UK Dinghy Racing
Newsletter No 12
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Please note new URL www.ukdinghyracing.com

If you are still using the old URL, or viewing any pages with dingyrac.force9.co.uk in the title bar then you should now be directed to the new site.

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This is the twelth issue of the Newsletter and I hope to produce one a month, with possible extra issuse during the summer when there is more sailing activity.

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Both the Newsletter and the site are a hobby, I do this in the evenings and weekends, and try to keep an open and neutral perspective on issues.

The aim of the site is to entertain like minded people who have a passion for dinghy racing or sailing. I have tried to keep the site as specific as possible, ie UK not worldwide although the info and chat may be of interest to many. The listings of Sailing Clubs and Class Associations are purely British so there are no hugh lists of useless links to try and find one useful one.

On the question of links I have spent many hours searching for the UK sites but am sure I have missed some, so if you find any relevant ones please send them to me.

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If you know somebody that would like this newsletter why not forward a copy onto them with a brief message, and they can then visit www.ukdinghyracing.com to subscribe.

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In this Issue

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1.Americas Cup
2.Winter Bargains
3.Future Bargains
4.Youth sailing
5.Sailing Forums

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1.Americas Cup
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In the last issue of this newsletter I wrote how unimpressed and uninterested I was with this event so far, and how a couple of sinkings may have raised the interest level, well I almost got what I asked for as "Young America" folded in two and almost sank.

This was followed by a spate of mast failures, and it appears that these boats are so close to the edge that the slightest error can cause a major failure, at least I am grateful that the builders of all the dinghies I have sailed built in an idiot factor and assumed I was going to make mistakes.
All the latest news can be found at www.americascup.org

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2.Winter Bargains

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With no affiliation to these sites at all I give you the latest "bargains" I have seen advertised.
From Laser http://www.lasersailing.com Many reductions on both boats and gear, of note a new Laser sail is currently £355 a saving of £60, you may kick yourself if you don't buy one now and end up paying nore next spring.

RS Racing http://www.ldcsail.com - Again many reductions with major savings on new boats this weekend only 11/12 December. Also 10% of chandlery and special prices on wetsuits from £25, drysuits from £100 etc.....

Speed Sails http://www.speedsails.co.uk - Currently offering 15% off covers, 20% off sails and between 10 and 15% reductions on many clothing and chandlery products.

Note. Not all these offers are available on the web pages, so give them a ring for full details. All offers however have been featured in the press over the past 10 days.

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Laser sailors

Don't forget that as Christmas approaches you can still get a copy of Laser Coach 2000

www.sailcoach.com

This superb CD Rom is endorsed by Robert Scheidt " ... perhaps the greatest single development in training for singlehanded sailors" Act quick and see the Christmas offer open to the first 80 customers.

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3.Future Bargains

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Talking of bargains I am currently in the process of agreeing some "exclusive to UK Dinghy Racing" deals with a clothing manufacturer. These will start to be available early next year, and if successful will bring you a range of specials over the coming months, probably featuring a different product each month.
Watch the site carefully, offers will be featured on the index page and in the store www.ukdinghyracing.com/store/store.htm

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4.Youth Sailing
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Several comments have been added to the discussion on youth sailing, and how to attract youngsters into dinghy racing, for a full update visit

www.ukdinghyracing.com/members.htm

This page is starting to get a bit big with comments, but does your club support youth sailing and have an active policy to encourage new, young sailors. I suspect that if not you will find falling membership and lower turnouts are just around the corner.

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5.Sailing Forums
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I have been playing around with a couple of CGI programmes and think I have now got one installed that runs a number of discussion forums.
I would be interested to hear if you think running them would be a good addition to the site. This would allow discussions on several sailing subjects to run concurrently and would require littly or no maintenance from me, something that is becoming very time consuming. I would propose to keep the discussion topics aimed solely at the dinghy world and although there are several discussion forums on the net, most are generally about sailing larger boats.
please let me know your feeling, should I launch them, and would you come back to view them and join in the discussions.
email to: [email protected]

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Thats all for now, a happy Christmas to all and a prosperous New Year, with lets hope for some sailing success at Sydney 2000.