Yachting Club
Sailing course lottery
Potential learners still have a couple of days to sign up to the Lottery for places in this season’s sailing courses. Yes, it is already quite heavily oversubscribed - as every year: we must run good courses! - but the draw is completely fair so you stand as good a chance as anyone else. Among questions we have been asked is which course is least oversubscribed - and might therefore offer a better chance of a place? Probably Surprise, since you ask, but then that is also one of the most demanding, both in terms of requisite keys you already need even to sign up in the Lottery and also likelihood of passing the test. Well, one was our most expensive boat purchase ever, and she is a boat that revels in being sailed well (even while being forgiving of the rest of us).
The picture alongside is a loosely connected explanation to another question we get: how did catamaran Meerkat get named? We convinced ourselves that Meerkats are friendly, sociable, fast, intelligent, likeable, so the Cat named herself. Stretching back into the early days of Club sailing, when we had our first catamarans, the names have always been chosen related to the “cat”, from the very well chosen Catastrophe and Cataclysme, and we still have Catapult alongside Meerkat.
It is enough to make us want to go sailing again already. Beyond the Lottery, draw on 22 March, don’t forget the launch of the fleet on Saturday 14 April. Your Club needs you, and you will learn a lot about rigging, where the fleet lives, and plans - we count on your willing help please!
