Newsletter:1st March 2021

Renewal of British Youth Sailing (BYS) Recognised Club

 From a letter received by the Commodore regarding Junior and Youth Sailing.

“Congratulations, your BYS Recognised Club status has been approved for 2021. We appreciate your commitment to the development of junior and youth racing, race training and your alignment to the BYS Values and Behaviours.

Your BYS Recognised Club appointment is awarded annually and is subject to your club maintaining its RYA Recognised Training Centre (RTC) status and continuing to meet the criteria and standards for a BYS Recognised Club”.

 For more details of BYS competitions etc.

Duncan West

Regional Performance Manager - South & South West

Some Essential Reminders & Updates

Club Reopening - Note from Commodore Phil Lawrence

To see the 'Road Map' for the Club reopening following the latest Government publication:

Book Club

Join us for the next meeting if you can. You will be welcome on Monday 1^st March. at 15:30   Two new members have joined already.  It’s a new book this month. Full details are here .

Safety Boat Training

With Roger Wilson 3^rd March 18:00 - join the meeting

Mosimann’s Click and Collect Service

See here for the Menu (with items and pricing)  and instructions for ordering,  or you can even refer to the front page of the Web Site, where there is also a link. This service (Wed-Sat) is being offered to non-Members so if you know someone who would like a lovely dinner and is not a Member, why not let them know, or even put a Menu in their letter box.

Real Duplicate Bridge Monday 16:30

Last week’s winners were NS George & Gaynor Johnson  EW Peter & Jane Kingsley  There were 11.5 tables. Full details on joining

 Details of Club based Yoga and Pilates Classes

Follow this link for classes provided by Dawn, Katy and Jenny 

Hot Link to Coffee Mornings  

Hot Link to Happy Hour    

Previous Online Lectures.

See them here 

Previous Junior and Youth Online Lectures

See them here 

Club House Hours & Pontoons

Just to remind ALL Members that the Club house is closed, but the pontoons are open and the phones and doors “manned” from 0900-1700 hrs on weekdays. All charges for staying on the pontoons are suspended forthwith,  but please ensure that you speak to the Boatmen or the Sailing Manager to agree an extended stay during the day or for overnight.

Zoom Vince Quiz - 1

The team were on tenterhooks to see if we could actually get a Vince Quiz (VQ) on Zoom to work. The Chair was sure it would. Lots of the pleasure in a VQ is Vince himself, the consummate in-front-of-the-curtain professional being able to chat, wander around and tell jokes. Which even a wonder worker like himself would find a bit “tricky” in today’s climate. Would this work on Zoom?  This combined with our first ever foray into using “breakout rooms” within zoom (hidden for nearly a year, but recently excavated by the team),  did we know how to use it such that mega confusion was avoided?

To see the results, some images and to hear what happened

Another idea from your Social Sub Committee

Let’s put this virtual show on,  in the virtual barn 

 Why not share what you have been doing, during these three long lockdowns and entertain your fellow Club Members at the same time? 

What did we all do? - we hope for some surprises and don’t want you to be limited by any suggestions we might make, so over to you.  We know we have some very talented people among us. I’m sure your children also would love to take part.

We hope to showcase an item each week in at least the newsletter.

Peter Blick has promised to send something, when he has a little spare time and those of you who have also worked throughout lockdown or home-schooled will appreciate that for some people there hasn’t been much of that. He didn’t volunteer to be a one-man show though, so don’t be shy. There is no competition involved, just for fun, but we’d welcome your submissions as well as suggestions for a better title for this event.

 Details are here on how to submit your efforts, and we have a friendly editor to collate entries, so please send your video recordings of up to 5 minutes - this could be zoom or phone or  other media or photos.

If your video is on your computer please send them  directly to Gillian by using the free & easy We Transfer website (no registration required)   https://wetransfer.com/ 

Once you are there click on the ‘We’ logo at the top left which opens up an area for you to transfer your files – please send your file to [email protected].

