Happy New Year All.  Days are getting longer and soon we will be back out on the water.  I am currently working to put together some sort of programme for the coming season.  Running a bit behind the racing people who already have a hugely detailed calendar in draft form.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18992230/calendar-2012-draft-6.pdf

Puts me to shame.  But back to herding cats.

Last year the Thursday evening sailing flourished: we had more boats and more people out on the water than ever before.  The social evenings at the beginning and end of the year were well attended with a lot of new people.  I am not planning to change anything here.

Getting people out at the weekends is “an area for development”.  My approach was to plan for a cruise in company every two weeks and to vary them between Saturday and Sunday while trying to avoid clashes with other PEYC events.   For whatever reason this area has declined over the last two years.  True the weather in early April was atrocious, on one planned sailing day we got to Blackness in Psyche and scuttled rapidly back to the marina when the apparent wind strength reached 45 knots.  The white sails races which were popular in 2010 did not take off in 2011.  So to use another platitude “ the status quo is not an option”.  So where from here?

• Do we plan it in more detail?  In the past two seasons I have merely given a date for cruise in company but not named a destination. In previous years it was stated that on such a date there will be a club cruise to Inchcolm  then later one to Charlestown etc  You can choose the tides to suit but not the wind and there is usually not much appetite for a trip that leads to a tough beat home in the afternoon.  Would this approach get more people out?

• Do we plan it less.   Sods law dictates that if Saturday is planned as a club cruise it usually becomes apparent that by the preceding Wednesday that Sunday will clearly be a much nicer sailing day.  We can just take each weekend as it comes; leave it to the skippers to decide where and when the will go and make informal arrangements with crew.  This was tending to happen at the end of season 2011 anyway with the Captains of Electra and Kirsty asking people if they wanted to sail and then making informal arrangement.   So Thursday continues to be planned people get to meet and know each other then at the weekends they just use the network to get together and plan their sailing?

• Could the white sails races continue on a self managed basis where people record their own finish times?  It does seem silly to keeps someone in the racebox all day for a race with three boats.

I hope some of these ramblings make sense.  I’d appreciate any input over the next week or so as will have to put something in the handbook and on the website soon.

Cheers,

Ian

Ian Cameron

5 Blackbarony Rd

Edinburgh EH16 5QP

+44(0)131662 8798

Mob  O7785926305