News Update
This page provides general news and current information not covered by the other pages.

2008

July 2008: Northants Police v. Northants Fire Brigade Regatta

May, 2008: 'A trip round the Solent'

The Northants Police Sailing Section AGM was held in 'The Doghouse, C/Sq on Tuesday, 15th January, 2008.

Local Regatta dates confirmed as follows:

17th April, 15th May, 5th June, 26th June,
10th July, 7th August, 4th September, 18th September.
 

All dinghy regattas are Thursday afternoons, starting at 2pm.

Minutes from Section Secretary await

2007

The Northants Police Sailing Section AGM was held in 'The Doghouse, C/Sq on 10th January. A number of items were discussed including the following:

Local Regatta dates for 2006 :

April 26th, May 10th,  June 7th,  June 28th,
July 12th, August 2nd, September 6th, September 20th

All dinghy regattas are Thursday afternoons, starting at 2pm.

This will now make eight local regattas - plus the Northants Open

Steve Middleditch became Secretary of the Section on the anticipated retirement of Pete Mankiewicz this coming year..

The Rose Bowl trophy for the winner of the 2006 local regatta series was presented to Phil Osborne.

It was decided to hold the Northants Open Regatta again this year and the provisional date is Wednesday, 17th October, 2007.

There was an increased interest in taking part in other Force Open regattas and it is hoped to send 4 boats to this year's Dinghy Nationals at Poole Y.C. in June.

It is also hoped to raise a team for this year's Met Yachting Champs in October. Phil Osborne seeks a second helm.

With retirements from the Force, recently or forthcoming, there was some concern  regarding the number of active members of the Section and plans are afoot to attract interest by combining efforts at the Northampton Sailing Club 'Open Day' in early May. Likely interested visitors from the Force whether serving, support staff or retired can be advised and assisted directly by Section members who will be present at Pitsford Reservoir, including the opportunity to get afloat. Posters advertising the opportunity will be circulated to Stations also on the Force Intranet in due course. Further enquiries and arrangements to be met at the Open Day should be addressed to Steve Middleditch.

2006

Local Regatta dates for 2006 :

April 27th, May 11th,  June 8th,  June 29th,  July 13th, 
August 3rd,  August 17th, September 7th, September 21st.

All dinghy regattas are Thursday afternoons, now starting at 2.30pm.

This will now make nine local regattas

At the AGM held in January, Phil Osborne became the Chairman of the Section on the forthcoming retirement of Chris Hume.

The new trophy for the winner of the 2005 local regatta series was presented to Steve Middleditch and his crew, Bev Horner.

The new Chairman Phil Osborne presents the 'Rose Bowl' trophy to Steve & Bev.

This year it is hoped to send two boats to the Met Offshore Championships in October. The Reliance Trophy to be presented to the more successful team.

It is still hoped to pursue the possibility of holding an inter-force regatta with Leicestershire Police held in Hunter 707's at Rutland Water.

Also planned for this coming year - Cruising the two Bavaria 36 yachts in the Solent. An excellent introduction to offshore sailing. Contact Chris Hume or Phil Osborne to book your berth.

2005

Confirmed Local Regatta dates for 2005:

May 12th,  June 9th,  June 23rd,  July 7th, 
August 7th,  August 18th, September 1st, September 15th.

This will make eight regattas.

At the AGM in January the possibility was discussed of challenging Leicestershire Police to a match at Pitsford in August.

Plans are also afoot to raise two teams to compete in this year's Metropolitan Police Offshore Championships in October.

Also planned: May 16th -20th 2005 - Cruising on two Bavaria 36 yachts in the Solent. An excellent introduction to offshore sailing. Contact Chris Hume to book your berth.

Also at the AGM, prizes were presented to the top three helms in last year's regattas.

Pete Mankiewicz receives the winning helm  plaque from Chris Hume.

2004

All Thursday afternoons, starting at 2pm.

It was proposed that a couple of offshore cruising weekends would be booked for anyone interested in trying a bit of yachting. There should be a total of 12 places available to Northants personnel, further details will be posted here in due course or by contacting Phil Osborne and Chris Hume.

Northants hope to be invited once more to compete in the Met Offshore Championships in October. The are crew vacancies at present - contact Phil.

