XOD Itchenor 2008
The XOD class at
Itchenor Sailing Club
photo Eddie Mays
Captain's blog
Bill’s blog 002 - April 6, 2008
Well done to X181 Xtravagance with Tom Tait and his crew for winning the 1st race of the season – Saturday 5th April. The 7 XODs were the only keelboats out racing on Saturday; however snow stopped play on Sunday.
Snow, what snow? David Smith was flying the Itchenor X flag in the Swiss Alps while Chichester Harbour was not enjoying the white stuff.
Successful Skittles Evening at West Ashling – 32 XOD members turned up and enjoyed a pub skittles social evening including a fine chicken curry. Stocker Fleet won the 3 fleet competition and Michael Shaw the Killer Knock-out which signals to me he had a misspent youth! Michael donated the total winnings to local hospice charity. A good night was had by all and this is likely to become an annual event. Vice Captain Alan Perry originated the event which was successfully executed with the help and organisation of John Wingrove.
Sail Measuring at Itchenor Division – Keith Moate has discharged his duty well as our measurer over the last 3 years. He has now retired and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his commitment and diligence. As his final task he has trained Michael Shaw and Liz Powell with the technical and logistical requirements. We are fortunate to have such willing and responsible members and the excellent Itchenor Memorial Hall facility to undertake this task. There is a further need of occasional help of 2 more volunteers to assist. Please contact Michael Shaw if you are able to lend a hand to support him and Liz.
New Itchenor XOD Trophies 2008 – Details already communicated by email:
Bridget Bowerbank XOD Trophy – full season, with the most race finishes.
Morton Reeves Bowl – full season, boat with best cumulative race results.
Full details and terms of the Deeds of Gifts are located on our website under New Trophies. Our grateful thanks go to each individual for their generous donation of these fine new XOD awards for the Itchenor Division. We hope to display these in and the Phillipson Challenge Shield at the Club’s elegant new trophy cabinet in the main dining room at the Gala Dinner taking place on Saturday 3rd May.
Wear your life-jacket when using the ISC’s launch service - Further to our RCS, Steve Hammett’s recent messages, I am sure all XOD skippers and crews will carry out these recommendations for personal safety afloat. (Memo: this has been mandatory for the last 2 years within most EU countries). Therefore do remember to bring your own lifejacket to the Club and bring it ashore after each race!
Navigation, Chichester Harbour Entrance - The beacons marking the Harbour entrance have been replaced over this winter and also moved to new positions because of ongoing changes to the shape of the sand bar and the navigational channel. Do please acquaint yourself with the new arrangements before going out of harbour.
New Buoy in the Harbour – Peacock, located at the top of Rookwood Reach on the Itchenor bank side, is a PORT hand mark to look out for!
New ISC Sailing Instructions 2008 Edition – you need to get a copy to study and take aboard for reference. They are now available at Club office with a new harbour colour chart too.
ACTIONS REQUIRED to continue the increase of XOD racing at Itchenor:
Crew Forum key fact - from last season Clare received 173 requests to provide crew and in response was able to support with 71 crew placements. Put another way, only 1 in 2.4 requests were satisfied.
To get more boats out racing, we require more available crew.
We really need everyone to put on their thinking hats and support this most important initiative. Yes, it means thinking ahead a little and encouraging your friends and contacts who might be able to come and join us racing at Itchenor. We now have 93 subscription paid Divisional members, an all-time record figure and never heard-of at this point in any season! So if every member put their mind to attracting 1 or 2 new people able to crew we would crack this issue over-night. Please help us move this key subject forward. You know Clare will do her utmost to place crew wherever possible. On the 1st racing weekend Clare placed 3 people into boats, including one lady who had never sailed aboard an X or at Itchenor before. She has committed to come back again next weekend because she enjoyed it so much.
It’s time for you all to help!
