Newsletter August 2008

 

Dates for your diary:

 

September 6th:                        1000                Lift-out list will open (see foot of Page 3)

 

October 4th:                      1000                Work party to tidy and prepare cradles

                                    1200 onwards            Masts

 

October 18th :                 0730 start       Lift-Out

 

November 22nd:         Ceilidh at the South Beach Hotel (see below)

 

 

 

Commodore’s Comments

 

Well it’s certainly been a mixed season for many of us so far, and of course I’m really referring to the weather here. Combine this with the intermittent closure of the Crinan Canal and it easy to explain why so many intentions for sailing holidays/racing have not quite gone to plan this year.

Of course, for some, there have already been great successes; with the cruisers reaching far flung shores and notable racing results. Well done to Ziggy Stardust class winner and Stevie B second in class at the West Highland Week.

However for the rest of us who have been less fortunate so far all is not lost. We still have several weeks sailing time left before we need to start thinking about the Lift Out (18th October), including musters at Tarbert and Largs in September. Just maybe the weather gods will start to look a little more favourably on the weather-beaten souls of Troon Cruising Club...keep your fingers crossed!

It is with much regret that I have to advise of the death of ex-commodore Tom Croan who passed away on the 8th of June. Tom was a valued member of the club and skippered Paladin for many years. Our thoughts are with his family.

The club is about to undertake some work to the Clubhouse, Compound and Slip. We will, as a result, be looking for volunteers to help organise and carry out work as part of work parties yet to be arranged. It is essential that club members make themselves available for these otherwise the cost of fulfilling these maintenance and upgrading works greatly escalate by virtue of the fact that contractors will have to appointed. Please keep a look out for further notices on these items and I’ll take the opportunity to thank you all in advance for your assistance.

I would like also to draw your attention to the log retrieval procedures which have been posted in the clubhouse. Please also note the presence of the “Log – Log Book”. Please fill this in when logs are spotted in the marina. This allows the club to make informed representations to ABP on this matter and will greatly assist the Club Committee should further action be required. (NB Log reporting procedures are repeated at the end of this Newsletter).

The use of the bin inside the gate has been causing some problems. Regular overfilling must stop! Having repeatedly had the unpleasant job of picking up disgorged bags of waste from both within and outwith the compound I must insist that if the lid does not fully close then the rubbish must be disposed of elsewhere. The seagulls seem to take delight in hauling the rubbish out and spreading it around. The club can now be fined for this! Take it home or to the recycling centre, it’s just along the road opposite Morrisons.

Lastly I’d like to touch on security. Just for a change of emphasis it’s not about the clubhouse being unlocked, it’s not about the gate being left open all night or even that the garage door appears to be regularly left lying wide open without a single person in the clubhouse or compound. It’s about your boats!

Please consider the security of items in or attached to your boat. An attempted break in has already been reported to the committee. I hope that ransacked boats and stolen outboards is not a problem that TCC will have to face, but that will be largely down to you!

Please also remember to identify items of kit left in the garage or compound as belonging to you, otherwise it may be disposed of.

I’m off now to search the internet on how to perform an anti-rain dance!

 

Happy sailing,

 

Ian Gairns

 

 

Racing

 

Much has been said already this season about how it is a waste of time for any of the non regular racing members to take part in any of the club’s weekend racing programme. One of the arguments is that if you do not fly a spinnaker, then don’t bother.  In view of this I feel I must point out the following results:

Firstly, Jimmy and Diane Lindsay turned out for the first time for a while in the Lady Isle race in White Maa and despite not flying the spinnaker, won the race on corrected time over four of the club’s regular racers.

Secondly, Ken Jack in Kerima, who has not been a regular racer for a while, came a good second out of six boats in the overnight part of the UFG race to Rothesay.

Thirdly, in the recent Arran trophy race, Peter Robertson and White Rose, racing for the first time in the Saturday portion of the weekend, finished only 28 seconds behind the second placed boat without using a spinnaker.

