CERN Yachting club
Surely among the most active sports clubs within CERN, the Yachting Club has had a steadily increasing membership over a decade; it is now around 350 but new members are always welcome, especially now at the beginning of a season. Indeed, with the Lottery for places in courses which are one of our highlights, membership has jumped since mid-March. The Lottery is always heavily oversubscribed, which we like to think represents its good reputation for quality of teaching and good fun at the same time. Now those lucky new students are in contact with their teachers, will be buying wetsuits in some cases (dinghy and catamaran courses), joining us for the launch of the fleet (see calendar on website at http://yachting.web.cern.ch/yachting/ycc_home.html ) and – in many cases – learning sailing as complete beginners. Those Lottery-unlucky can still plan a fun season, with our Thursday Practice evenings, where we can almost always place everyone on a boat for an outing.
The CERN Cup winning team
Another highlight of which we are proud was last season's inaugural CERN Cup, a new regatta going beyond the confines of our regular monthly internal events, open to all comers – and there were some, even for a then-unknown addition to the Lac Léman season. The Cup was created to mark the 60th anniversary of CERN and was honoured by the presence of Director for Research and Computing Sergio Bertolucci. Breaking with our usual triangular course, this course represented the CERN Accelerator pattern, with six marker-buoys. The CERN Cup, made from parts of the accelerator too, was presented to the winning team (see photo).
From our J/80, new last season
Last season also saw the purchase of our newest (and most expensive!) boat, a J/80. A great deal of thought and discussion went into the selection; it must have been worth it, for the boat has been an unqualified success, with many outings to her credit, in all conditions, and with diverse and numerous crews. A wise decision was to allow relatively easy access to skippering her: she is much like our two existing Surprises in layout and intention (some say simpler to sail, even), so volunteers took out many "familiarisation" outings and most SU key holders rose to claim J to their portfolio as well.
The coming season will build on past experience: a new dinghy is planned, following agreement at the November AGM, and the Club will continue to provide an absorbing and fulfilling hobby to many.
