NEW YEAR 2011 NEWSLETTER

LASER 5000 ASSOCIATION LETTER 2011

Happy New Year to you all and I hope that you’ve all had a restive period and are now ready for the 2011 sailing season.  I see from some of the posts on the forum of our fantastic new website that the more intrepid (or nutty) ones of you have already started your training for the season.  Well done and it’s a good reminder to the rest of us to get away from the doom and gloom of the economic situation and blow away the cobwebs by getting out for a blast.

Those of you who were at the AGM at Rutland will know that the Association has had rewarding 2010 season with many high points from sailing at the Nationals in some very windy conditions to perhaps the best bit of news – 11 boats competing at international level at our European Championships at the Mohnesee in Germany – well done to all of you that made it and thanks for helping make it such a good event.

The Association committee has done wonders again and on your behalf I’d like to thank them all for the hard work, selfless commitment and time that they contribute to making sure that the class continues to develop and grow once again; without their help, my job would be impossible and the class would be in trouble.

And so to the plans for the 2011 season; as far as the racing is concerned, we’ve tried to spread it through the country in order to try and get more of our membership (you) involved and to raise awareness of the Association once again so please, if you can, try and get to the events.

You may have noticed from the website that we are going to be represented at the RYA Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace on the 5^th and 6^th of March.  We will be sharing a stand with the Laser 4000 and Laser 2 Associations.   The stand is being sponsored by Northampton Sailboats with whom we are developing a good relationship and they are supporting us very well in 2011 – including more sponsorship for our Nationals – more of this later.  Come along to Ali Pally in March and see us there.  I’m also looking for one or two volunteers to help out on the stand.

We have our usual training weekend in April over the 9^th and 10^th. This time it’s going to be at Grafham Water SC, where the majority of the fleet are.  I fully expect the format to be similar to those events in the past, but if you have any suggestions, please send them to me or other members of the committee.  The sooner you get your name down for this the better we can prepare.

In May (7^th and 8^th) we’ll have our first races of the season with an Open event at Poole which is being coordinated by Mark Reynell, details will be posted onto the website in due course.  Please try and make it.

Our National Championships this year will be held at Filey SC near Scarborough in North Yorkshire on 25^th and 26^th of June.  We have chosen this venue because it will allow a number of boats to come south from Scotland reasonably easily, but it’s also roughly equidistant for the boats from the south of the country.  It is of course a coastal venue which is a pre-requisite of the Nationals.  It also coincides with the Filey Regatta, which should be a good social event with a beach BBQ – which as a very exuberant association, I’m sure we can contribute to!

We are also going to take part in the Loch Lomond Dinghy Weekend on the 3^rd and 4^th of September as one of our official open events. As this is the home of our current European Champions, I’m sure that there is some great racing to be had and a great social also (so they tell me).  Start your plans now.

Our final official event for the season will once again be the Inland Championships hosted as part of the Rutland Water Laser Classes event in October (15^th and 16^th).  This proved to be a challenging event in 2010, with some pretty close and interesting racing.

PLEASE I would request that you all try and make it to these events where you can.  There are many reasons to try, but perhaps most importantly, we are a friendly and welcoming association and you’ll have a great time in good company.  We will share ideas and thoughts and you will improve your sailing, no matter what standard you are at.

A reminder to all that at all of these events, the Association rules regarding weight equalisation will apply.  If you’re not sure of these, then please have a look on the website.  This makes it an equal playing field for all those that participate.  We have had some issues with scales/planks in 2010, which we will try to resolve for 2011.

Lastly, my usual call for you to pay your association subs – we have had to raise them for this year only for returning members – new members and students will get their membership at half price.  We had a very successful year last year, but it did cost the Association a lot of money and as a consequence our coffers look very empty and we have some commitments to pay for this year, so I request that you please get your membership into Neil as soon as possible.  You get some great benefits – cheaper insurance through Noble Marine, 10% off the price of sails through Northampton Sailboats are a couple. Please pay up!

On that note, have a great 2011 J! I hope to see you at the Dinghy Show and all of the other events this year.

Regards

Taff
Chairman
Laser 5000 Association.