Hello all,

This Weekend Redhouse travels down the Garden route to participate in the GLYC Inter Club Regatta at Island Lake, Wilderness (Sedgefield).

The annual GLYC inter club is the first of the season, one of best supported and is not to be missed by anyone able to get away for the weekend.

With the first race scheduled to start at 2.00pm on Saturday those RYC sailors unable to travel down on Friday have plenty of time to drive down early Saturday morning and arrive in time for the first race so please make a concerted effort to sail this regatta and fly our Club colours.

Entry is a nominal R70 per senior / R30 per junior and includes complimentary cocktails, wine and beer after the racing on Saturday evening.

The long term weather forecast for the weekend is favourable for all sailors with light winds at the start increasing to a nice 13knots late in the afternoon as is the sunshine and warm weather great for those taking advantage of the free secure camping facilities at their club.

I am aware that several of our sailors do not have road trailers and ask that anyone needing to borrow a trailer as well as anyone who may be able to tow down an extra boat for another member to please telephone me a.s.a.p.

All Redhouse sailors are asked to please support this inter club especially as the level of our support counts a lot to determining how much the Garden Route clubs support our own inter club in January.

The RYC 105th Birthday Bash the weekend before last was a huge success and raised just over R5,000 toward the cost of renovating the ladies ablutions.

A big thank you to everyone who supported it and an even bigger thank you to all the ladies who mustered to the call of our Mrs Commodore for doing such a sterling job of organising the evening, decorating the venue and catering for this sold-out event.

The Next Social at Redhouse is on Saturday 14 November at the Clubhouse after the first days racing of the annual RYC River Championship regatta.

Tickets to the River Championships social cost R25 per person (R15 per child under 12 years) including supper and great company. For more info and advance booking please email Rhona (yes - despite hell not having frozen over Rhona has eventually got email) at rhonaclark@ryc.co.za

The Big Raffle Draw will also take place at the social on 14 November.

In addition to several consolation prizes up for grabs is a long weekend for four at the 5 star Lake Pleasant Living (worth R6,000) , a two hour whale / game watching flight in a private plane (worth R3,500) for a lucky couple and a R500 voucher for dinner at the luxurious Shamwari Townhouse in Summerstrand.

Raffle tickets cost just R10 each making it worthwhile to skip your weekly Lotto ticket and instead support a better cause with a much better chance of winning!

If you have not yet bought your tickets (or collected a book or two to sell to friends) please telephone Juannette on 073 445 9099.

The Big Gale last week Monday that sadly destroyed the most of the marina at ABYC fortunately spared our Club too much damage.

I was in the UK enjoying the last of the autumn sunshine and supervising the loading of the next container full of RS Sailboats destined for South Africa when I heard about the damage at the ABYC. Expecting to be told that our club roof had blown across the river to Motherwell I was truly thankful to learn that other than a broken window on the upper deck and a couple of roof sheets on the boat sheds blowing loose that the RYC property stood its ground and survived pretty much intact.

A sincere thank you to Peter Senn, who once again quickly stepped in without being asked, for repairing the damage that was caused.

Sailing School this Sunday is replaced by the GLYC inter club regatta. The next session of sailing school will be before races 3 & 4 of the River Championships on Sunday 15 November.

The Annual Inter-School Regatta program booklet is being compiled and advertisers are being sought. To advertise in the regatta program which costs very little and includes an advert on the RYC web site please contact Di Robertson, Rhona Clark or myself.

I look forward to all Redhouse Yacht Club members joining me and their fellow sailors at the GLYC inter club this weekend and wish you all a safe journey to and from Wilderness.

Yours in sailing

PAUL PETTITT
Commodore
041 581-5394