Firstly, you have become part of an expanding fleet that currently has over 50 members and there are approximately 80 boats in the dinghy park, including all the institutional ones. Because of the various fleet events we have had over the past few years, the majority of the fleet know each other and so your first task is to ring one of us and introduce yourself. We will make sure you get to know everyone much quicker and also put you in touch with other members of the committee.

 In addition to the general events organised by the club we try to arrange a Laser II specific event every couple of months. These range from training days, aimed at beginners, intermediate and advanced Laser 2 sailors, to fun events such as team racing. We also have a fleet championships in the early summer and one of the major, sponsored, Open meetings on the Laser 2 circuit (usually in April), not forgetting the Club's Winter Warm Up Series in February.

We encourage you to join the Laser II class association, especially if you are interested in attending some open meetings. The £15 membership fee gives you four copies of "TWOS NEWS" Magazine, a class handbook (including the class rules) and a "Tips on Twos" Booklet. "TWOS NEWS" lists all the open meetings for the season, but if you want more information on the busy open circuit, or encouragement to participate, I can point out the enthusiastic travelling members of the fleet.

Other fleet members for me to point out are the Fleet Training Co-ordinator, Andy Williams, and our Crew/Helm Co-ordinator, Simon Etter. Andy will help you understand the start procedures and get you racing. He also helps us identify what training is necessary, teaches beginners race training days and helps me organise all our training days. Please have a word with him if you have any suggestions as to what training you require.

Simon maintains a list of people interesting in crewing Laser 2's and boat owners who are short of crews. If you need fixing up with a crew please give him a call. You may also want to have a word with him if you are new to Laser 2's and want to crew for someone a few times before taking your own boat out. He also sometimes manages to get two people together so they can jointly purchase a Laser 2.

Finally I would like to state that our aim is to get you sailing your Laser 2 every weekend of the year, and also on Wednesday evenings during the summer. However, we do recognise that some of you are not able to make that level of commitment. Therefore, we have recently introduced a system of "Priority Sundays" so that our irregular sailors know that if they make an effort on these days they will be rewarded with a big fleet to sail against. These are usually the second Sunday of each month, but I will announce alterations to this in "Datchat" if there is a clash with another event.

Why not take a look at the new UK Class Association or the International Class Association web sites.

Do you want to crew? Then click here