End of Season Newsletter 2024
Hi
I can’t believe a year has passed since I took over as your Project Organiser! It’s been a steep learning curve, often challenging …yet highly rewarding. We’ve almost reached the end of the Season with just a couple more weekend trips left and a week-long Watch Leader course before we head into refit territory… speaking of which…
- Refit Programme 24/25 & Familiarisation Weekends
As part of your membership, we ask for you to attend at least 1 refit weekend and (if you plan to continue to sail with us) 1 familiarisation weekend. I’m sure most of you know that Thermopylae will be having a major refit this Winter which will be run alongside the usual Winter maintenance on our fleet… so we need all hands-on deck to ensure our boats will be ready for the 2025 Season. Please click here: REFIT & FAMILIARISATION WEEKENDS and join us for as many dates as you can. This link is also on our website.
- Sea Staff Bookings for 2025
It was a real struggle this year to fill all Sea Staff vacancies so, let’s try to get ahead of the game and get names down asap for next year! The Sea Staff bookings page can be viewed on our Website as well as here: SEA STAFF BOOKINGS – 2025.xlsx . Most dates are available… we need you… so please email office@dsp.uk.com with your dates, boat and position you wish to book and put ‘Sea staff 2025’ in the subject heading. The Sea Staff booking page is regularly updated.
2024 REVIEW
Weekend bookings
It’s been a highly successful year for us – weekend bookings for both Discovery and Thermopylae were almost fully booked.
Summer Series
The Summer Series was a huge success with several Scout Groups sailing to France, the Channel Islands and the West Country.
Guernsey – Poole race
We took part in the Guernsey – Poole race which was organised by Asto in August. It was a HUGE success … we were both first over the line AND first in our Class. We had a lot of media coverage including a visit from the Asto patron HRH Duchess of Edinburgh which the Scout’s on board invested into their Scout Group.
Small Ship’s Race
All 3 of our boats participated in the annual ‘round-the-cans’ Small Ship’s Race at the beginning of this month. This short event is always extremely popular in the Sail Training world, with 13 boats and 150+ people taking part. The weather was kind to us and, just like last year, we went away with trophies!
Promotions, Training & Qualifications
- Huge congratulations to:
Mike Spanner who’s now a YMI.
Marc Gadsby who passed his Offshore YM last week.
Hannah Potter, Adam Driver, Katie Pain, Dylan Osmond & Sam Brown who all passed their Day Skipper’s practical.
- Watch Leaders
In total we have 14 trainee Watch Leaders who will attend the Watch Leader Training next week and several others who are already lined up to join the next Watch Leader Training in Easter next year.
- Duke of Edinburgh’s
We introduced both residential and expedition courses for the first time this year to our sailing programme – which were successfully completed run on both Alexander Fairey and Discovery.
Bosun
After a long search we’ve now found our Bosun… so a huge welcome to Andrew Shrimpton who’s already proved to be a great asset to the Project and who’ll keep our fleet spic and span!
Finally, a heartfelt MASSIVE thank you to one and all who’ve helped to make this Season such a success. See you on the water soon!
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