 If your video is on your phone,  please use What’s App and send to Gillian’s work mobile: 07516029745.

 Mary Bell

Chair Social Sub Committee

Winter Cruising Lecture No.19 with Peter Bell

This week’s Cruising Division lecture is ‘Southern Iberia - Cruising in the Covid Year’ and will be presented by our very own Peter Bell via Zoom on Thursday 4th March 2021 at 18.30hrs

 Peter will describe his summer 2020 sailing trip with Mary onboard Dofesaba II, cruising along the south coast of Spain & Portugal, and how Covid not only changed their plans but also altered the ports they visited on their adventure. His account promises to be a lockdown sailor’s escapist dream come true.

To watch live via Zoom

Simply click the Button on Thursday 4^th March 2021 from 18.00hrs onwards:

 If prompted you may need these: Meeting ID: 832 3207 9003 / Passcode: 938186

 Here for more information –

 Steve Law

Lecture Coordinator

Sunday 14th March

They are the most special ladies in our family, whom many of us have not seen for some time – so this Mother’s Day give your mum a gift that’s guaranteed to make her smile and feel the love with a Mossimann’s 3 course lunch. See the menu HERE.

Get in touch with Mosimann’s by emailing [email protected] or calling 01590 671751 with your orders by 12:00 Tuesday 9^th March.   The lunches are £34 per person with children’s portions available on request.  Our Shipmates' meals are also available for takeaway as normal, see those options HERE.

 Your lunch packages will be ready for collection on Saturday 13^th March from 10-4pm; deliveries will also be made on this day.  Deliveries available only to Members who live within 7 miles of the Club.

Zoom based Race Team Training

Many thanks to John Whyte for an excellent talk on electronic aids and multi-tasking on Tuesday.

As this was the last Zoom session for now, I would just like to thank all of the presenters for their considerable efforts in putting together and presenting these Zoom sessions. If you missed any of them, all the recordings are on the Race Team Training page on the Club website.

 The link to all the  talks is here

Mary McGough

Race Training Czarina

Club Race Officer Training and Certificate

In the light of the inter-active nature of their content and the continuing restrictions on the use of the clubhouse, the Club Race Officer Course and Tests planned for Tuesday 2nd March and Tuesday 9th March have been temporarily postponed until such time as we are able again to gather together in the Island Room.  Just when this will be, we do not yet know, although HMG's recently announced 'road map' may give us hope that it will be at least sometime before the summer has passed.

Watch this space.

Malcolm McKeag

RO Trainer

Flower Arrangements to Cheer

As the darkness of winter is finally ebbing away, we can bring brightness into our homes with flowers, and foliage  They do not always have to be fresh, you can use a mixture of dried hydrangea heads, fallen twigs, and silk foliage, to create a stunning display.

An aged Azalea, that has spent all summer in a shady part of the garden, is so rewarding when it comes into bloom over the winter months, and one's patience is rewarded.

Hopefully it will not be too long before the RLymYC will be welcoming  Members again with our beautiful arrangements seen dotted about the Club, brightening it up, and bringing good cheer.

Elizabeth Andrews

Flower Czarina

Report on Cruising Lecture 18.

Last Thursday’s Cruising Division lecture ‘The History & Natural History of the Lymington-Keyhaven Nature Reserve’ was delivered by our guest speaker, Pete Durnell, to a record Zoom audience - and what a treat it was.

The Lymington Salterns spanned the coastal marshes right the way from Lymington to Hurst Spit and formed part of an important salt making industry that flourished from the medieval period until the early 19th Century.

 This was an expertly told, beautifully illustrated and wide-ranging lecture about Lymington’s valuable amenity and the heritage along our coastline. Pete identified many of the native and migratory birds to be seen here at different times of the year, as well as some of the specialist flora and fauna, the history of the Salterns and the ongoing work carried out by HCC’s Countryside Service to maintain this remarkable 500-acre site.

