Now its Europe

Janet accompanied by Alan Innes went to the French national championships at Berck sur Mer (just south of Boulogne). They travelled by the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry and had a good trip both ways with Alan doing the driving so Janet arrived rested

When it came to the racing in Janet’s words :

“Overall a great time was had at Berck, the French are very new to Sailability and have obviously a lot to learn with regard to the competitiveness of the Access Dinghy Class (and we are not afraid of the wind and swimming haha)
The Races were held in great gusts, but the English were all up for a hairy time on the water.
The shortened course flag was raised on the first race and the leader (Claire had not seen it) as I was passing Alex from Papercourt I shouted at him to finish, so that we got a first and second place.... But as one of the Access dinghies had capsized the French were very concerned (as they had never seen an Access capsize before, they abandoned the race.... so Alex and myself missed out (C’est la vie) .
Overall an Australian won the first prize, 2nd was Claire from Rutland, and myself 3rd FOR SYC Sailability” .Well done Janet !!

In the UK Travellers series Jan was second at Ipswich and won at Tideway. Katy Turquoise had her first outing at Ipswich and was sixth.

SYC Open day and Sponsored cycle ride

The 7^th of June saw the SYC Open day where we had a stall and recruited several new people.

At 10.00 that morning Mick Irons set off on his bike to pedal to Eastbourne and back (just think of those hills!).

I am sure he enjoyed the ride but what made it really worthwhile was more than £500 in sponsorship for Sailability.

Many thanks Mick.

Take Part in Preston Park

We had a stall at the Sports publicity day at Preston Park which was organised by the City.

During the day we made contact with a number of organisations caring for people with disabilities.

Jim and Margaret Vick ran a Tombola with the proceeds going to the Cowes week expedition.

What a varied season

I am sure that the bright sunshine and moderate breezes of our Goldman Sachs days in June are a distant memory washed and blown away by the recent poor weather.

We had a total of 6 days sailing blown out with only the Drascombe and one Sonar setting sail in all that time. The powerboats were however well used so we kept people happy.

The day of our last session (2 Aug) dawned wet so we did not expect many to come. You must like us despite the weather as we had a total of 27 sailors despite the absence of a number of stalwarts at Cowes. The Pioner made a total of 4 trips so it is our most popular boat.