Notice Board     A place for notifying members of important matters

VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE!
The Plank Race, scheduled for Sunday 23rd, has been postponed for a week due to inclement weather.  It will now be held on SUNDAY 30th SEPTEMBER.
Sunday 23rd September will be an 'ordinary' County Hall meeting.
For the Plank Race, you are invited to put together a simple, free running, mechanically powered plank and to enter it into an against-all-comers straight running contest.  It can be as elaborate or as simple as you like.  At its simplest, a plank, a battery, motor and propeller with a bit of bent tin to act as a rudder will do admirably. Click here to see the rules (which are few and simple!).  For photos of previous race entries, scroll down to the bottom of this page, click on the link to Tony Holt's model boating site and when it opens click on 'DSMBC Events'.  There are several pages of excellent photos of Plank races from previous years
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The very first Plank Race was held in 2007, and an article about it was printed in the November 2007 edition of Marine Modelling International.  The winner that first year was George Gregory.  Here's a photo of his plank, with the relevant words from the article:

"The first prize went to George Gregory, whose plank was a masterpiece of basic principles: long and narrow with a good keel and a centrally-mounted clockwork motor driving a large propeller slowly and steadily.  But look carefully at the photograph, which shows it to have a short mast from which are suspended a pair of spherical objects.  Rumour has it that these spheres are fabricated from polished zirconite and their precise spacing causes local tangential warping of the earth’s magnetic field.  The resulting flux disturbances interact with the plank’s ferromagnetic keel and keep it accurately aligned with the prescribed course.  Perhaps you don’t believe this, but certainly other planks which appeared to conform equally well to basic principles performed abysmally by comparison."

So come on, chaps; you've got just over a week to knock something up!  The more entries there are, the more fun the day will be!  Get down to your sheds and get stuck in!

A 90th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!

On Sunday 2nd September member Joy Pessall celebrated her 90th birthday; there were cakes with candles, balloons, brown paper packages tied up with string, and much cheering! Joy's husband, Bob, subsequently emailed to say: "Joy would like to thank all club members at County Hall who made her 90th birthday so happy and memorable.  She had a day of many surprises and was overcome with the friendship shown by all.  Again, many thanks for a lovely day." Bob and Joy have been enthusiastic DSMBC members for some years, and it was our delight to share their celebrations poolside.  In ten years Joy will get the Queen's telegram.  We'll have an even bigger celebration then!

CLUB CAPS
A number of members have requested club caps.  These can't be ordered individually from the manufacturer because the machine takes too long to set up, so we have ordered a batch of about a dozen.  This will be enough to satisfy those who are waiting, and will also give us a few 'spares'.  So if you would like one please see Graham or Andrea Povey.

DISINFECTING BOAT HULLS
In order to do our bit to prevent the possible transfer of blue-green algae from one site to another, please disinfect your boat hulls before and after you sail at any site.  Antibacterial wipes or spray will do the job, or alternatively a suitably diluted disinfectant solution (e.g. Dettol, or similar) in a pound-shop spray bottle, then wiped dry with kitchen roll would do the job admirably. Please note that this action is a requirement, not a request, so please come prepared! 

CLUB SAFETY RULES (updated December 2017)
The DSMBC Safety Rules have been updated to reflect recent changes and developments.  Please read and familiarise yourself with them.  They can be viewed here

Sailing venues  August, September, October and November  2018: