Royal Southern Yacht Club unveils new Champion of Champions Trophy sponsored by Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.

Launched in 2012 as part of the Royal Southern Yacht Club’s 175th Anniversary celebrations, this year marks the 5th year in which the Hamble-based Yacht Club and Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. have united to recognise the prestigious annual Champion of Champions award.  To mark this, Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. has kindly provided a Champion of Champions Trophy to be presented annually.

This prestigious title together with its generous prize of a return trip for two to Barbados, including superior hotel accommodation at the Island Inn Hotel from 16th Jan-23rd January, also allows the winners to take part in the Barbados Week sailing events.  The highlight is the 60nm Mount Gay Round Barbados Race and all this courtesy of Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. and the Barbados Cruising Club, and bestowed upon the owner of the most consistent and successful yacht in the Club’s four Summer Series Regattas held in May, June, July & September.

Images: Mike Blair’s King 40 Cobra (Paul Wyeth) and the new Champion of Champions Trophy, just awaiting the inscriptions.

Marc McCollin, Senior Business Development Officer, Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. is delighted to be adding such a beautiful Trophy into the prize mix, commenting: “It is a privilege to associate Barbados with the Royal Southern Yacht Club. Barbados provides its visitors with excellent water sports and world class hospitality ashore; those are values that the Royal Southern Yacht Club shares with us.”

This year’s winners, previously announced after the Barbados September Regatta as Mike & Seb Blair (King 40 Cobra, competing in IRC 1), will be presented with the 2016 Champion of Champions Trophy at the Royal Southern Yacht Club’s annual Prizegiving, a formal dinner and glittering celebration held at their riverside Club House in Hamble on Saturday November 12th. The Trophy is currently being engraved with the previous winners’ names as well as the names of this year’s winners, and will be presented on the night by Marc McCollin on behalf of Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.

Previous Champion of Champions:

2015 – Annie Kelly & Andy Howe – Blackjack II

2014 – Iain MacKinnon – Tigh Soluis II

2013 – Nick & Adam Munday – IndulJence

2012 – Mike & Jamie Holmes – Jika-Jika

www.royal-southern.co.uk 

www.visitbarbados.org

ENDS

Bart’s Bash put the FUN into fundraising as organisers hail this year’s event a resounding hit

Report: Peta Stuart-Hunt

Images: Sportography

Bart’s Bash 2016, the mass participation and fundraising sailing event held earlier this month (17-18 September) in aid of the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation (ASSF), has been voted a resounding success by organisers and participants alike, especially in terms of expanding the interest in disabled sailing and extending this unique event’s reach around the world.

In relation to the fundraising, many of the 362 clubs and sailing venues in 58 countries hosting Bart’s Bash events are still collecting money and some participants are still receiving donations through their Justgiving pages so the final fundraising amount will still take a few days to compute! The charitable donation element is a crucial part of the equation as the Foundation’s main objective from this third year of Bart’s Bash is about raising awareness and funds to support disabled sailing around the world.

Richard Percy, CEO of the ASSF is also quick to point out that the emphasis during the weekend’s Bash is on fun, engagement and encouraging more people, especially youngsters, to take to the water in memory of Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson, wherever they happen to be in the world.

“In the space of two days, we have witnessed international support from thousands of people in 362 venues across 58 countries. We have had Olympic sailors and America’s Cup sailors competing against youngsters who have just learnt to sail and those who race on a regular basis at club level. This event captures the imagination of people from inside and outside of the sailing world. 

“At the same time as getting thousands of people sailing, Bart’s Bash raises awareness of, and funds for, disabled sailing which, during the past week we have seen being displayed at the highest levels at the Paralympics and it’s just a shame that it is being dropped. Hopefully this can be reconsidered for the next cycle and in the meantime, we can continue to keep opportunities for those with disabilities available.”

Race results are loading at a good pace by Event Makers around the world with participant numbers now over the 7000 mark, 22 of the 58 countries have results represented at this early stage. Overall results are significantly ahead than in previous years and it is hoped that provisional results will be announced soon. Early signs show the youth classes are dominating the ‘Top Classes’ league table, ticking all the right boxes for the Foundation.

Bart’s Bash was given an enormous boost with ‘show your support’ messages from some very high profile sailing supporters who took to the water and to the social media channels in support of their friend Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson. ASSF founding trustees include the America’s Cup sailors Sir Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy OBE who in turn brought on board AC teams in Bermuda, Artemis Racing, Oracle Team USA and SoftBank Team Japan to join in the fun and the fundraising, uploading beautifully crafted and emotive videos and images, and all of this further endorses the important underlying messages that are building on Andrew’s legacy.

