The annual HBSC dinner and dance at the Walpole Hotel saw the presentation of the club Championship trophies, the series trophies, the disaster trophy and the Orb followed by several hours of enthusiastic dancing, singing and tambourine playing to The Moments. A great time was had by members, family and friends in celebration of a fabulous year at Herne Bay Sailing Club. 

Club Championship:
1st Colin Smith
2nd Maria and Brian Golton
3rd Allan McNeil

Spring series: Olaf Throndsen
Summer series: Allan McNeil
Late Summer series: Steve Owen
Ladies Race:  Magdalena Gawecka
Disaster trophy: Sally Pratley-Woodward
Orb: Clare Dunning

The northeasterly were back for the last races in the freezer series with a good force 4 and moderate sea state. Steve Lee set a trapezoidal course with as beat out towards the Dolphin against wind and tide. The starts got away cleanly in both races with Brian and Maria (2000) showing their usual flair at the start line and proving uncatchable in both races.
There were 8 Lasers, of which 5 were Radials, 2 Standards and the 4.7 of Matt Bradfield who has become a force to be reckoned with picking a 3rd and 2nd this time out.
Laurie Dengate and Magda in the other 2000 were again very consistent gaining a 2nd and 3rd and ensuring them the Freezer series trophy.
The third leg was a glorious broad reach where we could plane all the way to the leeward mark by riding the waves often catching up with the wave ahead!.
There was a fair amount of places changing as boats would get up planing quicker than others or as some of us tried to beat the tide by going inshore on the beats instead of ploughing up the middle and meeting the tide sooner as it strengthened in the deeper water. Generally, playing the windshifts up the middle proved to be the better option.
We were pleased to see the Aero of Phil Rees out and John Sinclair in the Comet Zero. Also Luke and Doug in the RS 200 making good progress and finishing well up the order in the series results.
Karl gained his best ever finish in a Laser in the final race (5th) less than 30 seconds behind James and leading a tight group of Radials (Gary, me and Sally) with only 44 seconds between the four boats.
Olaf bagged a great 4th in the first race but a broken boom put paid to his chances in the second . Call Doctor McNeil!
The provisional results posted on the noticeboard on Sunday were corrected for the second race.
The provisional series results show Laurie, then Gary and 3rd James. Well done guys.The full results are on the website, but remember we have to tinker with the series data because of the alternate rigs rule that HAL can't cope with, that said it will not affect the top few places.


Apologies for the late posting - Ben

The officers, committee members and role holders for 2016/17 are as follows:

Commodore                     Alistair Russell                       
Vice Commodore            David Hogben                          
Rear Commodore            Vacant                         
Rear Comm. House         Vacant
Hon. Sailing Sec.              Shared between Sailing Committee members                                          
Hon. Treasurer                 Mark Brown                
Hon. Membership Sec.    Antony Smith             
Hon. Secretary                 Clare Dunning                   
Cadet Co-ordinators       Andy Ekins and  Ben Gardener                                   
Principal Training Officer Commodore       
Galley co-ordinators        Vacant                                       
Cadet Representative       To be decided at first cadet session in 2017
Health and Safety             Martin Hill
Book keeper                      Philip Rees
Health and Safety             Martin Hill
Bosun                                 Karl Royer
Child Protection officer   Alison Ekins
Boat hire                            Alison and Andy Ekins
Safety boats                      Allan McNeil, David Hogben and Doug Whiteoak
First aid kits                       Juliette Beaumont
100 club                             Jane and Steve Lee

General Committee members:
Mark Brown, Clare Dunning, Laurie Dengate, Ben Gardener, Peter Gibson, Martin Hill, David Hogben, Matt Hogben, Alistair Russell (chair), Antony Smith and Doug Whiteoak.
 
Sailing Committee members:
Magdalena Gawecka, Claire Gibson, Richard de Lisle (coordinator), Steve Owen, Phillip Rees, Ben Skull, Clive Woodward and James Woodward.

Development Committee members:
Mark Brown, Clare Dunning, Peter Gibson (chair), David Hogben, Steve Lee and Alistair Russell.  

Training team:
Laurie Dengate (Improvers and RYA training), David Hogben (RYA powerboat training), Richard de Lisle (RYA dinghy training), Nathan Hudson (cadet RYA training), Allan McNeil (RYA powerboat training), Doug Whiteoak (RYA powerboat training). 

A huge thank you to previous role holders Tom Aldwinkle, Bridget Bree, Steve Greenhall, Toby Grundon, Louisa Lomas, Heather Mcphee, Georgina Paxton and Christine Weal for all of their hard work over the past few years.