We are seeking interest from members who would like to attend the Raymarine Multi Function Display, (Plotter) course on board Sea Essay.

The course will be limited to two students a session held on board lasting about 2 hours followed by the possibility of practical experience underway depending on conditions. The courses will be held in the early part of the season in February or March.

Members interested should contact Colin Smith by email csddaysails@gmail.com.

A visit to the National Maritime Operations Centre at Kites Croft, Segensworth, Fareham has been arranged for Sunday 9 February 2020 starting around 10.00 hours. There are limited number of vacant places available and any member interested should contact Colin Smith by email csddaysails@gmail.com.

Places will be allocated on a first come basis. Further details and directions will be sent nearer the date to those members attending.

I am always looking for new material and photos for the website. Especially valuable are any comments or longer reports on sailing events you have been on.

Please get in touch if you have any material that may be of use.

James Savage – email webmaster@channelsailing.org

We will be holding Skipper Familiarisation sessions for Sea Essay on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 and Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 February 2020.

• All newly Approved Skippers and those anticipating becoming Approved Skippers in 2020 must attend a familiarisation session before they are allowed to charter the boat.
• Approved Skippers who have not sailed on Sea Essay in 2019 are strongly advised to attend a session as a refresher.

These familiarization sessions are held aboard Sea Essay at Mercury Yacht Harbour and take about 3 hours.

• If the weather permits we may go for a short sail in the afternoon.
• If you would like to attend please email Jeff Llewellyn (j.llewellyn57@ntlworld.com).
• Joining details and further instructions will be sent nearer the time.

Here is the Sailing Programme for 2020

Last updated on 3 Jan 2020

The CSD AGM is to be held at the Gaff Rigger restaurant (formerly the Water’s Edge) at 12.00 noon Saturday 23rd November followed by a buffet and then a visiting speaker, David Monks, from the Solent area of the RNLI.

If you plan to come please let Bill Taylor (CSD Secretary), know so that he can book sufficient buffet places. Email wrbtaylor@tiscali.co.uk

To help the CSD construct a Summer Cruise in 2020, members will be contacted shortly to ask them to complete a survey based on Google Forms. If you have already submitted a response please ignore this but if not you can participate by clicking on the following hyperlink:

https://channelsailing.org/summer-cruise-survey-2020/

Please complete the survey as soon as possible so that we can analyse the results and start constructing a viable cruise which in turn will allow us to complete next year’s sailing programme. We intend that the 2020 Sailing Programme will be published leading up to the AGM in November and bookings for all our sailing opportunities will be accepted from the 23rd November.

Two skipper’s newsletters have been sent to all regular skippers of Sea Essay this season.

For reference purposes these can also be downloaded from here:

All Skippers Newsletters for the last few years are also available here:

This happened a year of two back so although you may have seen this before is too good to leave languishing in cyberspace. Many thanks to Andy Rankine for editing this down.

This exercise was pre-arranged I believe. The helicopter crew would have initially briefed the skipper about what is going to happen and what direction to sail etc. The pilot often requires the yacht to sail on a close reach while the crewman is lowered down on the winch. The helm’s role is critical and they need to avoid looking up at the aircraft or otherwise being distracted. Note the level of noise. It is extremely hard to communicate on board with a helicopter hovering over your heads.