Iniscealtra Sailing Club Newsletter
May 2000

The sailing year has got off to a flying start. We have had 7 races in the Spring Series so far and the turn-out has been exceptionally good with an average of 8 boats per race. The Club harbour is looking well and already has a buzz at weekends. The ISC Web-site is firmly established and will continue to develop. The club moorings have been checked and the majority are now ready for use. (Tip: start using them – we have an in-tolerant harbour master!).As most of you are aware, the committee is working on the development of a Service Block for the site. An update is included below. So the committee have been busy and we hope you will continue to support the club activities.

Racing has proved to be popular this year among our members. We have nine yachts signed up for the complete annual series. This has guaranteed us fleet sizes of between 7 and 9 boats per race for the Spring and provides great competition for the generous prizes put forward by Derg Marine. The consistent fleet also gives us a good opportunity to apply the Echo handicap system in its proper format. Of course, you only benefit from this if you race regularly!

The hot shots of the Derg Marine Spring Series so far have been Moonbeam and Hydromania who took 1^st and 2^nd in the April Series respectively. However, the May series is wide open at the halfway stage, thanks to the ECHO adjustment at end of April. The two most coveted races in the Spring are yet to come.

When Event Briefing Time

Get a crew together and join in these two major events and enjoy the day and a social drink in Keane's later.

You will have noticed that we have dropped two buoys in Mountshannon bay – this is to give us a safer starting line given the increased number of participating boats.

Alas, we have many fees that have gone overdue. While we sent out invoices with the last newsletter, many appear to have been ignored or forgotten about even though we are approaching the high season.

So please get the chequebook out and spare some grey hairs for our Treasurer and esteemed Vice Commodore, Brian.

Also, note that we are required to pay £10 affiliation to the ISA for each full member and this must be included in the fee.

For those members that have paid their dues for year 2000, we say thank you.

Pat Keville has kindly written an article (included), which explains the history of the Club mooring scheme and its importance to the club. The moorings take a lot of servicing and administration work and I would like to thank Paudie and Pat for their work this year so far.

If you have paid your annual club fee mooring and you want to check that it has been serviced, please contact Paudie Humphries at 061 378088.

We think that a limited number of moorings may become available, as some previous members are no longer in the mooring scheme. For any member who has paid to go on the mooring queue, please make contact with Paudie to confirm that you still need the mooring and if you do, we will try to make a mooring available at the earliest opportunity. Paudie will need to know details of boat draft, weight and length.

As mentioned, the club harbour is looking good since early April mainly through the work of the two Hugh’s who have been busy varnishing, repairing, lawn cutting etc..Some work is still to be done and Hugh McGrath is hoping to get a work party together some Saturday soon to do some clean-up of old reeds and weeds. Hugh has also started posting notices to unoccupied boats that are berthed in the harbour. He is planning some devious methods of getting boats to move out to moorings so be warned!

We would be interested to hear your views on the ISC Website. The site has a lot of information about the Club and the Iniscealtra locality but we feel we could add more if people could supply articles on the history of the club or on members past or present.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~icsc/

To date, Fran McCarthy has been posting our race results to allow you to track results. We hope that you will be able to keep in touch with us whether it be from the home or the office.

We are currently planning to proceed with the first stage of the long-awaited Service Block. The block will consist of a 6m x 10m area and will include Ladies & Gents toilet and showers as well as a meeting area. The planning permission that we have had for the service block will expire in 12 months after February next, hence we are anxious to make a start. So far, we have sent out drawings to three contractors for quotation and the best quotation so far is in the region of £25,000. The committee has decided not to go into dept with the building until we have firmly established where the funds will come from. We may however proceed with a foundation and sub-floor over the next number of weeks which is probably as much as we can afford for this year. The next target will be to raise funds which will finance the remaining construction by February 2002. Obviously, we will need a huge fundraising effort that will net us something like £15,000 over the next 18 months in order to complete the job. If you have any suggestions that you are prepared to work on, we will be glad to hear from you. Whatever the idea, the committee are adamant that any cost burden to the members will will be shared equally. We will keep you posted on developments.

Please note that my work number has changed from 061-486432 to 061-223611

As always, wishing you safe and enjoyable sailing.