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Happy New Year! Welcome to the new Laser 5000 Class Association website. An even newer, cleaner, brighter, more interactive website is on the way, too!

 

The Chairman's Letter:

 

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To All members of the Laser 5000 Association.

 

Happy New Year and I hope that you have all managed to have a good break and are now looking forward to the 2010 sailing season.

 

First of all, on behalf of all of the membership, I would like to say a huge thank you to Thomas Sauval as he stands down as the Chairman. During his tenure, Thomas has overseen the resurgence of the membership and his willingness to get stuck in, his wise ideas and tenacity has seen the Association going from strength to strength. I’m afraid that my size 7 sailing shoes will find it very difficult to fill his sailing boots! You will be glad to hear that Thomas intends to continue his work with the 2 nd market and he will be busy keeping the list of boats that are up for sale current and he’ll be working hard to promote the class to new members.

 

The committee now has a completely new (and dare I say, mostly younger) look. Tom Hill has agreed to become the Secretary, Neil Luckett is now the Treasurer, Josh Smith is the web master with Niall Ferguson continuing in his role as the man responsible for entertainment. Alister Kinsman represents the 5000 fleet north of the border and Fin MacDonald rounds it all off representing the gang in Ireland.

 

Talking of the web site, Josh has been putting in a lot of time and effort into creating the new look Laser 5000 Site, it looks great. It now has thumbnails with links to reports and articles, links to other useful sites such as weather and Northampton Sailboats. Have a look and let us know now what you think about it on the Forum.

 

There has been a lot of activity in the last couple of months to try to consolidate the events for 2010 and with your help and commitment they are hopefully going to be great meetings. There are a number of class sponsored events, starting with the training weekend at Thorney Island, near Emsworth in May. This will follow much the same programme as last year and will allow many of the new comers to the association to mix with the ‘old hands’ and discover some of the techniques for rigging and handling the boat as well as some on the water coaching.

 

We will be joining the Laser 4000 fleet at Lymington in July for our National Championships and will be part of the Lymington Town Regatta, hopefully with your support we will be able to get a minimum of 15 boats on the water there.

 

This year, for the first time in several years we are going to hold a European Championships. The British Mohnesee Sailing Club in north west Germany (near the town of Soest) have very kindly agreed to host us at some very reasonable prices. The event will allow our European friends to join in the fun and who knows, we may be able to get in the region of 20 boats there which would be fantastic. More information will be published on the website as the dates get closer.

 

 

The final class sponsored event will be the Inland Championships in October, which once again will be at Rutland water along with the 2000’s, 4000’s and Vago’s. Make sure you come along to this great pond for a great event.

 

Just to add a little extra ‘fun’ and incentive to participate in the events, I will keep tally and count up the scores at the end of the season for a little ‘best of series’ prize (not much – we’re not rich!). Hopefully this will be presented at the AGM which will more than likely be held at Rutland at the Inland Championships – watch the Website for more information.

 

There are potentially two other events that we could arrange in June and September as Open events, but before we try to arrange anything we need some positive feedback that any such events will be supported by the membership. So, once again, please get on the website, or drop me an e-mail and we’ll try and put something together if there is enough interest.

 

If you attend any of the other myriad of events that happen throughout the country, try to get some pictures taken and perhaps a small write up that we can put onto the website and we may even be able to get some space in Yachts and Yachting or Dinghy Magazine.

 

In order to provide decent prizes at the Class Sponsored event and in an effort to subsidise the training weekend and other events, we have resurrected class membership subscriptions, which will be set at £20. In order to enter events, the helm must be a member of the Association. Neil has put together a membership form which can be accessed via the website and a direct debit mandate is also there. We have thought about this for some time and feel that £20 is a small price to pay to help the association grow.

 

You may have noticed the Noble Marine Logo at the bottom of this letter. They have agreed to sponsor the Association to the tune of £175 and will also provide a discount for all new insurance taken out through them for your boats. While it may be slightly more expensive than your normal insurer, they provide an excellent service and from all accounts they will see any damage made good with very little hastle (including I believe sails). If you are interested and once you have your Membership number from Neil, just go to their site via http://www.noblemarine.co.uk/laser5000

 

Finally, the Class Association is your association. The committee do not have a monopoly on ideas that will take the association forward and upwards. If you have any bright ideas then please let us know, either by e-mail or by visiting the website and getting onto the forum. Please, help the association by getting your boats to events and joining in the good fun and friendly racing.

 

I wish you and your families’ good luck for 2010 and I hope to see you at the class events.

 

Regards

 

Taff Owens

 

Chairman

Laser 5000 Association