Adult Squad and words of wisdom from Nigel Hutchinson

Hello,… I have amended this to take into account the ‘end of term’ situation…….!

 

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We have had a shortened,..(at both ends!),.. but we think successful season, which, dependant on weather could have carried on to the end of October;… but better safe than sorry,… so, this is a bit of an end of term report.

 

Squad members and others cannot have failed to notice changes at the top,… after 6 years, I, have taken the opportunity provided by the enthusiasm demonstrated by Paul Aston and Family to pass the buck,.. ooops! sorry I mean baton, to Paul, and he has kindly said he will organise the Squad from now on,.. already you are being asked to volunteer to help and be persuaded to take part by him,.. he and his family are an Adult Squad success story and he/they are perfect for the part;,.. please make sure that you continue to support Paul and the Squad because we like to think it is playing a very useful role in the ongoing success of the Club in its endeavours to promote sailing on Windermere.

 

We started, all those years ago, by holding Squad sessions on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings,.. at the same time as the Youth Squad,.. and we were able therefore, to make use of the escort/rescue boats which were already out on the water (and these were needed on more than one occasion),..and so we were tied to school term times, and stopped with the Youths in the Summer.  At some point we decided that we could look after ourselves on occasions and so moved to Saturday mornings and occasional Sunday mornings and this allowed us to continue through the Summer on Sundays. I was thus at the Club on Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays (Dennis Hope races) and Thursdays (Dinghy racing),.. so following the arrival of the two Bahias which allowed us to accommodate more members at one time,.. it didn’t take long for the Saturday mornings to be dropped!  The current information page on the website gives a good description of what it’s all about,… we’ll get Paul’s email address on there asap. While you’re reading it , note the opportunity offered to volunteer both in sailing and in RIB driving.

 

Moving to Sunday-only has given opportunity for members to ‘Squad’ in the morning and join in the Club racing in the afternoon, and this has worked too,… however, by not being there on a Saturday, it has meant that I have lost touch with Juniors and their parents,… Paul and his family will be able to restore this link,..

……..it has always been my idea to use Adult Squad for two purposes: one, to encourage less experienced members to get their boats wet!, and be encouraged to join in Club sailing/racing.. and two, to offer non-sailing parents of Juniors an opportunity, by way of a ‘taster’, to see what it is that their children enjoy about sailing,..(and thus to get those parents to join!! and learn to sail),…

 

With thanks over the years to Nigel Rider,..the fellow starter of all this and in particular the mover to keep us going through the Summer; Tony Longworth,.. a retired instructor who gave us much of his time,.. the RWYC Acadamy for providing the two Bahias;  Geoff Cook, another retired instructor also giving freely of his time,.. thanks for the support of many and varied Flag Officers over the years and Hon. Officers (Rachel provided a continuous stream of email addresses); loads of occasional volunteers (we could always do with more,.. just imagine a time when we need to organise a volunteer rota system!),.. Zoe,.. another supplier of email addresses, names and ideas,. JR and Simon McV’s., regular attendance this year;  all the names I have forgotten to mention,  and to Paul for offering to take it all forward,.. I shall still be around next season, being told what to do instead of doing the telling, and be available to shout at people from the water or take them sailing,…

 

see you next season,… (in the meantime, you may get an invite to help put the boats away!)

 

BFN

 

Nigel h