Over the last few weeks, our Sundays followed an unfortunate pattern: go the the club, meet everyone, take one look at the conditions and approve when the Race Officer declares the race cancelled, hang around for a bit and go home. Frustrating, wasn't it?
Well, on 13th December, we saw some boats on the water at long last and the chilly conditions didn't deter our most deprived sailors. With David and Stuart leading in their Lasers for the moment, the 3rd place is up for grabs as Mark is on duty for the last day of the season. All results in the Results page on this site.
Of course, ther bad weather didn't keep everyone away from the beach and wave-dodging became a favourite pastime, as you can see in the photo.
Halloween, bonfire and Christmas: it's been party time at LSC
On 31st October, Halloween transformed the clubhouse into a witches' den, with cobwebs and spiders, creeping hands and dark lights, screams and shivers... Lots of children made the most of the games that the creative team had prepared for them. Despite its dubious aspect, the food was delicious and nothing much was left at the end. many people turned up in costumes as you can see in the section of the photo gallery dedicated to recent social events.
We were lucky with the weather for Bonfire Night, with an light offshore wind blowing the smoke away from the beach and clear skies. A big thank you to David Moore who offered pallets to burn and a huge THANK YOU to Dave Carter who transported them to the beach in 5 loads of his trailer. Without his efforts, our bonfire would have been just a puff of smoke! Photos of the bonfire and fireworks in the same photo gallery on this site.
The last purely social event of the calendar 2009 was the children's Christmas party on 13th December. Wet gear was banned inside the clubhouse that day and guests started to arrive shortly before 3pm. The youngest was certainly Mollie Carter, Matt and Ali's lovely baby girl. The oldest and tallest was a strange kind of fairy. Ben was wearing a pink tutu, a pair of cycling tights and steel-toecaps boots... Certainly a novel approach to the old idea. More traditionally, while the children were enjoying their party food, they had the visit of a special person, dressed in red and bearing gifts. HO HO HO said Santa as he called names one by one. With party games and music, this Christmas party was great fun! The final part of the photo gallery covers this event.
Finally, it is a big THANK YOU to everyone who's helped organising and running these social events. There are too many people to name them all and I wouldn't want to miss anyone, but your work is vital and always appreciated by every member. Cheers.
The 2009 AGM took place on 29th November with about 50 members present. It went very smoothly and the meeting lasted 90 minutes. Consequently, some changes to the rules have been made and feature in the latest version of the document on this site.
Several weeks of gale force winds and high seas have taken their toll on the beach. Pounding waves have eroded the slope and left a plateau of shingle of about 30ft wide and a vast expanse of sand at low tide. In between the shingle and the sand, there's a remarkable drop that's quite daunting when pulling boats up the beach... The club has been in touch with the Environment Agency who has promised they would send in life-size Tonka Toys to bring back the slope. I hope they'll come, otherwise 2010 will be the season of extreme fitness!
'Blast from the past' were keywords on 27th November when a passer-by discovered an old WW2 bombshell sitting in the sand just outside the beach huts. The bomb squad came immediately and detonated it, so it must have been live. Gulp, when I think I was jumping off the cliff in that exact same spot a week before... The wrong move and I would have been history - or rather, geography!
Both leagues are 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.
Under Gavin's initial input, 2009 saw a group of youths get together to apply for a grant from the Youth Opportunity Fund. The group's bid was a great success and Lancing SC youngsters can learn to sail on 2 brand-new RS Fevas. They can also welcome other youths from the local community and introduce them to the joys of sailing.
In return to funding the boats, the Youth Opportunity Fund asked for a feedback and Georgi, who is the driving force behind the project, put together a video explaining the progress. She uploaded in on YouTube and it is now embedded in this page. Enjoy!
Next year, the youth group will make the most of these two brilliant boats and there's already a big project in development: the RS Fevas Nationals at Hayling Island at the end of May. Motivated by Steve McLean's contagious enthusiasm, Georgi, Katie, Elodie and Robin will be part of the "Lancing squad" together with Steve's sons Syd and Tom. The training officer is looking at dates in the early season to organise training and practice. Good luck to all of them and we'll keep you posted, of course!
Our weather page listing forecasts, real-time weather and tide charts websites has been improved recently. We've added a link to David Standing's own webpage from Worthing Watersports, a link to a stream weather cam from Worthing and link to a site with all the Shoreham tides, also displaying a month and year view in the future.
With the end of the season getting nearer and nearer, it's time to book your tickets for the Dinner and Dance.
This time, we're going to the Windsor Hotel in Worthing on 27th February 2010. For £30 per person, you get a great dinner, prize-giving, dance until 1am and loads of fun with good friends. Not bad, uh?
Make note of the date in your diary!
Here are the menu choices for the dinner and dance on 27th February 2010.
Menu choices
Starters
A – Freshly made soup, garnished with garlic croutons and parsley.
B – Lightly baked goats cheese and ciabatta crostini with a tomato and basil salsa
Main Course
A – Marinated lamb steak with a mint and rosemary sauce, served with fresh vegetables
B - Chargrilled chicken breast with white wine and asparagus sauce, served with fresh vegetables
V – (vegetarian option) Bean and chilli hotpot: mixed beans in a tomato and chilli sauce, served on potatoes brushed with butter and oven-roasted.
If you are a member of the social networking website Facebook, you can join the Lancing Sailing Club group. You don't need to be a LSC member to join the group, it's open to everyone. You get invites to parties and social events. You can also upload your sailing photos for everyone to see. Scroll the list of group members and add them as your friends!
Over the last few weeks, our Sundays followed an unfortunate pattern: go the the club, meet everyone, take one look at the conditions and approve when the Race Officer declares the race cancelled, hang around for a bit and go home. 
Several weeks of gale force winds and high seas have taken their toll on the beach. Pounding waves have eroded the slope and left a plateau of shingle of about 30ft wide and a vast expanse of sand at low tide. In between the shingle and the sand, there's a remarkable drop that's quite daunting when pulling boats up the beach... The club has been in touch with the Environment Agency who has promised they would send in life-size Tonka Toys to bring back the slope. I hope they'll come, otherwise 2010 will be the season of extreme fitness!
