new club
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Beginner questions
Forum Discription: Advice for those who are new to sailing
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5744
Printed Date: 26 Jun 25 at 7:50pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: new club
Posted By: desteve1
Subject: new club
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 7:13am
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im moving to cambridgeshire in august and want to join a
dinghy club. i've narrowed it down to cam SC or hunts SC. could you please help. Thanks ------------- laser 81188 (looking for a name) |
Replies:
Posted By: alstorer
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 7:22am
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Although I live in Cambridge, I don't sail at either, and I've not been to Hunts, I'd say: Not Cam. I'm still convinced that Cam is a practical joke/bet that's got out of hand and become an established club. ------------- -_ Al |
Posted By: craiggo
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 10:02am
| I believe Hunts is pretty good. An old university friend and her family sailed there and I believe her brother was Comet national champ for many years so pretty high standard in the Comet fleet if its still going. |
Posted By: alstorer
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 10:19am
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On the same scale, the bodies of water look like this: http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=52.264585,0.204406&spn=0.009363,0.01929&t=h&z=16 - |
Posted By: winging it
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 10:24am
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Hi, Both Jeffers and I are members at Hunts and would be pleased to see you there and show you round. We have plenty of good racing and training, and have started doing separate starts for our cadets as well. We have a weekday women only session on a Tuesday morning (run by yours truly), regular cadet training, Wednesday evening racing in the summer, good racing on a Sunday with a mix of Phantoms, Lasers, Fireballs, Solos, Enterprises and many more. Do drop me a pm if you want to know more. nessa  http://www.huntssc.org/ - Link to our website ------------- the same, but different... |
Posted By: Neptune
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 10:48am
| What about Grafham Water - not really much further away than Hunts Sc from Cambridge and a great sailing venue. |
Posted By: winging it
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 12:21pm
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That's true - and I'm actually a member of both. It really depends what you want. I joined Grafham because it offers a great expanse of open water for me to sail my contender on. But I also joined Hunts because I wanted somewhere to keep the rest of the fleet, where I could get to know most people and where I could do some instruction both formal and informal. Hunts is a lovely family friendly club with good racing and a great social scene, Grafham has excellent racing but it's harder to get to know people because it's so big. Both offer training and instruction - I'm hoping to join in with the race training at Grafham next year, but I'll also be doing stuff at Hunts. My advice would be to go along to both on a Saturday or Sunday and see whuich feels right for you. I chose not to join Cam because of the limitations of the water compared to Hunts.. ------------- the same, but different... |
Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 4:36pm
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As my name has been used in vain I should speak up.... I have been a member of Hunts for over 10 years now. It is a great little club. The racing whilst competitive is friendly. THe club also offers taining, cruising and a reasonable amount of social stuff. I have sailed a Grafham a few times and found it to be a bit impersonal purely because the place is so big. There are a couple of other Grafham members (aside from winging it) who may chip in. Les5269 (nice guy, met him briefly at the GGP a few years back) and the ever present Scooby Simon and his 'pimped' cat. I would visit both clubs at least once before you decided, there are pros and cons to both. Given the choice today I would still join Hunts over Grafham though (just my personal choice). Either way come in for a visit, you will always be made welcome. There is racing on a Wednesday night (7pm start) which gets around 20-30 boats out and all day on a Sunday. The only limits in terms of boats are no multihulls and a PY limit of 950 (both purely down to the size of the water). If you come down keep an eye out for a Laser with a light blue hull which will have either 8.1 227 or sail 121821 depending on the wind strength. Cheers for now, Paul ------------- Paul ---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |
Posted By: Merlinboy
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 10:15pm
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I Dont know Cam, but it looks from that photo similar to Tewkesbury SC and Severn SC. We both have good membership figures and members include an EX POW & multiple nationals winner, a current AC inland champion and some fairly handy people in the Albacore fleet. That said the sailing is Crap and if draycote was 30 miles closer i wouldnt think twice about joing. ------------- |
Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 24 Jul 09 at 11:02pm
| It all depends on what sort of sailing you want to do. There's no doubt that those who like river sailing love it, and its definitely a very different set of skills. After spending a very pleaant hour or so in a Thames A Rater last week I can see the appeal, even though I don't think its what I personally want to do as my main form of the sport at the moment. |
Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 25 Jul 09 at 8:21am
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Having been down to Cam as a visitor the problem they have is not that the river is excessively narrow it is more because the banks are built up to help prevent flooding. This makes the wind hard to read and very flukey. They also only really have 1 course which might be fun every now and then but it would not satisfy my competitive urges. Having said that they have been going for a lot of years so they must be doing something right. If memory serves they have a lot of family members there and tend to start their races in flights as you cannot really get more than 6 boats on the line at any one time. As I have already said visit all the possibilities, get to know some of the people and go with whichever club you think will be the best fit for you. Most of all enjoy the sailing, that is the point of it all! Paul ------------- Paul ---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |
Posted By: desteve1
Date Posted: 27 Jul 09 at 3:45pm
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thanks for the replys and i will probably go to hunts and grafham ------------- laser 81188 (looking for a name) |