Newsletter - September 2006

 

Evening Sailing Sessions

6pm evening sessions have now ended since September 1 as the Coal harbour is now closed at 8pm not to mention the shorter evenings.

There will be Monday night ruffian sailing meeting and Tuesday night dinghy 5pm for a couple of weeks.

 Ruffian

 Monday

  5pm sharp

 John O'Gorman

 Dinghy

 Tuesday

  5pm sharp

 Wyn Hughes

 

For weekend sailing see email for details.

 

First Aid Course

The Red Cross in Dun Laoghaire is planning to run a one day Emergency First Aid course.

This course covers first aid skills including basic life support resuscitation, patient assessment, bleeding, fractures, unconsciousness, hypothermia, burns, poisons and medical emergencies  (This course fulfils the requirements of the ISA for potential sailing instructors)       

Cost will be in the region of e50. Course dates will be organized whenever they have a quorum.

Contact for details: 8821151 (Office) or 087-2539316 or email: tim@colorman.ie

 

Basic first aid is something everybody should learn if you value on the health of yourself, your family, shipmates, workmates, friends etc.

 

Dinghy Pre-Instructor Assessment Coaching

Nigel has offered to do some coaching for anybody who is interested in doing the ISA dinghy instructor pre-assessment.

This will take place on Saturday September 16. Please contact Nicola if you are interested.

The pre-assessment requirements are equivalent to what is usually covered by the level-4 “Speed and Spinnaker” course at Collanmore, so anybody who has completed that course should have no problem with the assessment.

The ISA instructor training is not a “how to sail” course, rather a “how to teach” course. The pre-assessment is to establish that you have a reasonable level of competence to be an instructor. You don’t have to be a world champion,  just a sound grasp of the basics is what is required.

See http://www.sailing.ie/inside/default.asp?pageId=269 for more details.

 

Collanmore Trip

Here’s a special report from our western correspondent on last weekends outing….

 

12 SID members headed to the west to enjoy some on the water activity on the island of CollanmoreBronagh and Eleanor varied their weekend with windsurfing and sailing, the rest of us took to the Laser-Vago’s (Brenda, Chris, Colm, Damien, Eamonn, Garry, Guido, Nicola, Sheenagh, Wyn). We had great sailing conditions, and everyone got to show off their experience (or lack of it !) with spinnakers and trapeze, the SID lot were hanging on and off boats, in and out of the water looking very fit and at times very funny, testing teabag’s, and who says you can’t trapeze around the forestay, belly flop to the front of the boat and still not capsize!  Thanks to Guido for sharing your knowledge with us, I’m even considering buying a pair of rosary beads!

 

With our new t-shirts we proudly and glamorously helped keep the bar open till the early hours. We had many Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire’s gliding most impressively across the dance floor. A great time was had by all and our cameraman John took photo’s for the album. It was great to get to know some more SID members.  I look forward to the next SID adventure in the west, maybe fancy dress for Halloween!…anyone?

 

Ruffian Racing

22 members expressed their interest in the Kish racing series for seven races. Please see the crew allocation http://sailingindublin.ie/Racing/KishSeries06.htm. A charge of e5 per race is payable to the captain on the day. The fee will go towards the entry fee and membership of the Irish Ruffian Association. Please check out the racing information on www.sailingindublin.ie Good luck!

The racing kicked off last Sunday in a fresh F4-5 when Noel, Dara and Richard overcame some navigation challenges not to mention a few sail problems to successfully make it to the finish.

Results http://www.dmyc.ie/results/oct_series_06/index.htm

 

Winter courses.

 

- Yachtmaster Theory -

There are a large number of locations running the yachtmaster courses this winter but you will need to book soon!  There are 2 types of courses suitable to all SIDers: Yachtmaster Coastal and Yachtmaster Offshore.  You could sign up for either, the content is similar but the offshore course requires a higher standard. For a full list of course providers and more details on the coastal course see http://www.sailing.ie/inside/default.asp?pageId=189  and http://www.sailing.ie/dynamic/pdf/Coastal%20Courses%2018.10.05.pdf

 

SID encourages you to attend this course if you have not already done so, as it will make your trip on our new yacht, and sailing in general, even more enjoyable. A number SID people took this course over the past few winters and all found it to be excellent!