The weekend’s event was also generously supported by members of the British Sailing Team, some just back from Rio and sporting Olympic medals! Giles Scott, Saskia Clark & Hannah Mills and Nick Dempsey were joined by Luke Patience and Dylan Fletcher, amongst others who were racing at the HQ at the Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy (WPNSA), UK, where the Andrew Simpson Sailing Centre (ASSC) is based, sailing in an assortment of boats!

Disabled sailing is a key focus

The decision to focus Bart’s Bash 2016 on raising awareness of and funds for disabled sailing was taken following the removal of sailing from the Paralympics. Sailing is one of the few sports where those with disabilities can and do compete equally with their able-bodied peers.

Funding and Development Manager for the ASSF and Bart’s Bash Event Organiser Tim Anderton said:

“It has been great to see disabled sailors competing on the same courses as able-bodied sailors at venues across the world over the past weekend in Bart’s Bash. We have Sailability clubs registered in a number of countries, including the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Sweden and South Africa with many more results still to come in. 

“We want to support these clubs by providing training and equipment, and by subsidising the costs of coaching for schools who attend ongoing and sustainable sailing sessions at venues who have the right kit and volunteers. We want to work with sailing providers to start to overcome some of the barriers that exist and to increase the availability of sailing for those with disabilities. We also want to work with national organisations to ensure there is a good training programme in place to allow people to progress into racing and hopefully into future Paralympic Games when sailing is reintroduced.”  

This quote from a volunteer Tim Trent, at Dart Sailability in Dartmouth, Devon, hits the spot commenting on his Justgiving page: “We KNOW the power of ‘Yes I Can’ and what sailing does to create freedom.”

So, make sure you put next year’s Bart’s Bash weekend dates in your diaries now! September 16^th -17^th 2017.

If you are interested in applying for an ASSF grant for your local sailing club or sailing centre, please contact the Foundation as soon as possible for more details. http://andrewsimpsonfoundation.org/

You can also keep up and join in with Bart’s Bash news, stats and fundraising information via:

Bart’s Bash: http://www.bartsbash.com

Facebook:     www.facebook.com/bartsbash 

Twitter:         www.twitter.com/bartsbash

 

First 2K Team Racing event is a success

Issued: Sunday April 3rd 2016 | Peta Stuart-Hunt

Question: How do you cram all the different racing scenarios that you might encounter over a season into one day on the water?
Answer: Go 2K Team Racing at the Royal Southern…and they did!

‘2K’ is defined as two boat team racing in keel boats, with mixed gender crews and no spinnakers. Team racing provides short, high intensity races with lots of close quarter encounters between boats.

The RSrnYC held this new training event, organised by Dr Stephanie Merry, during this weekend, sailing in the Club’s Academy fleet of J/80s. Members were invited to form mixed gender crews of four people to take part. Each crew of four were paired at random with another crew of four, to form a two-boat team for the first round of racing. This was to ensure that the teams are well matched. Each two-boat team raced against the other teams in the first round and in the second round, there was a new set of random pairs.

Bruce Hebbert, who created 2K Team Racing and its new European circuit, started off the event with a talk about 2K tactics on the evening of Friday 1st April in the Club house. Boats then left the dock at 09.00 on Saturday 2nd April to participate in short, sharp races of around 15 minutes each, with regular changes of crew on the boats between races. Bruce and Nick Rusbridge were the on-water umpires and also provided lots of feedback between races.

Bruce later commented, “There was great race management with Simon and Georgie Hand, the mark layers Rosie and Cat were perfect, and the boat changing went like a dream.”

Steph Merry passed on her thanks to the Commodore Chris Mansfield for ferrying members between the J/80s and Barry and Ann Peddley for providing the Committee Boat. She also said that Henry Rochford, the new assistant to Tim Thubron in the Sailing Office, deserved a special mention for doing an excellent job of organising the boats, equipment and paperwork. Not bad for his first event!

Colin Hall who was running the luxurious hospitality boat for the teams commented:
“Young and old, experienced or not, the feedback I got was all very positive.”

