Swallow News Mid March

Welcome to the New Season! 
With ‘Swallow News’ – up and running once more – your indispensible guide to all things Swallow-related!

The way we are (accompanied by Barbara Streisland)
Link to Quick News and ISC/RYA Covid guidelines.
https://mailchi.mp/itchenorsailingclub/quicknews-covid-19-update-the-clubhouse-at-easter-and-working-parties?e=becc6a1ae7

What you can expect to see on the startline this year!
Last autumn, in an overwhelming vote of support, we agreed that our mainsails in future should be made of an aramid fiber laminate cloth. We allowed our sailmakers to use either of two similar products made by different manufacturers. So, this year expect to see new mainsails that are largely transparent but with a black fibre stuck between two skins of clear film. They will be both lighter and stronger than the now practically discontinued cloth we used to specify, and we hope they will last at least as long.

Our approved material for jibs remains Dacron, but this year and next we will be conducting a trial of a jib made from the same material as our mainsails primarily to see how it wears in real life sailing conditions. The jib can be used in both wire luff and soft luff configurations so please ask to use it, and let us know your thoughts both on practicality and the overall appearance of a Swallow dressed in this format looks. To reserve the 2020 trial ‘3 batten’ jib and the new for 2021 trial jib please contact Mike on www.nationalswallowclass@gmail.com – this may move to the website in due course. Please note that these jibs may not be used for trophy events.

The Swallow 2021 social programme
Compromised by Steps 2 & 3 even before we have got going! Alas it is not possible to hold the RBYC (the Belgique Plate) supper on Saturday1 May. Unless things might change or we can find responsibly inventive ways around it will be the same fate for the Norman Moore Dinner on Saturday 29 May – but watch this space.

Enough of the negatives though – we can look forward to some ad hoc gatherings – not least to welcome the SW.ITCH teams to the Club, and to the social aspects of Swallow sailing, and Malcolm Green has very kindly offered to act as host for a drinks reception at Coast Cottage on 31 July (the first day of the Championships).

Itchenor Keelboat Week (Points Week to thee and me!)
IKW is from Monday 14 June to Friday 18th. Afternoon HW and long light days – which will come in handy as racing progresses during the week.

It was a difficult decision which week to opt for when we looked at it a year ago. With the final Covid regulations now due to be lifted on Monday 21st June we have had an 11th hour review to see whether a date change was feasible. It isn’t! We are currently working on what it might be possible to retrieve from the normal social programme (and what we can substitute to take the place of that which looks doubtful).

SW.ITCH 
… what we did, the results to date, the programme, and what you can do to help.
Your National Swallow Class team have been busy over the autumn and winter. We felt that it was time to up-our-game in the promotion of the class and to create imaginative ways for newcomers to come and join us.

A new development group was formed, and we firstly created a completely new 30 page website which we hope you agree gives the class some previously missing presence. See us at www.swallowclass.org and let us know what you think. We then, alongside promoting crewing and syndicate opportunities, created SW.ITCH where we will lend Swallows to suitably experienced newcomers to take part in our race programme from early June to the Championships at the beginning of August.

We have promoted all these plans in the sailing web-news outlets, in the local printed press, in all the local area news sheets and in feature articles soon to appear in Harbour Life and other publications. So far we have two groups of sailors expressing interest in the package but we have space for more.

This is where you come in. We would like you to introduce this package to someone you know might like racing a Swallow. All the details are at www.swallowclass.org/promotion/ Participants don’t have to be members of ISC, but we hope they will enjoy it so much they will want to join in the future to do more. Please let our class sec carolynbrigg@btinternet.com know who you have in mind to bring on board.

Crewsearch
Our grateful and collective thanks to Mike W for re-configuring himself as our new website designer and creator. A work in progress of course and it will continue to benefit from your input and feedback too as we get towards and into the season.

One feature that is likely to appeal is the crewsearch facility https://swallowclass.org/crew-available/ The password is swallow (no caps) -but don’t tell everybody!  We need a page controlled by a password otherwise anybody has access to post anything on our website. We can tell everybody we know what it is ….swallow … in case you had forgotten already!
Cowes Classics Week 2021
Swallow Moorings for Classic Cowes Week 4th-9th July 2021

All Swallows entering Classic Cowes Week will need to complete the Day Class Application Form (below) to enable us to know the number of moorings we as a class will require.

https://mcusercontent.com/5ccc535e6f338d9ccbf3e3c8c/files/bf3a8dde-a902-4145-a917-a0ea9d14e957/Day_Class_Swinging_Mooring_Application_Form_2021.pdf

This form needs to be returned by email to carolynbrigg@btinternet.com by April 28th. When you have returned the form with your event mooring intentions I can update the “Day Class Calculator”, so that I can confirm the amount you will need to pay.

CCW Courses and Socials
The last one (it does seem a long while ago now) was both enjoyable but also not entirely to our liking on the race course. At a recent meeting the Royal London YC has kindly undertaken to make it more user-friendly by:-

  • Having two races per day from Mon-Thurs and one on Friday, making 9 in all
  • Having a daily mixture of W/L and RTC races
  • Some first races of the day may start from the RLYC line at Cowes
  • A finish mark off Cowes is planned for the final race of the day
  • Having a ‘full-fat’ social programme, but with a reserve plan B.

Notes

  • Team Racing: since the Handbook went to press we have had to change the date of the ISC vs O & C SS TR – to Sunday 18 July. We will consult with owners whether they would be content to pass on the b2b races previously programmed and to facilitate the loan of boats to the teams.
  • National Championships: we are delighted to welcome Iain Macdonald-Smith (FD Olympic gold medallist in 1968 with Rodney Pattison)  as our PRO for this event (and Carol Thompson as ARO too!).
  • East Head: A note to all those who might want to use East Head at any time for BBQ’s and the like – it is now verboten
  • Restart of Sailing: from Monday 29th March, unfortunately meaning the first scheduled race, despite being featured below, is cancelled