This Sunday sees the final race of the Breakout Series - Race No8. It's an early bird race with the start being at a rather unsociable 0830hrs! The Series, a hybrid Easter / Icicle series has been a great success with some 50 dinghies taking part across all fleets. No doubt our forced Covid absence has helped, as have the great conditions on mostdays, but whatever; it has been wonderful to see such an enthusiastic and positive uptake. The final outcomes in terms of results look pretty clear for Class 4 & Scow Class with John Challener and Graham Fairbrass each having a convincing lead in their respective classes. Class 5 is still under contention! Sunday's race is also the last race prior to the start of Summer Storage - the next event then being the Spring Series No1 on 1st May - where we will welcome the Summer Storage Sailors along! A big thank you as always, on behalf of all racers, goes to the Race Support Teams who have enabled these events to happen safely and fairly. This series in particular has seen some new novice Race Officer's who have stepped up to the mark to run these events - a special thank you to them and a huge well done. Please note there is no racing on Saturday.

Race Officer Training

Our new Race Officer Training programme has now been piloted (on a small number of Members) and will be ready to roll out towards the end of May - we are obviously restricted by the current Covid Regulations but hope, by then, all will be well on that front. The training consists of four 45-minute sections and is designed to equip reasonably experienced racers with the necessary knowledge and confidence to run races safely at CSC. It is hoped that most dinghy racers who are not already seasoned Race Officers attend the Training - even if they then decide that being a Race Officer is not for them. Of course, we hope and believe that once the training is complete members will be happy to carry out these duties alongside their colleagues. In order to start planning the delivery of this training we need to know likely uptake. Please therefore can you register your interest by emailing the Office asap!

Ladies Sailing

A fantastic turn out for our 'sign up' evening last night! 25 ladies and great enthusiasm. If you fancy ladies dinghy sailing but need more advice please contact Claire VW, our Ladies Captain for advice!

WHAT A CRACKING WEEKEND OF DINGHY RACING!

Due to summer storage being delayed, the Easter series became the first 3 races of the newly formed 'Breakout Series' for the winter storage dinghy holders. This series extends over the next few weekends.

Over the 3 days we saw more than 40 different sailors take part in each of the 3 classes. We were rather rusty and with a gusty NE wind for 2 races and WSW for the 3rd, a few 'moments' happened for many.

Capsizes, start line chaos, finish line mishaps and a few breakages saw the fleets back into full action!

The results are on C2C as per normal and names are too many to mention at this stage of the game but John Challener has romped to an early lead in class 4 with Sue Haynes in hot pursuit, another 34 class 4 sailors also took part. In Class 5 we saw 3 boats out so all to play for there, and in the Scow fleet Graham Fairbrass is currently first with Nigel Burt closely behind him!

Many thanks to the Race Officers - a particularly difficult job in the conditions with so many boats afloat. Thanks also to the sailors who smiled, supported each other on and off the slipway, encouraged each other during capsize moments, and were a pleasure to be on the water with. Club sailing at its finest.

Photos from Sunday are available via a dropbox link and Richard Crane.

Junior Section's Easter Holiday Competition!!!

Junior sailors, we are looking forward to welcoming you back to the club very soon. While you are preparing your boat this Easter we would like you to design a new logo for the Junior Section of the club. So get your thinking caps on and unlock your hidden creative genius! Design a new logo for the Junior Section of Christchurch Sailing Club. If chosen, your design will be used on our letters, on our new Facebook page messages and may be worn by members of the Junior Section on hoodies.

Think about what makes a good logo.

• A bold and clear design.
• Perhaps limit your design to 2 or 3 colours - this makes it easy to print.
• Relevant to sailing and/or Christchurch.

You have the whole of the Easter holiday to think up and perfect your logo.

The deadline for the competition will be the 1^st of May. Entries will need to be submitted to heathercpartridge@gmail.com

So good luck and we are looking forward to seeing your designs!!!