Chris Waddington, from Southampton Water Sailing Association, wonders if members might be interested in their local racing events.  An evening series of ten events starts on Friday 5th May and a passage series of events starts on 17th June with the Round the Island Race.   

The first race is free and thereafter an entry fee of £10 per race is charged or £50 for the season.  Racing is very friendly and many aspiring racers have cut their teeth on this series before moving on to more challenging events.

SWSA Invitation
SWSA Cruiser Racing Programme 2017
Solent Marks 2017 - changes
Solent Racing Chart - central
S'ton Water Race Chart

Entry forms, courses and sailing instructions can be downloaded from http://www.swsa.org.uk
Chris can be contacted directly on chrismwaddington@yahoo.co.uk

The draw for GCCC's entry to the RNLI Alternative Boat Race was held at the AGM on January 13th. First prize, which provides entry for two to the race itself including dinner on April 10th, was won by Richard Vail.  Second prize, which wins the model lifeboat used to compete in the race, was won by Ron Moore.  Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all other participants.

National Coastwatch have been allocated a new dedicated nationwide VHF radio channel which is due to go live at all 50+ NCI Stations in England & Wales on 1st October 2014.

The channel is duplex on international marine VHF Channel 65 and it will be used primarily to allow NCI Stations to pass routine local information to nearby vessels including current weather condition reports and radio checks where required

NCI currently have four operational stations within the Solent area including one on the Isle of Wight - for details visit www.nci.org.uk

Many congratulations to Clive White who finished the RIR, an achievement in itself, in 19 position overall.  Clive left the Baie De Seine summer cruise on Wednesday after providing us all with a fine afternoon tea with homemade cakes. He left so that he could get Quickstep's bottom scrubbed which clearly paid off in such light airs.  Unless anyone knows better this has to be the highest placed GCCC boat in the RIR ever

At the AGM it was agreed that the membership subscription should increase to £45 per year with a £10 discount for prompt payment. This will be effective for renewals on 1st October 2014 and those new members joining on or after 1st July 2104 (new members joining after 1st July will renew on 1st October 2015)