The winning team, announced during post-race drinks at the bar, was captained by Phil Meakins with Ann Wilkinson, Richard Patrick and John Kickham (a newcomer to team racing) in his crew. In 2nd was Ian Armstrong, with a crew of novice team racers, Kate Sawbridge, Fiona Cotterill and Richard White. The “Commodore’s Cadets”, skippered by the Commodore’s son Ben Mansfield, came 3rd.

The ultimate aim of this training event is for a team or teams from the RSrnYC to participate in the 2K European Tour, which takes place in 11 different countries during 2016.

The 3rd placed Commodore’s Cadets head for the Club after racing.

K2 Team Racing in Athens last month.

CHAMPIONING YOUR CLUB

Sailing Club Manager provides multi-faceted solutions

Sailing Club Manager (SCM) is a user-friendly online club and membership management tool for UK sailing clubs, yacht clubs and class associations of any size. This includes all clubs ranging from small volunteer-run clubs on inland lakes and waterways to larger clubs with full time managers, permanent and seasonal staff.

Being in the business of helping Clubs communicate with existing members and with potential members it is great to see SCM now starting to be adopted by clubs around the world.

Closer to home, Banbury Sailing Club is located at Boddington Reservoir, near Byfield, Northamptonshire but which also draws sailors from Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.

Banbury SC website: a clean, modern interface for the Club and its members.

Banbury Sailing Club was managing the running of the club using a combination of software products including spreadsheets, personal e-mail accounts, a WordPress website and the specialist software “Dutyman”. This Club, as with so many sailing clubs, is run by volunteers and the workload to tie everything up between these systems was increasing – as were the expectations of the members.

Reasons for the move to SCM:

According to Duncan Syme, responsible for Club Marketing, a key reason for bringing SCM on board was that:

“We were looking for a product that could reduce the time our officers of the club were spending on administering the club, to allow them to focus more time on the activities of the club. After a search of the marketplace it was clear that Sailing Club Manager could achieve this for us and no other system was a ‘one stop shop’.”

Racing on Boddington Reservoir.

Benefits:

Sailing Club Manager has not only fulfilled the Club’s needs to reduce overall administration time, but it has exceeded expectations in ways they had not considered.

Having records of both current and past members in the system, has enabled the Club to have accurate and up to the minute reports on its membership and means thery can still keep in touch with those members who (for whatever reason) haven’t renewed their membership, should they still wish.

SCM is helping the Club communicate more efficiently & effectively with its wide-ranging membership about all its activities both on & off the water.

The mailings to members has ‘professionalised’ the Club’s communication to its membership and they can quickly view how many people have seen the important communications they have sent out.

The Club’s website allows for all club activities to be seen and for people to book events direct – no more illegible names scribbled on a sheet at the sailing club! The duty system, linked to the membership database, means they can swiftly and easily loop new members into the duty rota.

Banbury SC’s Youth section is using the event management processes to understand expected numbers to each session (through bookings) and to manage the attendance of the right number of instructors (through the duty rota). This allows the organisers to know how many boats to get ready and how many instructors are needed, i.e. not over (or under) staffing and they don’t need to send anyone away on the day – this is particularly important as they draw their membership (inc instructors) from a wide travel radius.

Boddington Reservoir.

Expanding usage:

The Sailing Club Manager system has additional functionality that wasn’t originally required, including boat park management, race / event administration, racing results and online payment of invoices.

“The more of these ‘out of the box’ functions we use, the more benefit we get out of the system and so Sailing Club Manager is becoming invaluable to the running of the Club,” comments Syme.

http://www.banburysailing.org.uk

http://www.sailingclubmanager.com

ENDS

 

Enquiries to:

Mr Jeremy Pocock

+44 (0) 7973 155121

+44 (0) 1983 241615

jeremy.pocock@sailingclubmanager.com

 

 

