In this issue

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 Coming soon: Christmas party for children

Yes, Santa is coming to Lancing again this year and he's bringing all sorts of presents for Lancing SC children. And that's not all! There will be music and games, party food and lots of fun!
The party starts at 3.30pm on Sunday 11th December at the sailing club and finishes at 5pm. Please let us know that you're coming as soon as possible because there's shopping involved! Call Isabelle on 01273 703512 or email info@lancingsc.org.uk. £4 per child.

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 Big waves for the Winter series so far

Last year, the Winter series gave us a collection of northerly and easterly winds, with their common lot of flat water, sneaky gusts and freezing temperatures. This year, it's been mild and wavey! Strong winds and a powerful tidal flow helped the racing buoys drift to some exotic location on 13th November while the huge swell on 27th November put a forbidding barrier between the sailors and the water.
However, nothing is lost as the series runs until 27th December. Early results show that the usual suspects are leading for the moment, but they always welcome competition.

Here's a reminder of the format:

Sunday 06 November to Tuesday 27 December 2011

• 2 races B2B AM start
• 1 fleet using LCF adjusted handicaps
• Offset trapezoid
• Average laps

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 Lancing SC on photovoltaic power

Over the last few months, the club has presented a project of solar panels for the main clubhouse roof. A sudden change in the governemental deadline meant that decisions had to be taken quick. The main committee gave their wholehearted support to Mike and Di Croker, who brought the project together and saw it through. Mike organised the planning permission, the suppliers, the scaffolding, the fitting, etc. He's the source of all knowledge when it comes to that big box in the changing room or the digital number display in the clubhouse.

Explaning all the process here would repeat the excellent thread you can read on the forum: Solar Panels at the club.
The best place to see the panels is from the sea. Hop in your boat and admire the results of Mike's hard work while sailing the winter series. Alternatively, you can click on the photo... Mike took it when the scaffolding was in place!

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 Healthy discussions at the AGM

Together with the newsletter Anchorline, all Lancing SC members have received a copy of the AGM agenda. Most items were quite innocuous but a couple of points started a healthy debate on the forum. Nick and others asked pertinent questions in What does AGM agenda item 14 mean? and debate followed on the afternoon of 27th November, during the AGM. Decision (not unanimous) was to approve item 14. All the other proposals have also been accepted, some without any problems, other with clarifications.

Truthfully, an AGM can be boring but it's the main channel to get your voice heard, ask questions and take part in the life of your club. Lancing SC belongs to all its members and becomes what they decide. The main committee is doing its job but would never say no to a bit of help!

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 Lovely evening for Bonfire Night

Light northerly wind driving the smoke offshore, impressive sunset colours and resonably mild. Once again, the weather was kind on our annual Bonfire Night. Team Carter made two great guys and the Waters family brought the third stuffed person to the fire.
Lots of hungry members kept Niki and Gary busy in the kitchen, cooking burgers and sausages, while in the bar, Don and his team were pouring a perfect pint.

After a few fireworks, lots of sparklers and masses of heat from the huge bonfire (many thanks to David Carter who transported the bulk of the wood), the tide started to come in and the last of the bonfire watchers were rewarded with fierce hissing and bubbling when the waves lapped the embers. Definitely a great night.

A photo-gallery of the bonfire night 2011 is in our Galleries page. See the page Bonfire night - 6th November 2011 for a reminder of the event.

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 Dancing until midnight at the prizegiving party

During the summer, Karen McGrath canvassed members' opinions on the traditional Dinner & Dance. Seen as too formal by many, she took on the big job of revising the format, finding a new venue, caterers, music, coordinating ticket sales, chasing forgetful payers, putting together a seating plan, getting the flowers, etc. The list is endless but her efforts paid off because it was a great party!

Located in the beautiful clubhouse of Sussex Yacht Club, the party began at 7pm with drinks and nibbles. In his role as Commodore, John Taylor welcomed us all and we all settled down to a delicious menu prepared by Simon Haffenden, the new chef of SYC. Highly recommend, the food was lovely.

After the yummy desserts, Sailing Secretary Gary Austin presented the trophies to all series winners, with the help of Sue Taylor. To view an extensive list of our 2011 winners, see the linked .pdf: 2011 prize winners. This list was completed by several other trophies: Andrew Trevis's hard work on his Topper was rewarded by the Topper Novice Trophy while the Keith Mynard trophy (most improved adult sailor) went to Matt Carter as a thank you for beating Gary on a regular basis.
"The Percy Clements Cup, chosen by the Commodore, is awarded to any non-committee member who has made a significant contribution during the year" said the programme. John chose to recognise the kind, helpful and altogether lovely Anne Trout, who has been serving behind the bar regularly through the season.

After the prizegiving, Jim Powell enrolled very pretty young ladies to sell tickets. As you can see in the photo-gallery, Dave P. fell for the winning smiles. Sailing accessories, vouchers, bottles of wine, chocolate and biscuits were all for grabs.

Big Chris Disco Man (yep, that's his name!) turned on the lights, upped the volume and dancing started until midnight. With a mix of eighties songs and more recent hits, everyone was happy. Midnight came quickly, time to say goodnight and promise we'll do it again. Tell everybody for next year: it was a fab night!

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 Current 2011 Topper league results

The Topper league is regularly updated in the Results page, with a breakdown of points for each helm. Click on the graph to view the details. In the Topper league, helms in blue are competing for the Topper Novice Trophy.

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 New Lancing SC page on Facebook

A long time ago, I created a Facebook group open to everyone, to broaden communication between club members. Recently, Facebook has revamped the functionalities for the new groups, without updating the old-style groups. In short, it means that the news for LSC don't show in people's newsfeed any longer. To remedy this, I have put together a page for Lancing Sailing Club. Click on the Like and the latest news will appear in your newsfeed. As before, you can write on the wall, share photos and befriend other people who like the page. Come along and have a look!

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