Dear Member
On a day when the lifting of further Covid-19 restrictions have been announced starting from next week, it is great to be able to write to you with more good news. Your Committee have been hard at work on a no. of fronts.
Firstly, planning for members ‘return to sailing’ is well advanced with the first of what we hope will be 7 Supervised sailing dates in June kicking off this Sunday 7th June.
Secondly, some of our CE Project staff have been back working for the last 2 weeks. Some of those CE Project staff have been active getting the dinghy park arranged to best support social distancing during launch and retrieval procedures as well as readying RIBs and the Club Tractor to support our first supervised sailing session this weekend.
The third area we have been working on has been how we will launch our Club Sailing Course schedule. This has required a lot of discussion, planning and engagement with Irish Sailing and I am delighted to say we will be running both Open and Members Courses from July 6th all going well. Obviously there are still restrictions and some additional Booking Conditions .
Open course booking have been online since last week. However to ensure Current Members get an opportunity to book what will be a restricted no. of courses, we have emailed members with an Online link to book these courses. These will not be visible from the Website SHOP but can only be accessed via these links. Initially, bookings must be made ONLINE rather than through the Club Office which has as yet not been re-opened.
At Sutton Dinghy Club we are doing our best to provide safe, fun and friendly sailing and sailing courses despite the presence of Covid-19 in society. Due to Government and HSE Covid-19 guidelines the club has incurred additional costs in both preparing for the reopening of the Club and a schedule of Open and Members sailing courses as well as trying to ensure the safety of your families, our staff, our members and our trainees. We have also had to implement additional sailing course booking conditions. Please make sure you read these before booking, as by booking a course your children and you accept and agree with these conditions.
I am delighted to say that since the restrictions on access were introduced on March 29th, the Club and the Dinghy Park have been well watched over. Aside from having to restrict access to the Car Park on direction from an Garda, we have experienced no issues. Members of the Committee visited regularly, making sure that everything was safe and secure and that has enabled us to react quickly and decisively in activating our ‘Return to Sailing’ plan. I look forward to seeing the first of you on the water this coming Sunday.
NOTE – This Sunday is the 1st Supervised Sailing and it is vitally important that everybody follow instructions and guidance on the day. Everybody MUST make sure they log their names and contact details on the day with the nominated supervisor. It is also vital that everybody is off the water promptly when requested to by supervisor on duty.
I hope, like me, you are all looking forward to getting back on the water and going sailing.
Stay safe! And I look forward to when we can all Sail Safe!
Ian McCormack
Commodore