It has been a great season with much going on and some fantastic achievements. We had record numbers with over 100 Cadet members regularly coming down on Fridays. It might not have been the best weather for the Summer but the sun seemed to shine every Friday and apart from one rainy week the weather was very good all year for us. In fact it was the first year ever that we did not have one single session cancelled.
The race group and the training group made excellent progress with many of the sailors moving from training to racing over the season with many weeks having 25 boats in the racing fleet. It has been great to see a large number of our older cadets purchasing their own boats freeing up the club ones for the younger members.
Our performance squad had 3 excellent training days with Andy Kerr and have gone on to race with both the adults on Sundays and further afield in some of the local and National events.
We hosted a RS Feva event in June which was a great success with around 15 boats taking part in the race and train weekend, many of these from our own club.
The Youth Regatta week in August was superb as usual and although we had some difficult weather to deal with on some days, all the cadets coped really well making excellent progress.
At the end of August we travelled to Cowes for our residential with Dingy Sailing, Yachting, Cat Sailing, Windsurfing and Paddle- boarding being on offer. All the cadets and Adults had a great time in Cowes. Although we could have done with a tad more wind.
West Sussex Schools came to the club in September and we hosted over 100 boats for this prestigious event. Yet again Felpham were victorious and we are looking forward to defending the trophy again next season at Chichester.
We were unbelievably busy behind the bar and in the kitchen every week with parents enjoying a bit of well-deserved free time to enjoy a little drink in the sun watching their youngsters on the water. The parent helpers in the kitchen cooked up great meals to finish off the evenings.
We also had some amazing news for the club recently in terms of squad selection where a number of our Sailors have been selected to take their sailing to the next level.
Alfie and Sam have been selected for the train alongside the Topper Regional zone Squad.
Fin has been selected for the South Topper Zone Squad and Topper 4.2 National Squad.
Jack and Lauren have been selected for the RS Feva Class National Squad.
Good Luck to all 5 of them as they continue to train at various places across the country all through the winter.
Overall a great year and a big well done to all our cadets and a big thank you to all the parents and helpers who give up their time each week to volunteer their help in any way they can.
Looking forward to seeing you all next season, but in the meantime don’t forget the Halloween Party on the 30th October and Presentation evening on the 13th November.