SAVE THE DATE!!!

Sunday 14th November 2010

AGM from 18.00; Dinner to follow AGM

More details to follow soon so watch this space and check out the site!

Round the Island 2010

This year’s Round the Island was an early start affair – it is all about getting to the Needles before the tide turns.  So, this year there were two boats with involvement of HSSC members – Steve Moss with Louise, Steve’s son Joseph and nephew Ian and Ian’s friend Katrina on “Yamma”; and Robert and Victor on “Matahari” as part of a seven man crew under skipper Mike and first mate Pete out of Haslar.  Matahari started at 06h10 and Yamma at 06h20.

Matahari sailed on the Friday afternoon to East Cowes during which time we practised everything likely to be needed on the way determined to do better than last year. This included proper preparation on the Friday night – hoping to get inspiration from watching England playing Algeria on the pub TV.  Suffice to say, don’t emulate the England squad in the race on Saturday.

The weather was different this year from last, there was sufficient wind in the right direction to go down the Solent on a spinnaker run to the Needles, jibe it and then drop it once round.  That part of the race was quite uneventful really, but a very good learning experience on kite flying.  Once round the Needles the north easterly wind was fairly constant but building as the day wore on.  St Catherine’s Point was the usual melee of boats taking the off-shore route joining the inshore group.  We again took the offshore route not to have to deal with the wind shadow from the island.  The turn at Bembridge Ledge was relatively quiet, but we couldn’t catch up an all-girl crew on a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43.  By this time we were reefed – even though Matahari is a 38ft, it is a light boat relative to the likes of Yamma. Read the rest…

Letter from your New Commodore

Dear Friends,

I think it is right that we should give a hearty thanks and congratulations to all of those who organised the AGM and the laying up supper on Sunday the 8th November.

I know that you were able to entice a substantial number of members who have not been along to a club event for some time and that clearly is encouraging in the hope that they had not forgotten about us and will come along to other future events.  The feedback from the evening was such that I believe everybody enjoyed it and was able to swap old sea stories with each other and catch up on their latest experiences. Read the rest…

Britain’s only Sailing Club of Jewish Affinity and Friendship cruised through its AGM and  20th Anniversary Laying Up Dinner  in great style last week with an attendance of 90 past and present members, including 3 of the original founders and a 4- week old baby! .

  Read the rest…

Shemesh means Sunshine in Hebrew, and when Frank and Carole arrived finally in Israel some 5 years and 3 months after they left Chatham in 2004, that's exactly what they found… loads and loads of it.

Having started out the Odyssey in July 2004, Frank and Carole  sailed over 7,000 miles and stopped in  tens and tens and tens of interesting ports through out the Med.

Happily, and by good fortune and timing,  Rear Commodore Sandy and husband Avi were in Israel when  the call came through that Shemesh had finally made landfall. They got over to see them at the earliest opportunity and with great hugs and back slapping we were able to take the valedictory photos you see here.

Many, many congratulations Frank and Carole; you have realized your dream.

Now lets have some lines for Wavelength and the web about your adventures along the way.

Read Stanley's verses describing the HSSC September flotilla to the Southern Adriatic…..

Read the rest…

CROATIA 2009 Twelve sailors, trusty and true from the High Seas Sailing Club set out from the Marina in Dubrovnik to     experience the Adriatic and the friendly natives.  For the first 48 hours the winds blew virtually unceasingly and when they did in fact stop for a couple of hours, we thought that was that. Not so! They picked up again so much that mooring or anchoring in a safe place was really quite difficult.  There are not that many sheltered bays several miles out from Dubrovnik. Read the rest…

Check out this website to download a free copy that can be updated regularly from the internet.  All the local Tidal, Port,  Navigational, and Pilotage information that you would expect to find in a UK Almanac, plus live, updated weather reports while you are on line. Check it out and click here

http://www.wileynautical.com/view/0/almanac.html

Give it a try.

The 2009 inaugural Michael Doctors Memorial Lecture
featuring
Tom Cunliffe

The day of the first Michael Doctors lecture was drawing close and the participation numbers were looking really good.

It was clear that the renowned mariner Cunliffe was proving exactly the exciting attraction that the club had hoped for. Current and past members alike together with friends and family of the late Michael Doctors were due to meet for this auspicious occasion… and then…down came the SNOW********. Tons and tons of the white fluffy stuff! Very pretty; but then the reality began to slowly dawn upon me. “This is not good; this definitely doesn’t bode well for keeping up attendances”, and sure enough a few worrying calls and e-mails began to arrive.
Read the rest…

January 20th 2009

Withdrawal symptoms were clearly getting to members of the High Seas as more than 15 eager beavers got together at Bernays Hall, Stanmore for a workshop session on the much sought-after art of correctly manoeuvring your canvas in order to progress in a forwardly direction with appropriate momentum according to the prevailing airflow over the aerofoils! Or to put it more simply; setting your sails correctly for the prevailing wind conditions etc!

Sandy came prepared with tea, coffee, cakes and biccies, while Phil came prepared with pieces of wood, pieces of canvas and pieces of string which, when all assembled together, created a dinky little sailing rig that could be “propelled” by warm air flow from electric fan! Perfect! Read the rest…