Last weekend our new rescue boat arrived. A 4.5m long RIB with a 30 horsepower engine capable of
rescuing anybody from anything (more or less). This is a major milestone for us and is a key step on our
way to becoming an RYA accredited Sailing Club.
We have three trained rescue boat pilots, Steve Bacica, John Kinsley and
Ian Coldwell + others who have already volunteered.We will continue to have the rescue boat out for
Sunday Sailing so remember: if you don’t have a boat and would like
someone to sail with please email sundaysailing@sailporty.org.uk
during the week before you want to go out then come along and have a go.

Club prepares to buy sailing dinghies

We can also announce that we will be buying our own sailing dinghies. We have
decided to go for Laser Picos and Toppers. These are great boats for children and adults
that are new to sailing. Members without boats will be able to use these for a modest
fixed cost. Most important, these will allow us to start a programme of kids and adult
racing and we’ll email people shortly with details. We are particularly keen to get junior
members who are interested in getting involved with racing. Please send their names
and age to jkinsley@sailporty.org.uk . We hope to introduce a series of events with
prizes!

Please open the following link for further information, costs and a boat storage/membership form.

pskc-boat-storage-costs-2010.pdf

new-booking-form-and-new-dates.pdf

new-booking-form-and-new-dates.pdf

new-booking-form-and-new-dates.pdf

The committee of the Portobello Sailing & Kayaking Club invites you to attend an Extraordinary General Meeting to hear about the club’s plans for 2010 and to vote on a special resolution to adopt our new articles of association. PORTOBELLO SAILING AND KAYAKING CLUB ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
Please come for a glass of wine, meet fellow members and find out more how you can get involved in our activities this year.

Other documents:
egm-notice-and-resolutions-1102101.doc
egm-proxy-form-1102101.doc
existing-memo-and-arts.doc
existing-memo-and-arts.doc
pskc-draft-amended-articles-v21.doc
pskc-draft-amended-memorandum-v31.doc

Please come to;
The Beach House
57 Bath Street
Portobello,
EH15 1HE
Thursday 11th February at 7.30pm
RSVP: jbendit@sailporty.org.uk or call 07932159983

As you know, the realisation of the club’s plans began with the clearance of the land which, though quick and effective thanks to the council was perhaps over zealous and resulted in more trees than necessary being removed – one of which was a Rowan – a great pity. We then cleared 100 black sacks of rubbish, roots, stones ect. It is our intention to landscape the area you can see images on our web-site www.sailporty.org.uk which show our plans for planting in the autumn when seasonal conditions are best. This may be extended to an area adjacent to the gable end of Beach View affording privacy to residents but maintaining access for window cleaning.

The installation of the fence seems also to have been mostly successful and we have received many compliments from people who seem pleased with its overall look, its relative modesty and its transparency. We managed to successfully resist the demands of the council who wanted it to be a traditional wrought iron construction which, in our opinion, being black and eight feet tall would have been a real eye-sore and inappropriate for the location.

It was as a consequence of having installed the fence that we were able to host the RYA’s Sailing in the City travelling sailing school for which we recruited nearly 150 children to participate during the past weekends. The consensus is that this was a great success and nearly all have put their names down for further courses later in the year.

However we have a way to go before we can run sailing courses ourselves. We need to finish the fencing and then start acquiring the necessary equipment that a sailing club needs.

We will, for example need a rescue boat in the shape of a ‘RIB’ with an outboard motor. Without this we cannot operate safely as a club and are hoping that grant funding will allow us to buy one before too long. We will also need to erect a shed to keep this secure and we shall shortly be applying for planning consent to build a green metal garage type/shed which we have carefully located in a position which should avoid restricting anybody’s views. The shed will also double up as a changing facility to allow sailors changing out of wet-suits some privacy. We may also install a shower and WC. We are obliged to achieve planning permission for this so you will receive the neighbourhood notifications before long. Please do not regard this as the ‘thin end of the wedge’. We have no intention of eventually building some grand edifice– we just need a secure place to keep a rescue boat and a place for people to change.

Click on images to enlarge.

Following that, not much more will happen apart from the gradual arrival of boats and kayaks as people who own boats bring them for storage and the club acquires its own (modest) fleet. In the summer we will run more of these events for children and when we can, we will run courses for adults as well.

It is our intention to be good neighbours. We will have a noise policy which will restrict access to the site between certain hours, and which will also warn against the frapping halyards which some people like but drives others to distraction. This is totally avoidable – it just requires good house-keeping on the part of boat owners.

If you wish to communicate with us about any of the above please email info@sailporty.org.uk.

Kind regards . The Committee

We are still offering membership at £25 pounds as we are still a way off achieving our goals so if you are thinking that it might be good to have boats for hire from the beach or that it would be nice to learn to sail then join up and help us to make it happen a bit quicker. As a founder member you can expect to be kept up to date with all the clubs news and events. For those of you that want to store your Boat or Kayak in our compound you will also recieve your membership at this discounted price.

Your memberships will also help us get even closer to our goals. We want to be able to buy our own equipment and get as many people on the water as we can, adults and kids alike. We also want to be able to provide tuition, we have Instructors on board who are raring to go.

Click here for your membership application and more details of what we are aiming to do.sitc-flyer2.pdf

All you need to do is stick the form in the post with cheques made payable to Portobello Sailing and Kayaking Club to:

Portobello Sailing and Kayaking Club, 55/2 Bath Street, Portobello, EH15 1HE

6th April 2009

For a couple of years now, a group of local Portobello residents has been formulating a plan to bring water sports back to Portobello by forming a new dinghy sailing and kayaking club just off Portobello beach.

The club has leased a 20 X 50 meter piece of land just off the Promenade and has planning consent to turn it into a compound for the storage and rental of sailing dinghies and kayaks.

Last week the land was cleared of most of its vegetation in preparation for the club taking over the space.

The first stage is to secure the land with an 8 ft high fence. Currently this is under construction and should be completed w/b 20th April. Installation will start towards the end of April / Early May, marking the beginning of the return of water sports to Portobello after an absence of over 25 years.

From that point onwards, the club can begin to operate to a degree by providing storage for dinghies and kayaks. We will not yet be in a position to rent out boats or offer courses as we need to raise more money for a rescue boat, a shed, and of course for boats. We hope that will happen over the next 12 months.

Kids sailing taster session for £20

On the weekends of the 24th and 31st May we are offering half day sailing taster sessions for children from 8 – 14 for just £20 courtesy of the RYA’s Sailing in the City program. Places are limited so make sure you secure your child’s place soon. Please contact us for further details.

Developments

To keep abreast of the club and its developments, or to enquire about membership, email your details to sailporty@gmail.com

If you feel moved to help with our fund raising, (we need to raise loads of money) please send anything you can to:

Portobello Sailing & Kayaking Club
55/2 Bath Street
Edinburgh
EH15 1HE

Thanks for your support,

The Committee: Jonathan Bendit, Ian Coldwell, John Kinsley.