2022 New Season, New Handbook, New Program, New Outlook …

March 28, 2022 Off By Oban Sailing Club
Dinghy Park at Oban Sailing Club
Keelboats

Dear Members

Handbook

At last, finally, the Handbook with the new Sailing Program for 2022.

If you are a current member then it has been sent to you via email. and sent away for printing (once a couple of new members’ details have been added). Once it is back from the printers, copies will be available in the clubhouse for members to pick up, available during social evenings, available at Monday Mayhem. For those living further afield we will post copies out to you.

My thanks to Leonie Mead of Art and Sea for the graphic design work and page layout. My thanks also to the many sponsors of the Handbook, many of them long time supporters of OSC.

You will notice a few changes to the handbook. Things like

  • there are no Sailing Instructions, these will be available on the club website shortly.
  • there is a single program where previously we had the complete program of events and then separate calendars for dinghy and keelboat. We felt it better to have just one program for all events but we have colour-coded events so hopefully easier to pick out your favourite events.
  • there are no names for safety boat or race office duties. We will publish a separate spreadsheet that is available online to everyone which can be easily modified and updated as and when you need to switch duties.

I hope you like the handbook and the changes we have made.

Sailing Program

During the autumn of 2021 I expressed a wish for the club to re-think its sailing program. A representative group took on the task of working through what it is that motivates us with our sailing and the sort of events that we want to see. Much of this has made it into the new program. I’m not going to pick through all the changes here in an email. But the essence was for the program to be more inclusive, more sociable and more accommodating of the varying pressures we have on our lives. I’m not going to claim that all the changes will work as intended, but we have to try new things from time to time.

My sincere thanks to Andrew Campbell and the Sailing Program Group for all the work they have put into the revised program.

The first events are:

Dinghy Racing – Sunday 3rd April start @ 1400

Monday Mayhem – Monday 4th April start @ 1800

Dinghy Racing – Saturday 9th April start @ 1400

Keelboat Racing – Sunday 10th April start @1400

So you may have just spotted the first change we have made. Alternating Sat/Sun for keelboat and dinghy weekend racing. Clearly not everyone can make Saturdays and not everyone can make Sundays, so why exclude people by keeping to a fixed day ….? Will it work? Let’s see.

How can you find out what is going on? We will endeavour to keep the online club calendar up to date – you’ll see it as events “Coming up” on the front page of the website. The other innovation this year is to have a searchable calendar. Select the types of sailing events you are interested in, generate your own personalised calendar and sync it with your phone calendar.

Explore it here: https://www.obansailingclub.org/events/

We’re very interested to hear your comments on this. One filter I think might be helpful (and we can add) is whether an event is weekend/weekday etc. particularly for those not based close to Oban and may just want to come over for weekend events.

We will make a feedback sheet available to you on the website – here is the link:

https://forms.gle/6dctpn7BKPkUNPFq8

Let us know what you think ….

Please get behind the new program. A lot of thought and ideas have gone into it.

Accessing the Clubhouse

I’m pleased to let you know that we received a grant from the Oban Common Good fund to assist with the cost of replacing the front door to the clubhouse. We will have a code access for the door which helps with accessibility for community groups and other users. It also means that all members can access the club, without the need for a key. Which means we don’t have to cut keys, distribute them, …… As well as benefiting members we hope it will benefit the community. In the next few weeks we will welcome into the clubhouse

  • Oban Bay Community Berthing for their AGM
  • Oban Community Harbour Development Association for a meeting
  • UHI Argyll College for Maritime Skills teaching
  • Adventure Oban for another community Sea Safety seminar

It’s great to be able to support the Oban marine community.

Membership and Volunteering

Hopefully much of what I have written about may inspire some to renew their membership

And of course, now you have access to the Handbook you’ll see we have plenty of activity planned and activity needs helpers. Please put your name down to help us from time to time – thanks to those already signed up.

All for now.

Enjoy perusing the Handbook and Sailing Program

Thanks to everyone for their efforts getting us to the start of the season.

Finlo