Boat Buddy – message from Guy Partington:
Spring is here, the first weekend is now behind us and it’s time to get Boat Buddies matched up again. The format will be much the same as last year with the Winner Fleet (blue flags) acting as mentors to those boats in Stocker (red flags) and Pilsey (yellow flags) fleets who want to participate. Wherever possible we want to change the pairings from last year so as to ensure the greatest possible communication and transfer of skills across the division.
If you want to participate as a Pupil with a Winner Fleet boat then please email Guy at CLICK and he will seek a Boat Buddy for you for this season. If you have any preferences then please state them and we’ll see what can be done.
If you feel you missed-out last year, please contact Guy as we may have to do some doubling up; we do not want to leave anyone out who wants to participate. Last season proved to be a successful introduction for Boat Buddies and now is an opportunity to make it flourish.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Guy either by email or telephone – his number is in the ISC handbook.
Photo Competition with Prizes!
We are
always keen to have really good action pictures featuring our Itchenor X boats
racing in the Harbour, out of harbour or at Cowes. Digital cameras now enable
everyone to become a good photographer, we even have a very expensive
water-proof camera available to loan to someone able to use it - see me for
info. Any member may now WIN a new item of X Class sailing kit; sweat
shirt, polo shirt or class tie, etc. There will be prizes for the best 5 digital
action pictures submitted this season. A panel of 3 experts will present awards
at our AGM this year…..over to you budding photographers. I would much prefer to
re-cycle our funds back to members than have to purchase professional photos for
our vital publicity effort creating fresh interest in our activities.
Looking for a gift? - I could not resist including this item sent to me over the winter, the must-have goody for any XOD sailor to mount on his house! Allows you (and your neighbour) to check wind direction before going sailing…..it’s an XOD Wind-vane. Something nice to stick onto your roof! For those interested contact www.weathervanes-direct.co.uk quite a snip at circa £150 + VAT!
New Class logo has just been adopted as part of the new image and build-up towards the 2011 Centenary. A full colour leaflet to promote the X One Design Class across all 5 Divisions has been created to generate fresh interest in our classic wooden boats. I am sure like me you will be impressed with the results achieved so far by the new Class Association’s Marketing Team headed up by Ted Roose.
IMPORTANT REMINDER - like many previous Class Captains at Itchenor I remind every Helmsman and Crew that sailboat racing is a NON-CONTACT sport. Our classic wooden X boats look just fantastic as they go afloat at the start of this season, and we want to keep them that way! At least one crew member should be designated responsible as look-out with helmsmen taking avoiding action to prevent any sort of collision.
Your Divisional Officers and valued support team continue their work in the background for everyone’s benefit. Please participate in our initiatives whenever possible to make our efforts worthwhile. We welcome relevant feedback to try and improve the activities for members and improve the sailing enjoyment of X Class racing at Itchenor.
Let’s now all wish hard for some good weather to encourage more of you out of winter hibernation!
Bill’s blog 001 - March 15, 2008
The racing season starts on Saturday 5th April
Final fitting-out before the new season at Haines Boatyard
XODs joining us at Itchenor
X35 Foxy Lady The picture below tells you there is significant restoration yet to be completed. James Thomson, the owner, is bringing her back into racing trim from being a converted XOD sailing-cruiser with inboard engine! This work-in-progress will take some while but we hope to see her sailing before the season is out. Those of you with The Definitive “X” Class book will see she was built by Berthon Boats of Lymington in1928.
X35 on foreshore at Haines Yard
X71 Wenda has been purchased by Damian Ash who is better known for his prowess trapezing on an International 14. As an ISC member he has already joined our division and hopes to be racing with us early this season with his father Peter as crew. The records show this boat was a double Captain’s Cup winner in 1994 &1995, so watch this space! Well done to Haines Boatyard for finding a mooring so quickly.
X111 Annabel Simon Mein has returned her to race again at Itchenor. Haines have been busy working on her this winter and Simon hopes to be joining in our racing sometime in May.