The Royal Southern Yacht Club celebrates an outstanding year

Report: Peta Stuart-Hunt All photos: Chris Gillingham Hamble, Hampshire, UK  Plaudits & a stunning array of trophies were awarded – including the ‘Champion of Champions’ prize – at the Royal Southern Yacht Club’s annual Prizegiving held on Saturday 14th November. The Royal Southern Yacht Club and its membership have enjoyed a truly outstanding year of success both in UK waters and on the world’s sailing stage. The Club’s packed on-water programme has combined top quality racing and superb cruising for sailing and motor boating members, with some terrific results being gained across the board. Added to this intoxicating mix was the commissioning of the Prince Philip Yacht Haven by its Patron, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in June, providing a first-class facility and lasting legacy for members, visiting yachtsmen and the Hamble community. Following a sumptuous three course dinner provided courtesy of the Club and enjoyed by 145 guests, the annual Prizegiving commenced under the stewardship of the Rear Commodore Sailing Graham Nixon, accompanied by the evening’s special guest, Libby Greenhalgh, the navigator on Team SCA in the Volvo Ocean Race, handing out the prizes. There are over 100 trophies and awards and in a fitting opener to the presentations, it was Cadet, Youth and Academy members being recognised first. Trophies went to Ben Childerley, Charles Handley, Finlay Craigen and Chris James. Finlay Craigen with Libby Greenhalgh. The Junior Cadet and Optimist sailor Isabelle Waha was the recipient of the inaugural Richard Cann Trophy, presented by Richard’s parents in his memory. Richard was a member of the Club from the age of 12, but very sadly passed away last year. Kate & Chris Cann with Chris James collecting the Trophy on behalf of Isabelle Waha. British Sailing Team member Hannah Diamond was awarded the Morning Flight Trophy for an outstanding performance in double-handed racing in the Nacra 17. Hannah is currently in Rio preparing for December’s Copa do Brasil, the last regatta in the Olympic venue before the games next year. Special prizes also went to Annabel Vose and Nikki Curwen.  Annabel’s in recognition of her outstanding performance this year, winning the Women’s World Youth Match Racing championship, the Student Yachting Worlds; she was a semi-finalist at the Eurosaf & ISAF Youth Worlds, as well as being a member of the first all-female crew in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race, sailing Concise 2 in the Fast 40 class.  Nikki qualified for this year’s Mini Transat and is currently mid-Atlantic, en-route to Guadeloupe in her Classe Mini 6.5m. Both are products of the Royal Southern’s youth development and Academy programmes. Hotly contested ‘Champion of Champions’ The Royal Southern’s Summer Series Regattas are perhaps the most hotly contested of all the Club events and the prestigious ‘Champion of Champions’ title was once again up for grabs this year. The ‘Champion of Champions’ award honours performance and consistency across all the classes of yacht that compete in the Royal Southern Yacht Club Summer Series. The wonderful prize, donated by Barbados Tourism Marketing, comprises flights and hotel accommodation in Barbados for two people for one week in January giving them the opportunity to take part in Barbados Week, enjoy all the legendary Bajan hospitality that surrounds race week on the Island, including the Mount Gay Round Barbados Race. Annie Kelly & Andy Howe, with David Mead In presenting the Award to an ecstatic Annie Kelly and Andy Howe with Black Jack II, winner of the hotly contested IRC 3 fleet, former Past Commodore David Mead stood in for Cheryl Carter, the UK Director of Barbados Tourism Marketing, who was regrettably unable to attend owing to ill health. David Mead said: “A huge vote of thanks must go to Barbados Tourism Marketing for once again donating such a superb prize to the best performing sailors in our Summer Series regattas.” Annie and Andy’s win was greeted with cheers and applause as the couple were clearly completely taken by surprise as they became engaged only three weeks ago and are planning to get married next September. Annie said: “We have entered the Royal Southern Summer Series for ten years and had mixed results. This year we had a wonderful crew on board Black Jack II and it was truly a corinthian team.” Andy agreed, commenting: “Every year we’ve improved on the water but we didn’t compromise in the off-water activities either with an emphasis on mixing great fun with great competition. It’s all about creating and maintaining a strong team spirit.” A large team of volunteers and their boats help make these high profile events run smoothly and awards were presented in recognition of that commitment. As Graham Nixon pointed out: “Committee Boats and RIBs don’t grow on trees, but arrive in a timely manner at the appointed place and time in the Solent and elsewhere because their owners are prepared to help. This year we have recognised the contribution of individual members and their yachts and RIBs that have fulfilled these roles.” The full list of Awards and their highly deserving winners will be published alongside a gallery of images on the Royal Southern Yacht Club’s website: http://www.royal-southern.co.uk/ ENDS Notes to Editors: The Club celebrated its 175th Anniversary in 2012. The Royal Southern, whose Patron is HRH The Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh K.G. K.T., is one of Europe’s premier yacht racing organisers, excelling at all levels of competition and enjoying the practical experience of internationally qualified race officers amongst its members.  Many of the Club’s sailing members have achieved notable successes on the international stage, from world champions in dinghies and keelboats to the twice winner of the classic Rolex Fastnet Race. Quadruple Olympic Gold and Silver Medallist, & America’s Cup winning sailor Sir Ben Ainslie, and single-handed circumnavigators, Samantha Davies, Sir Chay Blyth and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston are all Honorary Members as is disabled yachtsman and disability sports ambassador Geoff Holt and Paralympic medallist Helena Lucas. The latest name to be added to this distinguished Honorary Membership list is that of Ian Williams, 5 x World Match Racing Champion. The Prince Philip Yacht Haven was commissioned by the Club’s Patron, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, on 4th June 2015.  This was the culmination of a project that started 14 years ago. The Club has a proud and illustrious history in the sport and an active membership in excess of 1700 adults and 140 Academy members. Club website: http://www.royal-southern.co.uk Twitter: @RSrnYC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoyalSouthernYC # # #

