Dear Redwingers,

These are strange times! While our sailing has been thwarted for a few months we are now starting to head back to the water even though racing is yet to commence. Several people, me included, have used this time to do a bit of boat fettling from a small re-varnish to giving a boat her first planks in the case of Ben and Toby on St Agnes.

Sadly because we are very limited within the COVID 19 restrictions, your committee have taken the decision to cancel the 2020 National Championship. It is unclear whether racing will be permitted at IOS by then but either way, the social aspect of the week would almost certainly not be what we had hoped.

While the events may be slim on the ground this year, your class still needs you. We are working hard on several issues behind the scenes. Yes we are talking about the effect of COVID on our events but also the future events we will plan to have, where our sail cloth will be coming from and how this will be organised with our sail makers, who is going to be measuring our boats and the types of measurements we take, how our information is organised and shared with you, how you can contribute to discussions, what information about us is held on record for the history books and how we can be represented to boost our numbers and interest in our class along with other issues. 

To help us negotiate the above issues, we need your membership. Yes we do work on a thrifty basis but still need your help (financial and expertise) to keep going.

Subscriptions are due on August 1st for the 2020 year. While some of you would usually pay in cash at the nationals or just before the AGM – remember, it is only paid up members that may attend the AGM. We would like to move away from asking Helen to trudge around reminding you to renew and move towards a simple system of bank transfers or preferably annual standing orders.

To join: please pop over to our website and send a completed membership form to Helen out Treasurer either by email or using the contact link on the website. Please then also make payment.

To renew: please contact Helen our Treasurer (by email or using the contact link on the website) informing her that you are making payment and who you are paying for along with any changes to your contact details or boats. Please then also make payment.

To make payment:

Each membership costs £15. Please make a bank transfer with your name and boat number as a reference e.g. EricEvans249. 

Thank you very much in advance for your continued support of the National Redwing Dinghy Association. As always, we are keen to help our members in their Redwing endeavours, please get in touch if you have questions or if we can help.

Best wishes,

Eric Evans on behalf of the NRDA committee.