chat with our Membership Secretary to let us know what your intentions are. 2. Our online roster has a new column for Duty Officer. It is expected that the Duty Officer will be a Club key-holder of which there are about 11 as they are the only members who can open the Club. This will allow other members to take on the role of Race Officer. 3. Please welcome new family members Stephanie, Thomas, Daisy and Archie Wright. They have started the learn to sail at the Lake. For sunburst skippers looking for crew please invite these new members aboard when they are at the Club. 4. There is a busy sailing weekend coming up on the 19th and 20th so check out the website for the start times and other details. Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Wednesday 05 Oct 12:24 To All Members of the Waimakariri Sailing Club, From the Committee meeting held on Monday evening there is quite a long list of important information to pass on, which is typical for the start of the sailing season. Please read, take notes and mark any dates on your calendar. 1. Please welcome our new Club members. Brian Lord (Senior) and Ethan Lord (Junior). Thea and Lucas Miller (Juniors). Family members Cristian, Erick and Coni Szwarc and Paula Brun. 2. From Yachting NZ comes the information that if anyone was a full affiliated member of two or more clubs for last season they can now apply for a refund of their affiliation fees for all but their nominated club. Contact our Membership Secretary for the details. 3. As we get information sent to the Club about the SailGP event next year it is being posted to our website. There are currently six articles with information about how members can be involved in this event. 4. Our Club sailing events will only run if there is a support team to make them happen. Two must have roles are Race Officer and Support Boat Crew. These roles do require a level of competency and the Club has a training and sign off process for this, just ask. We will cancel if we cannot muster a competent support boat crew. While the role of looking after the Canteen on sailing days does have some responsibility there is a list to follow and there are several long standing Club members who can take you through this. The one job that every Club member should do at least once during the season is the clean up after sailing. This is an ideal job for a family to take on. There is a list to follow. Adding your support to our Club is a couple of clicks away using the Roster on the Members page or talk to a Committee member. 5. We have Club sailing this weekend and the forecast looks really really good. 6. Remember the Quiz night next week. Make up a team and enjoy a quiz night with a yachting theme. Any questions on anything above email me on Kerry@Howisit.co.nz Thank you Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club Kerry - Wednesday 14 Sep 13:01 To All Waimakariri Sailing Club Members, The spring meeting of your Committee covered all the important Club stuff yet was still one of our shorter meetings. Here are some of the important messages we want to pass on to members. 1. Our opening day for the next sailing season will be this Sunday. Check the website and the Notice of Race for the details. I have been looking at several weather forecasts and my guess is that we will have an Easterly wind at around 9kts with gusts to 15kts. Mostly clear skies and a temperature of 14 degrees. A ideal sailing day. 😁 2. We would like a senior Club member to take up the role of Canteen Manager. We would also like to see more Club members come forward to help run the canteen on sailing days. 3. Talking about the roster. To support our sailors on the water we always require a support team doing tasks such as the race officer, rescue boat, canteen and the clean up of the Clubrooms. There is a roster on the website where you can put your name forward for a job on a day of your choice. There are published instructions and there is training. 4. We have a quiz night planned for October. Have a look at the poster on the website and which was also sent out by email last week. Print a copy of the poster and put it on your local noticeboard. Make up a team of friends and take out the event. If you have any questions on the items above please email me - Kerry@Howisit.co.nz Kerry O'Brien Rear Commodore Waimakariri Sailing Club.