News

Peter Crebbin

Just over two years ago, Peter became fired up to join our charity after listening to an inspiring talk by Ian McCauley  at the Blind Welfare Association. Since then Peter has sailed with us on day sails whenever his duties at the Co-op in Port Erin allow, and is looking forward to his first cruise, where he will be staying  aboard as crew for several days.

An avid “Parish Walker”, for the past seven years, Peter has raised many thousands of pounds for local charities. The picture shows Peter aboard our boat with Ian McCauley, holding a cheque for £2,170.00 (the result of his efforts in the Walk of  2015). Peter went on to raise another large sum for our charity in 2016. He is again participating in the Walk this year and the Co-op is generously supporting his fund-raising by allowing two of our charity boxes to sit  on the counter for the four weeks preceding the Walk.

Peter is the life and soul of the Co-op in Port Erin, well- known to all and was last year Runner-up  for the  Island-wide “Service with a Smile”  award. It’s a real pleasure to have his friendly presence aboard and he is proving himself to be a very capable Helmsman as well as brewing a lovely “cuppa”. 

Membership fee for 2017

It’s that time of the year again when your membership fee was due on the 1^st April.  Each year our hardworking volunteer Membership Secretary  spends a considerable amount of time and effort chasing members to pay their subscription.   

This is not fair; so please help her you non-standing order payers and send her your membership fee now rather than her having to spend her time chasing you for payment.

The membership fee is still set at a minimum of £10 but you can make any payment above this figure. Its remarkably good value and not only does this cover your sailing but also your teas and coffees whilst you on out sailing. How many Costas or Starbucks would you get for £10, maybe three?  

 If you pay by cash it would be even more helpful if you were to start paying by standing order, this saves you the effort paying each year and also helps the Membership Secretary.    That must be a win- win. The SO form is available here.

The address to send your money and completed SO form to is: Monica Clark, 42 Wybourn Drive, Onchan,IM3 4AN

Please, please, please help us by paying now.

Spring clean !

Spring has arrived and we are looking forward to a season of fair weather sailing. 

To get the boat in Tip-Top shape we organised a Cleaning & Service Week, running from Saturday 1 April till Thursday 6 April. Being fortunate to having such a grand boat also means a lot of cleaning but with enough volunteers it will be a quick and easy job. Please get in touch with the Crewmaster or any of the other committee members and let them know when you are able to come and help any of those days between 10am and 4pm. As always tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.

Training bulletin

We've been working on preparing a training schedule to ensure we have the 'team' to deliver a comprehensive schedule of sails this Spring and onwards.

Firstly, we'll be putting dates on the schedule for those members who've been undertaking training during the winter but may have missed important modules

This group are encouraged to book onto sails to reinforce what you've learned during these sessions.

Next, we'll be launching the next series of modules for new members and those existing members who wish to brush up their familiarity with how we do things.

These are intended from April- June, subject to the availability of the boat, the trainers, and ,of course; enough of you!

Then, in May we've secured the services of a yachtmaster Instructor to enable us to demonstrate all aspects of the International Certificate of Competence.

Whether or not you already have one, you may wish to take advantage of these coaching sessions and assesments where applicable.

Look out for the practice sessions we aim to run with Bobby Moore during April for existing skippers and mates so we're familiar with the ICC content

In Early June, we hope to be in a position to recommend to SFTD Committee, those members of the sailing team who may be placed in charge of POMIII, as Skipper, and Mate

Supported by a confident and competent crew, to ensure our members enjoy their sailing experiences with us

Collection boxes

When you are out and about in the shops, cafes,pubs,  petrol stations etc please keep  an eye out to see if they have a SFTD charity box on the counter. If they don't you could ask them if they would be willing to have one. Please let Stuart know by calling him on 832212 if you find a new site or if the box is full and needs changing.

Every box out there raises the profile of the charity and brings in extra cash to help run the charity, its pennies  from heaven which make pounds for the charity.

If you are able to helpout by looking after some of our existing sites -please contact Stuart.