From Charlie Sansom:
While the winter months usually mean a quieter lake, the Sailing Committee has been working hard behind the scenes. From major maintenance projects to looking at the results of our club racing start sequence trials, we have been focused on ensuring the club is fully equipped for the busy season ahead.
Keen racers may have noticed the absence of the committee boat over recent weeks, which has been as a result of volunteers from the sailing committee carrying out a range of work on the boat. What started as routine volunteer work, including fitting an uprated windlass and reinforcing the foredeck and mast brackets, uncovered several structural issues that required immediate attention. To protect this club vital asset for the long term, we have commissioned a professional boat repair service to carry out an extensive work package. This includes:
- Replacing a rotten gunwale, window frames, and the parts of the cabin roof.
- Repainting the cabin and antifouling the hull.
- Rectifying stability issues to ensure a solid and stable platform for our race officers.
We expect the boat to be back in action by early March, providing us with a refreshed and reliable platform for years to come.
Meanwhile our committee has also been looking at our fleet of boats, and recognise that our aging safety boat fleet requires attention to ensure we have a working fleet to support the upcoming busy season. Our safety boats are the bedrock of our busy season, supporting our RYA courses, youth and adult coaching, club racing and open meetings. In the first instance, we are sourcing a new commercial-grade RIB to replace our oldest vessel, which has been plagued by mechanical issues. This is the first step in a multi-year plan to rejuvenate our safety fleet and ensure we can provide dependable cover for all on-water activities.
Most importantly, we have been closely monitoring the club racing starts trial, which began in October 2025, trialling a three-start sequence comprising Fast, Medium, and Slow handicap fleets. Feedback from sailors and fleet captains has been positive, with some minor adjustments recommended to fine-tune the setup.
Based on the feedback received to date and participation data from the Winter series (October–December 2025), the intention is to continue with this starting sequence beyond the end of the trial and into the Summer series. This decision recognises the positive feedback, improved fleet splits, and closer racing that this sequence has delivered to date. We will keep this format under continuous review and in particular, we will be analysing the 2026 RYA PY numbers once published to determine if any further tweaks are required to our handicap splits to ensure fair fleet splits.
To maintain variety across our club racing and take into account feedback from some of our current slow fleet sailors, we will retain the two-start (Fast and Slow) format for Wednesday evenings. Additionally, taking into account feedback from sailors noting a preference for back-to-back racing, from this summer (April onwards) we will run our Sunday afternoon races back-to-back. We hope this provides our members with the opportunity to complete these two races more efficiently and helps to increase participation in the third race.
The committee is always open to feedback on any of the above or wider on-water topics. If you would like to ask a question or make a suggestion, please reach out to sailing@bowmoor.com in the first instance.
