Ok, i've just finished uploading the Silver Tiller fixtures onto the website. The local circuits will follow shortly.

I'm hoping that Starcross will be able to accommodate us too, which will give 24 events with 8 in each catergory. This sounds a lot, but 8 of these are either weekends shared between local clubs or two events at the same club in differant catergories. Hopefully this will allow the maximum possible number of people to qualify for the ST.

The objective set at the beginning was to have no more than two "biggies" per month and on the whole we have i think acheived this.

Happy sailing in 2012, i'll keep adding events as they come in. I'll be putting the winter ones on too later this week.

If you do spot anything wrong on the fixture list please email me!

Chris

Is it right that Chichester is on a Saturday?

Yes.

Oh, thats a shame I like Chichester.

Arrhh, my spreadsheet only handles 21 ST events. I'm going to have to update it to handle 24 now ;-(

I see a few weekends are twin events, so can qualify for 2 results which is a good idea!

However with fuel prices increasing, etc and entries down over the last 2 years I am personally a bit surprised to see the number of events being increased. Was this what was expressed by members via the recent survey? Interested to hear others thoughts.

Ross

The summary from the survey was that people liked the idea of the two-event weekends, and wanted a good choice of events to attend.

Although the number of meetings is increased, i think you'll find that the number of weekends is the same as or less than in previous years. It's a very awkward balance to try to find because while we all want high turnouts at what events there are, if you do reduce the number of events you are likely to significantly reduce the number of series qualifiers due to people being unavailable due to other committments.

Therefore as it stands, various combinations of 3 weekends away can see you qualify for the Silver Tiller. We are supporting as many clubs with fleets as possible, and are also visisting some of the best dinghy sailing venues in the country. We have also tried to move the ST slightly further North by including a double header at Blackpool, the welcome return of Bolton as well as the ever present Hollingworth.

We have tried to avoid too many "big" weekends in quick succession which can become pretty expensive.

That is the theory behind it anyway. I think the most interesting thing of all is that the series finishes on the sea which i think is a first. Ben and I will be grateful for any feedback.

There is allot of Saturdays in there now. 15 Saturdays and 17 Sundays. I have been asking for a few years now why Saturdays have become so popular with the fixtures. Am I the only person who works on a Saturday?

There are 10th events that are Saturday only. Also what happens if you have to work Sundays instead? You can qualify with just Saturday results if you need to or just Sundays which has been the case for decades.

I always remember the opens being predominantly on Sundays with a couple of two day events. I can see what you have done though and I am not saying it is a bad idea, I just wonder why there are now opens which are on a Saturday when there is nothing on the Sunday? It worries me a little that there is a trend heading towards Saturday being the main day as that really would mean I could not seriously sail the circuit. I don't want to just Qualify, I want to 'do the circuit'.

There are far more people who work on a Saturday than a Sunday although I know there are some unlucky souls who do both as I used to.

It's not a developing trend on purpose, though it is inevitable that with double meetings there must be more saturdays. Chi wanted a Saturday and so did bolton which added two more. I don't think anyone can be expected to do them all, and we can't please everyone. What we can do is try and make it so that the maximum possible number of people can qualify.

I think it looks like a great fixture list at some fab venues and I am looking forward to loads of them.

Thanks for all the hard work that goes into putting it together and getting it online so quickly. Great stuff

Sophie

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree with Sophie, there are some great venues on there and that is just my point, I don't want to miss them but end up doing so if they are on a Saturday. Since I seem to be the only person who works on a Saturday and wants to do as many as possible I will shut up and hope my office chums are accomodating!

Cheer Guys. I will wait to see the rest for the yearbook!

Just a comment from the other side on the Saturday / Sunday debate.
Our club members have complained in the past that having to give up a Sunday to visitors is not why they are paying their subscriptions. Therefore, our club will now only offer Open Meetings to the classes if they are prepared to do a Saturday only Open.

Saturday for Opens, Sundays for club racing....

Similarly at one of our clubs with one or two full weekend opens.

Hi all ,

One of the reasons I have put more Saturday's in than normal is 
mainly because alot of the clubs we go to dont want to loose there club
Racing as a result of holding open meetings. 
It really good to here your feedback so I can try to improve the list next year.
As its my first go at helping to organise the silver tiller events I took the questionnaire 
I did as a good guide as to what people wanted from the silver tiller calander
And with the help from Chris this is what we came up with. I hope this shines some
Light on the reason why here are a few more double headers and Saturday's etc

Thanks ben hollis

Ben - if memory serves, the River Clubs rotate the Silver Tiller events; 2011 saw Hampton and Cookham host, so logically, this year it should be - Thames, Minima, Ranelagh or Tamesis along with Upper Thames, but I see Cookham listed for the 2nd year running, surely a mistake...?