AUTUMN 2010 NEWSLETTER

LASER 5000 ASSOCIATION
AUTUMN 2010 NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the new look Class Association Website, which has been built by Adrian Beaven-Smith who has dedicated a lot of hard work in his own time to building this interactive site. I think you’ll agree that it looks fantastic and will be a great asset to the Association. Please get in touch with us if you have any ideas for inclusion into the site. You will notice a page for Classified Advertisements, which you can all use for a (very) small fee to advertise either your boat or any parts that you may wish to get shot of. Although you can go to ApplloDuck and get a free advertisement, you only get one picture and it does not necessarily attract potential 5000 sailors.

If any of you out there are new to the 5000, please get in touch with me and let me know what sail number you have and where you’ll be sailing, we are a very friendly bunch who are always prepared to provide hints and tips to improve your sailing. Mind you, if you ask me, the best tips I can give you are about capsize recovery!

Well, other than the nutter’s who are going to be doing frostbite series, the 2010 sailing is just about done and dusted and what a season it’s been for the Association.

It all started with the normal training event held at Thorney Island where 4 boats attended and received some instruction in some very tidal conditions which proved to be an interesting challenge for the pond sailors who came. Well done to those newcomers who came to the training, and we’re in negotiations to find a venue for next years’ training event.

Our National Championships were hosted by Lymington Town SC, and what an epic it turned out to be, force 5 – 6 winds on the Saturday building to 6 with gusts of 7 on the Sunday, 9 boats made the trip, which was a great effort. Unfortunately, the wind got the better of many and in the final race, only 3 boats started with their hair on fire! Well done to Thomas and Alastair who once again lifted the National Championship Trophy.

For the first time in several years, we arranged a European Championships over 5 days in August at the British Mohnesee Sail Training Centre, Germany. The winds there were very fluky and light, which proved frustrating and times, but produced some extremely tactical sailing. Teams from England, Wales, Scotland, France, Germany and Poland were represented, with the Scottish pair of Alastair and Paddy taking the glassware home – well done guys. The next Eurocup will be in 2012 and we’re thinking of staging it in Denmark.

The final class event for 2010 was the Inland Championships which as usual were held the Laser event at Rutland Water SC along with the 2k’s, 4k’s, Vago and Varios. The weather was a real mixed bag over a fairly short but testing course. Well done to Mark and Nikky Rushton, who managed to win the event in the only competition they have competed in all season due to injury! A great effort.

As a bit of fun, I collated the results over the year of everybody that took part in events and came up with the following series positions:

1st Thomas/Alastair
2nd Taff/Nigel/Simon
3rd Alister/Paddy
4th Tom/Mat/Andrew
5th Alan Moss/Gav Wilson
5th Paul/Mark/Ed
6th Mark/Nikky
7th Mark/Susie
8th Adrian/James
9th Neil/Ben/George
10th Alan/?
11th Niall/Matt

If you want to get your name on the roll of honour for next year, come along to the events!

Talking of next year, the events that we have planned are all on this website under the events banner. In addition there are a number of events around the country in which you may be competing (for example the Bloody Mary, Tiger Trophy, Lord Birkett etc), please let us know how you get on and make sure to get your boat in as many pictures of the event as possible, the more we promote the class, the bigger the fleet will become again. Please make every effort to come up to North Yorkshire (Filey SC) for the National Championships – it’s about time Thomas handed over the National Champion title to somebody else! Northampton Sailboats are going to sponsor the event, so come along and join in the fun.

We may also be entering two boats into the London Boat Show ‘Battle of the Classes’ race, which is pretty challenging for a fully battened boat with a large Asymmetric kite in a narrow dock! Let me know if you’re interested, the sooner the better however.

Finally, on the subject of Association fees once again! You will see that we are going to have a stand at the RYA Dinghy Show in March next year. Northampton Sailboats have kindly agreed to pay for half of the fees of the stand etc and the 3 classes they support are going to pay the rest (4000, 5000 and Laser 2). However, this still means that we have to pay over £400 as well as our RYA affiliation fees, plus any other expenses for 2011. At the AGM in October it was agreed that we would unfortunately have to raise the Association fees (just for 2011). To that end, fees for the year will be:

£60 for continuing membership
£30 for new members
£30 for students

These fees will be reviewed for 2012 with a view to bringing them down again. Part of the reason we are in this position is that people have not paid their fees for 2010 and we had a significant amount of bills to pay – so the moral of the story is PAY UP (You can start paying for the whole of 2012 from the end of this month). We cannot promote the class without your support.

Anyway, that concludes this newsletter. I am looking forward to the 2011 season, who knows I may go to the Bloody Mary and I hope to see some of you there. I certainly hope to see over 10 boats on each of the start lines in our 2011 season events. Good luck

Taff
Chairman