Page 12 - Yachter Autumn/Winter 2022

12 SAILING
NEWS FROM REAR COMMODORE SAILING – YOUR CLUB NEEDSYOU
Although we have sailed for much of our married life, Margaret and I finally became hooked on cruising when we bought an elderly wooden
33 ft ex racing yacht which we based at the British KielYacht Club.
From there we cruised extensively in the Danish waters of the western Baltic.
Laurie and Nathan that they have resisted the temptation, when planning for the new season, to just ‘change the dates’ on the
last programme and both have managed to incorporate new ideas into the programme. The demographic of the Club is different from when I joined and I am sure that the wishes of members for a cruising programme have changed as well. So please come and tell us what they are by joining the Cruising Sub-Committee. I can assure you it is not very onerous – a couple of meetings to help put the programme together, plus possibly another early in the season to help get things off to a good start.We need your help now as next year’s programme is already at the planning stage.An e-mail to Captain of Cruising, Nathan Hamilton, cruising@rsyc. org.uk, is all it takes!
I can thoroughly recommend Denmark as a cruising area.There are no tides and the harbours are quite close together.This means that there are no early starts or
late finishes and one tends to be tied up in time for tea – or rather ‘Coffee and Cake’.The Danes are quite good at cake.With a delivery trip through the Kiel Canal to get you there Denmark is an excellent
area for a family holiday afloat. If anyone would like to know more, Margaret and I would be delighted to talk.
On buying our yacht Mistress, and joining RSYC just over 20 years ago we were very much ‘Cruisers’ and joined in the Club’s cruising programme whenever we could.
I very quickly became a member of the Cruising sub-committee and have remained a member for most of my time in the Club. Over that time there has been a steady decline in the number of members prepared to join the Cruising Sub- Committee to the extent that the recent Captain of Cruising, Laurie Bates and now Nathan Hamilton are very much on their own.
It is to the great credit of both