It was 22 years ago today…

Twenty-two years ago today I launched PR Works. I’m feeling very proud to still be in business having worked away, on my own, all these years happily achieving a very eventful but pretty good work/life balance!

Thank you to all the lovely people, friends, industry colleagues, media and clients who have supported me along the way.

I looked at my profile on Linkedin the other day and it really hit home that I have been extremely fortunate to work with some of the best names in the business and count many of them amongst my friends.

Onwards & upwards.

Love Peta x

Right: A page from my original website!

A CATCH UP WITH LIZZY FOREMAN BEFORE THE START OF LEG 2 LANZAROTE TO GUADELOUPE 2,770 nm Starts Saturday 31st October

Peta Stuart-Hunt chats with the 25 year-old British solo sailor Lizzy Foreman before she sets sail on the final 2,770nm leg of the Mini Transat Iles de Guadeloupe to Guadeloupe on 31st October in ‘Hudson Wight’, Hull 633, a 10-year old Series Mini 6.50m. 

 

Lizzy is expecting to take around 20 days to reach Guadeloupe. The date by which all the competitors need to finish, in order to qualify for a place, is November 28th.

Her flight to Paris is booked for 29th November, so she’s feeling reasonably confident!

 

Her beaming smile lit up the darkness as Lizzy completed Leg 1 into Lanzarote.

PSH: Lizzy, you have already endured some very long days alone at sea during your first leg experience and now you will have been in Lanzarote for a month before setting of again on Saturday on Leg 2, a 20-day voyage of 2,770nm. How are you feeling?

LF: The stopover has been long for sure and when I leave Lanzarote my priority is to crack the hardest tactical point of the race, getting into the trade winds – much of the overall result of this race is going to be about getting in to these winds ASAP.  The fleet will have to decide the best route to take leaving the Canary Islands (considering wind acceleration affects and the position of any low pressures), and then pick the best route around any low pressures we experience along the way.

PSH: Did you learn anything especially useful about your boat and/or yourself during Leg 1?

LF:  I learned a lot. I could definitely have pushed the boat harder through better sleep and nutrition management, and I need to helm more, which can a bit boring sometimes when there is nothing on the horizon!  I have learned to judge the limit of the boat better; it gets very reactive and it is knowing you have the confidence and ability to cope which allows you to hold a bigger sail for longer!

 

The good bits were really great. Although the boat isn’t comfortable the addition of a padded seat on the rail made a huge difference and prevented any backaches. I love small, cosy places. There isn’t much space to sleep and I was often wedged in with my bags of food. My MP3 player broke and so did the boat’s speaker, so luckily Mum has bought me a new player and I’ll just listen to music on my headphones. This time I’m taking a book too.

The boat & the skipper. They are as one. Photo: LPB Aerial Imagery

PSH:  What’s your biggest worry setting off on Saturday?

LF:  To be honest my worst nightmare is breaking something major like the mast or keel; but I’m most nervous about making a silly strategic error and finishing later than everybody else. The only upside being a good welcome on the pontoon!

I’m really looking forward to getting going again. We’ve been here for a month and eventually you start to feel nervous and stressed about what’s going to happen next. I need to get into those trade winds and let everything settle.

