Welcome to CMYC...dinghy Sailing club in Sussex |
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The Mariners have a well deserved reputation for being a very friendly club with a relaxed atmosphere, so if you're interested in sailing, do feel free to come and visit us for a chat. Organised events take place on most weekends from March to December, or take advantage of a free trial sail on one of our Open days |
The way I see it ..............
What beautiful weather we had in September, and even into early October. All good things have to come to an end though, and it seems that Autumn is going to bring us all the rain that gardeners, and our lake levels could possibly need. However, we should also get some good winds for the remainder of our sailing season.
As you probably know, our dam has to be inspected along the Mill Lane end of the lake every year. As part of this inspection there is a requirement that we open the penstock at least once during the year. The penstock is a valve and the pipe near the old mill workings that used to feed water to drive the mill.
After something of a struggle, the Tuesday Club opened the penstock on 23 September and lots of very muddy water gushed out. As in previous years, opening it proved to be the easy bit! Closing it is far more problematic, and has highlighted the need for some repair work. After much banging and crashing and with the valve as shut as we can manage, there is still water leaking out downstream. Fortunately over the past couple of weeks the valve has silted up and the flow has considerably reduced. Water is still flowing over the spillway and after the recent rain the lake level is as high as it gets.
You are sure there’s a valve down here, aren’t you?
Have you been thinking about joining our committee? If not, why not? We have a number of vacancies this year, see last month’s newsletter, and in particular we need volunteers for the posts of Sailing Secretary and Bosun. I have received expressions of interest for the posts of Vice Commodore Estate and for Social Secretary. When it comes to the Bosun position if a member would be prepared to be responsible for maintaining the powerboats, but would prefer not to be a committee member, that would be perfectly acceptable. Your committee meets for about two hours once a month at the club, so being a committee member is really not an onerous task, but would give you an opportunity to influence how your club is run and how it will develop in future. If you would like some more information, please let me know.
Recently there have been a couple of times when the gate to Hedgecourt has been left open. Please remember if you visit Hedgecourt on a day when there is not a club event going on, you need to lock the gate behind you when going in and again when leaving, and of course, you must scramble the numbers on the padlock. If you are last to leave on a club event day please make sure that the gate is securely locked and the lock scrambled. Locking and scrambling the locks is equally important on the boat-houses.
Coming up we have the remaining Autumn Leaf and Saturday Series races, as well as Saturday Clubs in October and November, and our Laying Up Supper on 8 November. Don’t forget to book your ticket. Informal sailing on Thursdays at the lake continues to be successful, and will carry on for as long as the weather is kind to us.
I am looking forward to seeing lots of you and your photographs at the Dry Meeting on 29 October for our annual Photographic Competition.
Adrian
This page is edited by the Commodore - Adrian Fisher, he may be contacted via the Contact page.