The season kicked off as it usually does in March with the Refresher events. These events are strongly recommended for all Skippers every year but this year they were made mandatory and as such, members were not charged for attendance. The focus was to ensure that all event host Skippers and Skippers who had already made a booking to charter Eagle this season were trained on the MOB sling. The events were fully subscribed and proved to be very successful with opportunity for the MOB sling procedure to be refined and adapted thanks to the combined expertise of participants.
The programme had a slow start in April and was affected by the new engine and sail drive instalment in May and June but thankfully these events have been rescheduled. The popular Early Summer Cruise at the end of June was quickly fully booked well in advance and benefited from all the maintenance work, as Eagle of Hamble behaved very well.
Through the events, we have had a few successful Skipper ticket assessments resulting in upgrades. In addition to the planned events several ad hoc training days have been run, upon request from members keen to ramp up their sea miles and gain experience at sea and around the pontoons.
A big thank you to the those Skippers who have hosted so far and also to those yet to run their events. Obviously without your contribution of time and expertise the event programme, and club training values would not exist.
Now we have nearly completed the programme, and it is good to see that the remaining events are practically fully booked. Cancellations do happen so if anyone has missed out please do contact the club as a waiting list often exists behind the scenes for popular events like the cruises. The outline of the 2025 events programme is beginning to take shape already and so to make sure the programme is relevant and fitting for need, members are encouraged to contact Chrissi de Quincey with ideas and requests for consideration.