Follow Lizzy’s progress:
Via the tracker on www.minitransat-ilesdeguadeloupe.fr

Twitter: @lizzyracing

Facebook: Lizzy Offshore Racing

From Lanzarote the competitors will pick up the trade winds, with the opportunity for a high speed sleigh ride across the Atlantic to show off the exceptional planing qualities of their designs, before the fleet arrives, all colours blazing, at the finish line in Pointe à Pitre, the capital of Guadeloupe. The dates of the Mini Transat Îles de Guadeloupe 2015 1200 (BST) Saturday, October 31st, 2015: Start of the 2nd Leg from La Marina Lanzarote Saturday, November 14th, 2015: Expected arrival of the 1st Mini in Guadeloupe Thursday , November 26th,  2015: Prize giving of the second Leg Saturday, November 28th – the finish line closes. Saturday, December 5th, 2015: Prize giving of the MINI TRANSAT ÎLES GUADELOUPE 2015 at Nautic de Paris (16:00 CET) Media Enquiries/Interview requests: Peta Stuart-Hunt | Lizzy Racing Media peta@prworksuk.com| +44 (0) 7711 477707 | http://www.prworksuk.com

Coverage in the October 2015 issue of Boating Business

Arundells/Morning Cloud talks with Jamie Matheson, Chris Mansfield and Giles Chichester.

RSrnYC Academy talent gears up for 35th Student Yachting World Cup 2015

Hamble, Hampshire, UK  The 2015 Student Yachting World Cup (SYWoC), an ISAF-recognised event hosted and run by students for students, is being held in France between 13-20 October and this year will host around 150 competitors from 15 countries. Four UK University teams are entered and every one is either skippered or crewed by a Royal Southern Academy member. The Oxford University team is skippered by 19 year-old Lulu Wallis; Cambridge is sailed by Damien Arnol (25), and 21 year-old Annabel Vose is heading up the Southampton University team. Annabel is a 420 World and European Champion and successfully skippered a women’s match racing team to win the University World Championship last summer. She is joined by Academy members Jamie Diamond & Tom Harrison. The University of Strathclyde’s team captain is 22 year-old Peter Cameron. Lulu Wallis, photographed here by Warwick Bookman, during the Royal Southern YC Ladies Race. Competitors will race a minimum two races per day in J/80s, enabling each team to showcase their talents with the aim of being crowned University World Cup Champion. Royal Southern Yacht Club AVEVA September Regatta Sunday 20 September 2015 J80 fleet All teams have been training hard at the Hamble-based Club using their fleet of J/80s. Photo shows some mark action during the J/80 National Championships/AVEVA September Regatta.  Credit: Rick Tomlinson The Royal Southern Yacht Club’s Sailing Manager, Tim Thubron, says that everyone at the Club is extremely proud to see a world-class turnout emanating from the Academy and taking to the on-water stage for the 35th Student Yachting World Cup. “We’re hopeful that we’ll see some Academy members on the prizegiving podium at the end of this major event,” commented Thubron. Didn’t they do well! Over the course of the Summer there have been some newsworthy results posted by current and former Royal Southern Academy sailing talent, notably Will Goldsmith and Alan Roberts. Will, sailing with Anna Carpenter, were runners up in the J/70 National Championships (plus first Under 25 Team) and Will was also overall winner of the Melges 24 National Championships as well as the Melges 24 Dutch Open Championships. Back in June, Alan Roberts (24) became the top British Solitaire du Figaro sailor in 40 years, coming in 9th overall in this four stage solo! Alan had previously been awarded the Royal Southern’s 2014 Frank Heenan Award, presented annually to a Club member who has excelled at singlehanded sailing, be it racing or cruising. Alan said: “Having been a member of the Royal Southern for most my life, sailing Toppers and 29ers from the club and taking part in, and having a lot of fun in the Youth Splash weeks, it was great to receive this Award as my journey is just beginning into the vast world of offshore yacht racing. The Royal Southern has over the years supported me in various different ways and in a range of classes and types of sailing.“ Solo offshore sailor Nikki Curwen was the first British competitor to arrive in Lanzarote at the end of the first leg of the Mini Transat Iles de Guadeloupe and past Academy member Ben Saxton sailing with Nicola Groves, has just won the Nacra 17 Europeans in Barcelona. Following all these successes and with the new University term having now started, the Royal Southern is reporting lots of interest from new students wanting to join their Academy to sail the four J/80s and take part in the team and match racing programme. The Academy is for 18 – 25 year olds and enables them to be members of this prestigious Yacht Club for a very affordable subscription, a membership rate that remains the same up until the end of the member’s 25th birthday year. Further details about the Academy are available from the Royal Southern Yacht Club:  Sailing Office: Tel: 023 8045 0302 sailing@royal-southern.co.uk or on the Club’s website http://www.royal-southern.co.uk/Afloat/Academy ENDS