More new Divisional members I am delighted to welcome to our Division: John Sessions who is joining John Stapleton as a co-owner in X109 Amber. Additionally, we have some enthusiastic new crew members after enjoying their initial race or two last season – Sarah Kuipers, Julia Plumstead, Amanda Finnamore and Peter Ash, as well as our local sailmaker and Olympic sail-measurer boss Dick Batt.
www. xod-itchenor.com Our communications supremo David Priscott has again been busy this winter improving our website visually and for easier operation, thank you for these continuous enhancements.
Fleet line-up Once again the boats have been carefully selected, based upon last years average scores. There are few surprises, but do check-out which fleet your boat is in this season. This list is accessed via the vertical rope-link.
To add a little more spice whilst racing and hopefully sharpen the competitive edge, I have taken onboard an idea from one of our experienced members. We have made a small bright coloured flag for each owner to fly from their back-stay denoting their fleet: Winner - blue flag, Stocker - red and Pilsey - yellow. I hope that this will provide easy recognition of your peer group and generate more chat ashore about who is improving their results or otherwise as the season proceeds.
New Trophy for 2008 The Bridget Bowerbank XOD Trophy is to be awarded to the Itchenor XOD that completes the most races in our season as listed in the Club Handbook, excluding the Cowes Week period. Boats that retire or are disqualified for any reason shall be deemed not to have completed a race. If a race is cancelled or abandoned, no boats will have completed the race.
As you see everyone has a chance to win this trophy, you need to get out on the water and persistently finish as many races as possible.
Shroud Position proposal This resolution at the Class AGM failed to be approved by the smallest margin. In order to give this rig set-up a fair trial I am providing dispensation for some of our local boats to race at Itchenor this season for this purpose. Please note that this does not apply for racing at Cowes or elsewhere. X39 Gone Away is one of 3 boats that have so far requested to test out the shroud positions using a stainless steel tie-bar linking the fore & aft chain-plates.
Team Racing Firm commitments are in place with:
Lymington (Fri 6th June)
Hamble (Fri 18th July)
Challenge Shield at Cowes (Fri 1st August)
Parkstone (Fri 19th Sept.)
Vice Captain - Alan Perry is co-ordinating our team selection and related activity. These fun events are all sailed away from home apart from Parkstone who will be our guests at Itchenor this autumn.
Increase XOD racing at Itchenor Encouraged by the increased turn-out of boats and up-lift in new membership last season we will continue this strategy. The initiatives highlighted below are the basic ingredients we use and proved effective.
· Crew Forum Claire Blevins has kindly agreed to continue managing this valuable service. However owners please note; you are still the prime movers responsible for finding your own crew!
· Boat Buddies Guy Partington will be seeking new pairings of mentors and pupils this season. I do hope our top fleet skippers will lend a genuine hand with tips and advice to those lower down the list wishing to learn and then give it their best shot at making it work. It is most important that we are all welcoming and friendly to new owners and crews.
· Part Ownership I currently have a list of 7 local X boats for sale and/or owners seeking boat partnerships to share ownership. Very flexible opportunities now exist to be your own skipper. Contact me for details if you are interested.
· Talks & Instruction Peter and Anne Taylor have scheduled 2 Rules training sessions (Sat 26th April @ 18.30pm and Sat 7th June same time). Why not stay on for supper afterwards, book via the Office.
· RYA Rules Disputes - there are some new Advisory & Arbitration procedures that will be introduced at ISC next year. This subject will, I am sure, be aired by Peter Taylor during his talk and instruction session. However for those wishing to learn more please CLICK
· Press & PR - Pam and David Priscott will be working hard to generate publicity through the local press and yachting media. The health of our X Class and Club depends upon attracting new and enthusiastic sailors to join us for fine competitive racing in Chichester Harbour.
Remember your involvement with these activities is needed to make them work effectively, so please participate where and when ever possible.
Support the team who are working very hard in the background trying to develop the best environment for our continuing enjoyment of X Class racing.
I look forward to seeing you on the start line in April!
Wishing you all good luck and enjoyment afloat this season
Bill Barnes: Itchenor XOD Class Captain