Welcome to Junior Offshore Group

The committee met in January where we discussed several areas, the main points are below for you to consider. Once our new website has further updates, I plan, with our secretary, to publish minutes in a secure members area. In the interim, Martin Banfield (JOG Secretary) is happy for anyone to contact him to get a copy of the meeting minutes.

70th Anniversary of JOG (2020) – iconic Offshore Race and Inshore Regatta

It is the 70th anniversary of JOG next year and I am pleased to announce that Tim Octon, Rob Hillman and Nick Barlow have come up with two events that reflect our heritage . Both myself and the secretary would welcome a chance to chat with anyone who may be interested in sponsoring either event. They are as follows:

• An iconic offshore race of 300 miles from Cowes to Saint Quay Portrieux, starting on July 25th, via the Eddystone and the Minquiers. There will be a shorter course for class 5 and 6 (Via Bembridge Ledge)
• An inshore regatta over three days in the Solent – this will happen in Sept next year.

Further updates to the website

Many members will now have accessed the new JOG website and experienced the enhancements and new features that were built in partnership with The Portal Company. Moving forward, JOG will be able to take advantage of the new integrated platforms. Traditionally, yacht clubs run a website, membership system, entry system, and results systems, all on separate platforms, making the experience when moving from one section to another clunky and disconnected. These have been combined into one holistic system which will allow greater functionality for skippers, crew and JOG.

One of these exciting features is live results. A self-declaration link will be texted to each boat’s nominated mobile number. This link will provide a simple, mobile-friendly, form to complete as soon after their finish as possible. The live result page on the site https://www.jog.org.uk/live-results/ will refresh as declarations are made to show the current order of finishers. Finishing places will continue to change as new declarations are submitted until the last boat has finished. Our race officers will be able to register committee finish times, retirements and protests, as they occur, via an iPad or tablet application. These timings will override any declared times recorded by skippers.

We are looking to enhance club benefits for crew members and are planning on implementing an area on “MyJOG” for them to see what races they have raced in, results and trophies achieved and how many day and night hours completed with the JOG fleet. I’m sure you will agree that this will be very useful if you are building miles or want to track your experience. The objective: to increase our social/crew membership numbers off the back of these and further benefits, also in planning.

We are always keen for suggestions on what features we can add or enhance. If you have any suggestions, please email Martin at secretary@jog.org.uk

5 year Plan for JOG

While there's a lot going on right now in JOG (website enhancements, usual pre-season preparations, etc), it can be easy to get so caught up in the present that we aren't looking to the future. To ensure we're also thinking about the longer term, Jo Farquhar & Martin Banfield are working on a JOG 5 year plan. This isn't a tome, more a set of considerations and recommendations that we'll use to guide our future thinking and ensure we're set up for success. It encompasses areas ranging from building membership numbers to the sailing programme, socials, race officers and JOG administration.

JOG Young Member Representative

I have co-opted Hannah Muskett onto the JOG Committee to look at how we attract the next generation of sailors to JOG. This will supplement the work in the 5 year plan, but also allow us to grow our links into university sailing where we already have strong relationships. Hannah is currently working on a range of options which the committee will discuss next month at our meeting.

JOG Secretariat

Nick Barlow and Martin Banfield are working hard behind the scenes to complete Nick’s handover. This is no mean feat with the setting up of the new website, race entries, administration issues, liason with Port and Harbour Authorities, a whole season of Sailing Instructions and day to day matters, all of which need managing. Nick will step away officially from the secretarial role after the Nab Tower race. We wish him well in “retirement” and thank him for everything he has done. Nick will continue to contribute his experience to the club by looking at some merchandising options for JOG with Hannah and the planning of the 70th Anniversary.

Please be mindful that the team are dealing with a large number of queries related to all the changes and will endeavour to get back to you as quickly as possible.

Brexit

I can’t help but mention Brexit with our first race to Cherbourg not far away. We are keeping an eye on what this might mean to us a club – not just for Cherbourg but in the long-term. Martin will communicate via the usual channels if there is any major news or change to current procedures. There is nothing concrete at the moment, but we are watching this and will inform if need be.

As you can see, these are exciting times with new innovations, celebrations to plan and much going on! I am blessed to have a hardworking committee and a team of Flag Officers that support JOG and myself as Captain. The committee will have some vacancies later this year, please speak with me or Martin if you are interested in joining the committee. We can’t promise accommodating everyone but welcome fresh input.

I look forward to seeing you either after the NAB Tower race or in Cherbourg at Easter. Our race team will be in Cherbourg to greet you as well. Have a great couple of races.

Fair winds

Dougie Leacy

H. Muskett

Hello! I am Hannah Muskett and I am delighted to be a part of forming the future of JOG and creating a greater platform for the voices of young people within the club. I’ve been a part of JOG racing since 2016, coming from a background of national and international dinghy racing. I started sailing in Lymington at the age of 5 and racing from the age of 7, all the way from Oppies to Lasers and 29ers. Then the time came to choose between racing and university and university won. But this was no great issue, as the people I met and the sailing I was now exposed to were both fantastic. I was then shown the wonderful world of JOG! Easing in with the Nab Tower race I experienced the great standard of racing that JOG is known for – but that was it for 2016, as I didn’t know who to go to be able to do more of this exciting (and sometimes boozy) racing. Thankfully a year later a University friend told me to come do a JOG race with someone I’d never met – and it was the Nab Tower again, though this time even better. From there we started to pull in more and more university sailors and suddenly I was racing in thrilling coastal and offshore events with friends, whether they be 20 or 60 years old.

Now you may have noticed that JOG is changing, from our new website last year and an automatic results system at JOG Week, to a new and very much improved website this year. I think we can all well and truly say JOG is changing to meet our member’s needs (or as Dougie (our Captain) might say “keeping up with the kids”). Though it is not just about making sure JOG is great now, it is about future-proofing our collective interests and goals, so that they work as the club evolves.

With this in mind I have very kindly been asked to hop aboard and help navigate the club with regards to what our younger and future members would like. Whether this includes an easier platform to find a boat to sail on, helping skippers find crew, running events that people from all ages want to attend, or just someone to talk to – I’m happy to say that I’m here to help for all this and more.

So if you have any ideas or questions please do get in touch at h.g.muskett@gmail.com

See you on the water!

Hannah Muskett

We’ve created a dedicated listing with tendrr: https://tendrr.co/club/jog

tendrr provides a free CrewMatch service linking boats with crew. You can see who has a spare berth for JOG Races and communicate directly with each other to compete at each race.

How does it work?

Boat Owners: To get started click Find Crew on the JOG page. Register your boat and add the details of your JOG trip. You can specify how many crew you need, what position they must fill and what experience you’re looking for. Your post will then be visible to all sailors on the tendrr platform.

Crew: You can register your availability by clicking on the star icon in the top right-hand corner of the image of the JOG page. You’ll then be notified by email when a new crew request is added to the site. You can search through existing crew requests by clicking on the Find Boats button.

Once you’ve found a suitable match, you can communicate directly with each other using tendrr's messaging system, making it much more straightforward to get out on the water for JOG races.

For any questions, please get in touch with the team direct at hello@tendrr.co.