Well done to all of those members, and I do hope that these results might give some encouragement to others who have not so far tried their hand at racing. We could certainly do with a lot more of you appearing on the start line.

Look forward to seeing you.

 

John MacKinnon

Racing Secretary

 

 

Cruising

 

As the Commodore has said above, it has been a fairly mixed season weather-wise. Nevertheless some of our muster events have been quite successful, and quite a few members seem to have been undeterred by the closure of the canal and have braved The Mull to venture “out West”.  I spotted TCC boats in Lochaline, Tobermory, Arisaig, Loch Moidart, the Isle of Muck, and Ardfern, just to mention a few.

The Wreck Bay muster had to be abandoned due to bad weather, and when it came to the Rothesay one, having looked in and seen from a distance of a couple of miles the spray flying, from seas driven by a F6 north-easterly breaking on the promenade, I am afraid I chickened out and went in search of a more sheltered anchorage. I am told that the racers did stay, so I hope they had a comfortable night.

More recently, several boats stopped over on Arran after the trophy races at the beginning of August and a pleasant evening was had by all.

We now have only two scheduled cruising events remaining – the Tarbert muster on September 6th/7th and the closing muster at Largs on the 20th/21st. Some details of these have still to be settled so please keep an eye on the notice boards at the club.

It is not too early (it is never  too early) to submit your logs and cruising reports from this season, for inclusion in next year’s Yearbook and for a chance of winning one of the cruising awards.  Please hand material to any committee member, or leave it in the committee room for the attention of myself or Jim Goodlad, or email to jagoodlad@aol.com .  We had a great response to this appeal last year; let’s make this one even better!

 

Andrew Duffin

Cruising Convenor

 

 

Social Events

 

The new members’ night will be held in the Clubhouse on the 27th Sept.

The annual Ceilidh will be held at the South Beach Hotel on 22nd November.

As you can see from elsewhere in this newsletter, lift in is the 18th Oct and as usual we need volunteers for the kitchen - this is not a request exclusively for the ladies!

Please contact me (phone number is in the membership card) for more details on any of the above.

Elaine Nicoll

Social Convenor

 

Lift-Out

For those not aware of the process may we remind you that if you wish a club lift-out for your boat, you MUST put the boat’s name up on the list in the clubhouse, since spaces are limited. The list will open on September 6th at 1000 and it fills up fast!

 

New Members since the last newsletter:

 

Name

Address

Phone No

Boat

Maureen Short

See hard copy or Clubhouse

 

Mo Bhata

Tom Liz and Grant Storrar

 

 

Never Never

Morag Rowley

 

 

 

David Hogg

 

 

Candy

Ben Duffin

 

 

Rosie B

James Evans

 

 

Dilly Dally

Paul Morledge

 

 

Freyja

James W Munro

 

 

Elan

Robbie Gemmell

 

 

 

Seph Jardine

 

 

Tamara II

David Irvine

 

 

Triath Nan Luin (TYH)     

Clarke L Callaghan

 

 

 

 

 

We welcome the above new members who have  joined or who are in the process of joining the club since the issue of the membership list in April.

 

Please retain this with your original list. Thank you.

 

Please note:

 

Secretary/Treasurer’s new email address is babshenderson59@googlemail.com

 

If you have an email address and are willing for the club to use it to contact you, feel free to drop Babs a note for her records.

 

 

Log Reporting Procedures

 

Please see the Commodore’s notes about this above.

If you find a log floating in or near the harbour, please enter details in the “Log log” which is kept in the clubhouse. This enables us to be able to quote “chapter and verse” if we need to make further representations to the harbour authorities.

In addition, please follow the Harbourmaster’s procedure, which is to call the Troon Pilot House on 01292 313412 or, if no answer, on their mobile 07734 071824, and report the date, time, and location.

We appreciate this is a lot to ask, but the more pressure we can put on the various parties involved, the better this hazard will be managed. Thanks!