Now that winter has nearly past it's time to hang up your skis and look out your sailing gear. The new sailing season is just about upon us and lets hope we get a summer as good as last year. Due to the very cold temparatures this winter there have been very few hardy souls venturing out on the water, mainly because it was ice for a large part of the winter. Easter is quite an awkward date this year to work around and it has been decided to have the opening regatta on Sunday 21 st April to avoid clashing with any holidays. The rest of the dates are as follows,

May regatta 12th May
June regatta 2nd June
July regatta 7th July
August regatta 4th August
September regatta 1 st September
October regatta 6th October

There will be a fun weekend as normal this year sometime in August but the date has still to be finalised. The club championship was closely contended last year with the final positions not being decided until the last regatta, so make the effort and come along to as many as possible.

You can't win if you don't enter!. Midweek racing hasn't been as popular in the past couple of years and it is now becoming impractical to organise official racing on these nights.

Should we update the racing rules !

There will continue to be informal racing on a Tuesday night this year for those who attend. It is hoped that we will have permanent markers positioned at the four corners of the loch to speed up race orginisation both for Tuesday night sailing and monthly regattas. Mark McGuigan has offered his services as race convener for this season.

You never know what lurks beneath the murky waters of Fannyside Loch

Last year was possibly our most successful for attendance at the weekends away with the most people at the fair weekend at Loch Creran. This years first weekend will be to Arisaig from the 3-6th May in the caravans at Back of Kepoch. This is usually a popular weekend but lets hope we get better weather than we did at the September weekend. If you are interested in going on this weekend then get in touch with any member of the committee to book your place. Remember that the weekends away are not exclusively for club members and that its a good way of introducing your friends to the joys of sailing and we might even gain a few new members to the club

The dates for the Glasgow Fair weekend this year are 12-15 July. We are attempting to find an alternative venue to Loch Creran for this weekend and will keep you informed of any suggestions.

Malcolm Riley is going to a Wayfarer meet In the Solway Firth in June and will be reporting back as to its potential. If anyone has any other suggestions then please let the committee know. We will be going back to Arisaig for the September Weekend from the 27th to the 30th.

The winter weather has been against us this year with quite a lot of frost damage being caused in the clubhouse. Both the showers in the ladies and gents changing rooms were burst with the frost as was the water heater under the sink in the kitchen area. The toilet pan in the gents changing room was also cracked. Malcolm Riley has been very busy over the past month and all the damages have now been repaired, for which he deserves all our thanks. The only advantage the winter has brought us is that the level of the loch is now back to normal. Several projects are planned for this year to further improve the clubs facilities and hopefully attract some new members.

Meanwhile lets look forward to a good start to the sailing season and plenty of friendly competition in the coming months.