Ann Coyne took the course in the DMYC http://sailingindublin.ie/Racing/DMYC%20Yachtmaster.pdf  "The course was run by David Jerrard. I would definitely recommend this course and the materials he provides are excellent. It will however take up one night a week at class and around 2 - 3 hours on another night to do the homework. It covers an extensive range of topics from charts, tides, weather, collision regulations etc. It would suit anyone who has an interest in knowing more about navigation and the "rules of the sea"!"

 

Glenans organize a course on Tuesday nights in Kevin Street DIT. Ring office for details 01-6611481

 

- Powerboat Courses -

There are a number of powerboat courses run during the winter months. A lot of practical information is covered in the classroom and on the water and its great fun. Nicola is trying to organize a SID group. National powerboat cert (level-2) is something that every member of the club should have.

If you have previously done the basic certificate you should consider Safety boat certificate.

 

For any members who paid the full membership fee, you can claim a e50 rebate on any approved training course taken this year (if you have not done so already). Yachtmaster theory, Coastal Skipper theory, Powerboat or Safety Boat certificate all qualify.

 

Fuel

SID has 3 engines:  Rescue 15HP engine, Ruffian 4HP engine and the Green tender 1.5HP engine.  These engines require different fuel and therefore different fuel tanks. Please ensure that the correct tank (and the correct fuel) is used at all times, as incorrect fuel may cause irreparable damage to the engines.  The details of the fuel mixtures are posted inside the door of the container or you can view it at http://sailingindublin.ie/safety/rescue.doc

 

N.B. The air vents on the fuel tank covers must be left open when the tanks/engines are stored in the container. Failure to do so can seriously damage the tanks/engines.

 

If you are not familiar with the engines and would like to learn some more please ask the captain of the day.

 

Ruffian Nationals

“Ruffin-It” recently completed in the Ruffian Nationals. Here’s a report from our onboard correspondent.

 

Initial radio calls from a fellow Ruffian in the bay describing high waves prompted the organizers to ask them to repeat "How Big"!....This followed by "It's getting rougher, we're heading back to harbour....for a break!" eventually ended in the "AP" call over the radio

One final attempt to get out to sea (we had already tried to go earlier) before we adjourned for coffee and muffins to the nearby "Insomnia" coffee house (with our portable VHF radio of course)
A few shots of coffee and we were back at the George awaiting news......then we saw the warning flag being raised (meaning 1 hour from now!) to race start.......onto the boat for a fast sandwich and away we went again....
Initial conditions saw a nice swell in the water, causing a little apprehension at first for the inexperienced such as myself, but great fun once I realized we were not going to capsize!
We got off to a great start on both of our races, Damien being master strategist on both occasions, but we couldn’t hold off the fleet with their bright new sails....we ended in a private battle with "Carmen" to the finish in both races.

We finished and exhilarating days sailing wet and tired, basking in the afternoon sunshine all the way back to the mooring

http://www.sailingindublin.ie/frostbite/2006RuffianNationals.html

 

Collanmore Regatta

There is a regatta weekend in Collanmore on September 22-24. This is a fun weekend and a great way to sharpen up for the frostbites. It’s a combination of training on starting, tactics etc and on the water racing. It’s usually a full house so ring the Glenans office 01-6611481 if you are interested.

 

Ruffian Maintenance:

We need volunteers to organise and paint the Ruffian trailer before Ruffin'it is due for its lift out in October. There will also be a requirement for volunteers for the lift out and some other maintenance that will be required. Please contact Damien if you can help.

 

Yacht Purchase

We have submitted an application for a Marina Berth as part of the marina extension in Dun Laoghaire. The existing marina is full and places are restricted even on the planned extension. This is in anticipation of purchasing a second boat based it in Dublin in short term to facilitate training. Dun Laoghaire Marina is expensive so this may not be a viable long term option. We will organize an EGM of the club to discuss options in relation to boat usage, finance, location etc. If you have any ideas or if you would like to get involved in purchase of a new cruising boat, please let me know.

 

Date for your Diary

To celebrate the end of the Summer season there will be a SID night on Wednesday September 27’th. The venue is to be decided so please watch mail for details.

 

Cearbhall Daly

Chairperson

http://sailingindublin.ie