 Appeal - Old Salterns photographs for the archives

Members, if you have any pre-1970s photographs of the local marshes and environs, Peter would love to hear from you, so please do get in touch: [email protected]

Lectures on Demand

A recording of Pete Durnell’s fascinating lecture will be uploaded to the Club website and available online shortly.

 In the meantime, if you missed any of the Cruising Division’s previous talks from Spring 2020 onwards, you can catch up now at:

 Steve Law

Lecture Coordinator

Online Art Group 2021

This is the new picture for this week. It is the Church at Mylor Harbour.

Please let Josie Nieves have a .pdf or .jpg of any images you may produce from it as soon as you are comfortable with your work.  ([email protected]).

 We will put these images on the WebSite and then a new pictorial challenge will be presented.

 Please take out your paints and pencils, your iPads and papers. While away the hours when it is dark, rainy and cold, even if it clears up a bit by letting your creative juices run.... we look forward to seeing the results.

CENTENARY BOOK - ILLUSTRATIONS INVITED

The Club is producing a book to celebrate its Centenary.  Artists are invited to produce images which would be suitable to be considered to illustrate the chapter on social events which have taken place at the Club through the years.   Anyone who is interested to submit work for this should contact Josie Nieves on [email protected], for more details about the subject matter.

 Jose Nieves

Art Czarina

Sailing Events for 2021

The 2021 Sailing Events Team form will be hitting your inboxes very soon, so please keep an eye out, we could not run our ever popular programme without you.

Our jam packed 2021 Sailing Programme can now be downloaded and viewed  from the Club website. Once the Club reopens,  a physical copy  will be available for collection.

You can access it here –

Garden Notes

As I write, the sky is grey, the ground soggy,and the soil cold, but warmer weather is forecast ,so I take note of a saying from well known rose growers :   “ When the snowdrops are flowering and the birds begin singing,it is time to reach for our pruning shears.”

Now is indeed time to start work on a range of early spring care for plants and soil as we note buds and shoots forming.  Pruning, feeding and mulching are key tasks, particularly for plants such as Roses and Clematis, so here is some guidance for those:

 To read these words of wisdom and more gardening lore -

Dinghy Park and the Club Sublet System

The RLymYC Dinghy Park berth discs for the 2021 season will be sent out to Members who have been allocated a berth at the beginning of March.

For those Members who are disappointed that they were not allocated a berth, we would like to encourage them to use the Sublet System. The Sublet System was trialled successfully in 2020 and will continue to be used in 2021. The system allows members the possibility of finding Dinghy Park berths to use temporarily during the season.

The instructions for the Sublet System and the Dinghy Park Regulations are published on the club website and can be found here

The View from the Editor's Chair

The social sub committee’s idea for a Zoom quiz with Vince worked better than anyone anticipated – let alone the Chair. She received a veritable hurricane of messages the following morning suggesting that Members had enjoyed a wonderful evening and wanted to do it again. Chairs of committees ignore the Members wishes at their peril. So look out for another in the late Spring.

 Our lead item showing we have passed a certain standard is a compliment to the hard work done by Staff and Volunteers to ensure we bring top quality training to our younger Members. It is not well known that there are 55 shipmates 180 Juniors and 90 young adults registered with the Club, able to take part in sailing events.

 For the first time Elizabeth offers us an interesting perspective on dead plants. It is the clever way she jumbles them up that makes them look beautiful.  Who knew there was beauty in brown sticks. It must be everywhere.

Lockdown in Lymington is definitely getting better, mainly due to the improving weather. Clumps of Daffodils, Snowdrops and Croci (Crocusses ?) are becoming more visible and the large puddle in the Bath Road Rec has nearly dried up.  Vaccination is encouraging more couples to go for a walk in the sunshine and sometimes the Quay is quite full. If the ice cream man were allowed, he would be making a fortune. That is your thought for the week.

 Stay safe everyone.

           Peter Bell – Editor 

[email protected]