The Section plan to invite members of other Northants sports sections to a 'game swap', so there could be a bit of invitation golfing and fishing going on this year.

It is planned to hold a BBQ after sailing, on one of our local regatta afternoons in August. Families invited. Further details from Martyn Dearsley.

We are currently looking at the possibility of competing against the local Fire Brigade on Pitsford Reservoir.

Sailboards are like asymmetrics - they have something to do with wind and water but perform differently to dinghies. Nevertheless, should there be enough interest, the Section is prepared to run a regatta for sailboards at Pitsford on the same day as the local dates mentioned above.

2004 Reports - Results - pictures will appear in the 'Sailing/Regattas & Results' Section as the local regattas take place.

In view of the curtailment of space on the Force Intranet, Roger Badcock 's report on "Team Northants" in the Met Offshore Regatta is published and can be viewed here.

Sailing Courses at Pitsford Reservoir

Northampton Watersports Centre is based at Pitsford Reservoir. It used to be the Northampton Sailing School but is now run on more professional lines. The Centre's first year (2003) proved exceptionally successful and a large number of people both young and older attended the courses which were held throughout the sailing season.

For 2004, the range of courses has increased and whether you are a beginner just wanting to find out if you fancy sailing or looking to gain RYA sailing qualifications there are a number of courses suitable for Police personnel, their families including children.

Besides Sailing and Windsurfing there are also courses on Canoeing, Kayaking and Powerboating.

Click here to go to a separate window outlining their courses - which you could print out, take home and think about.

The Library

If you haven't visited our Internet website for a while you may not have noticed that the "Library" section (only ever relevant to Northants members) has now been replaced by the "Stats" button. Therein you will find an extremely large amount of statistics and records regarding other force regattas which have been collected since 1973 by Len Gooch (Met).

So now we also have "Roots". The Stats Section creates a permanent and accessible record of our police sailing past.

Be that as it may, evidently some people can still manage to locate our website's Library of sailing books via the Internet. During last summer I was surprised to receive an email from someone in the USA asking to borrow one of our books. It turned out the sender had once owned the yacht ADC Accutrac which was sailed round the world by the famous yachtswoman Claire Francis. The story of her voyage is contained in our book "Come Wind or Weather". He had not realised the book existed and was quite excited to have found the title. Having explained the situation he went off  to locate a copy at the well known Internet bookseller..

So, searching via the Internet can be useful... Typing in 'Police Sailing' on the Google search engine, I was amazed to find our own website on the very first page of over 100,000 records.

As regards the 'Library', the number of books available to Northants personnel is now increased. Whether you are wondering if sailing might be for you, or having got wet once or twice, wish to increase your knowledge, there just might be something there to interest you over the winter months.

Congratulations to Roger Badcock who, with the primary support of Colin Brown as crew, won the Reliance Trophy for the second year. The trophy is competed for each year based on the results from the series of seven regattas held at Pitsford. This year's competitors has varied between four and six for each regatta. All 21 planned races took place. Once again the result was in doubt until the last regatta held in late September. Pete Mankiewicz was a close second overall and Martyn Dearsley a creditable third; this after his first full year of sailing. Early in the year Martyn purchased his own Laser dinghy and joined Northampton Sailing Club. Evidently practice pays off....

Reports of the local regattas can be found via the "Regattas & Results" section.

The AGM took place in 'the Dog-house' at Campbell Square on 16th January, 2003.

Trophies were awarded to the top three helms in the local regattas held in 2002. Roger Badcock was presented with the Reliance Cup as overall winner of the series.

Dick Sivers received the trophy awarded for the Best Performance in other-Force regattas.

Trophy winners at the AGM
(L-R): Pete Mankiewicz, Roger Badcock, Dick Sivers, Phil Osborne

The Section is looking at the possibilities regarding the acquisition of a different Force Dinghy. Currently we have the Mirror Dinghy which, although available, is becoming less & less used. It has done sterling service for a decade and it was decided to keep the Mirror for another year.

Local Regattas at Pitford . . .

Dates for seven regattas in 2003 were set as follows:

15th May;  12th June;  10th July;  7th August;   21st August;  4th September;  25th September.

The Section plan to take part once again in the Offshore Regatta organised by the Metropolitan Police in October.