The Spread Eagle Sailing Club Programme of Events has now been launched and can be booked online.
More events than ever before for 2024! An even wider variety of activities to enable Members to improve their skills, learn new techniques of boat handling and seamanship or just go sailing.
Back by ever popular demand is the Ladies Sailing weekend and the Masterclass/Nightsailing. Our new event introduced last year – Sailing Around the Island, proved to be very successful so it is back again though we have combined it with a B-C Ticket Preparation for those who would like to practise their skippers skills before the following event; and NEW to the agenda, – Skippers Assessment weekend, to give an opportunity for aspiring skippers to be tested to become a club skipper, or for current ‘C’ skippers to upgrade their ticket to a B+ skipper allowing them to sail further afield and at night. Also, another new event for 2024 which may appeal to those who have other interests besides sailing is the Just Go Sailing – Seafood Festival weekend, with the plan being to take a leisurely sail to Lymington, where the Seafood Festival will be taking place. And brought back from previous years, is the Family sailing weekend, aiming to introduce the next generation to sailing and encourage parents to bring their offspring, even if the offspring are adults.
Two summer cruises are on offer again. The first – a 9 day Early Summer Cruise for those who would like to venture further afield to the Channel Islands or possibly the French Coast. This Cruise will involve an overnight or long day passage but also time off in a port to enjoy eating mussels and drinking wine in the Channel Islands or France if winds and tides are kind to us. The second cruise – a 7 day Late Summer sail, could be going south again to the Channel Islands or to the West country.
Most importantly in our events calendar though are the ‘Skipper Refresher’ sessions during March. Whilst we all practice our MOB – crash tacking, sailing away, coming back on a close reach, stopping and picking up the fender we have thrown overboard to simulate our MOB, and we congratulate ourselves at being able to return to a point in the water, but we still have that age old question of “how do you get a MOB back onboard”. To answer this question, SESC have recently purchased a ‘MOB tackle and sling retrieval kit’. In addition, all Club life jackets have now been fitted with a MOB Lifesaver and must be worn whilst onboard Eagle. Personal life jackets may ONLY be worn if a MOB Lifesaver is fitted.
To comply with coding requirements, as a club we need to ensure that all skippers have been trained on how to use the new MOB Recovery System and are familiar with the new procedures. For these reasons, all club skippers intending to charter this season will need to attend one of the ‘Skipper Refresher’ days/weekend before they charter the boat. These refresher days are free of charge (just contribution to victualing & fuel).
Our non formal constructive activities are run by experienced club skippers to ensure that everyone gets the benefit of their expertise and knowledge, at a cost of £185 per person for weekend events and £235 for the three day events including the cost of fuel. And the cruises are £370 for the seven day cruise and £480 for the nine day sail plus fuel; with food, and moorings beyond Universal Marina as an addition.
If you would like to book a place, please don’t leave it to the last minute, book club events online by signing in through the members area of the website www.spreadeaglesailingclub.co.
Please do join our closed Facebook group ‘Spread Eagle Sailing Club’ where members regularly post pictures of their ventures on Eagle and other news including information on the Solent – hazards and maydays also posted on the FB page.
As always, please continue to share your stories and pictures of club or general sailing events with the editor Jane Mancini