Solent Section

Welcome to the Solent Section

On this page:

Introduction to the Solent Section

Section Committee and Contacts

                                               The Solent is a unique cruising ground 

The Solent is a unique local cruising area enjoyed by yachting and boating people for generations. There are many creeks and harbours suitable for deep or shoal draft craft and for those that can take the ground. The Solent has extremes from a quiet beauty to a busy commercial bustle. Often busy in the summer on fine weekends, excellent sailing can be enjoyed during the week even at high season, and especially out of season or when the weather makes offshore sailing too uncomfortable.

The Section Secretaries' yacht enjoying the Solent

The Solent Section is active and friendly, with a series of summer meets or rallies and a winter programme of nautical interest lectures with ‘club’ suppers. Members who attend events include not only those who live around the Solent area, but also those who may live at a distance away but keep their boats in the Solent. The venues for the winter lectures are at one of the Solent based yacht clubs. The winter lectures are very popular. In the summer, the weekend rallies or ‘Meets’ go to a Solent harbour and there is dining on the Saturday evening at a yacht club or other hostelry.

The Section has seasonal newsletters and news items are published in the quarterly CA Cruising magazine. The Section news and programme are also published on the CA website, all of which help keep Section members up to date with what is going on. We welcome new members and encourage them to volunteer to help with the running of the Section such as writing-up an event for the magazine, or organising an event. There are other options to be involved that help new members get to know other members and also enjoy giving something back to the CA.

Any CA member who is keen to support the section by taking part in the activities of the Solent Section, by attending the meetings on the programme can join the section, for no additional cost. Please make yourself known to the Section Secretaries by calling or by e-mail or just arrive at your first event and introduce yourself.

Location of Meetings 

There are six meetings planned for the coming winter and all will be held at the Royal Air Force Yacht Club, Hamble (RAFYC), where the Section has been holding its meetings almost continuously since the Section was founded in 1976.  The current Section Secretaries are Tim and Liz Dodwell and they will be organising the Winter Programme for the Section members. 

We are grateful to the RAFYC for making the Section welcome again for another winter; and in return the RAFYC members are invited to our talks and to the February symposium. The Club has an excellent bar and is very friendly. To find your way to the RAF Yacht Club, and to see the location of the Section's Winter Meetings, please click here.  There is a system of booking forms for pre-payment for each of the suppers and meetings as we need to know in advance who is coming to any particular meeting. The forms will be available here and are also sent to members by email. 

Guests Invited 

Members are encouraged to bring a guest(s) to the meetings and it is hoped that the guest(s) will be moved to join the CA at some point. The Section Secretaries usually bring CA Member Application Forms to the meetings so potential new members can take away some written information about the CA.  

DAY AND TIME OF MEETINGS 

Thursday Talks 

This winter there are three Thursday meetings, the traditional night over many years for the Section, and these are planned to start with ‘bar’ from 18.00 hrs, an informal supper usually at 19.00 hrs, and a talk with presentation by a guest speaker or speakers on a nautical subject of close interest to the members at about 20.15 hrs. Members unable to arrive in time for the supper are welcome to join the meeting for the talk.  

Saturday Symposium 

In February 2010 an extended meeting is planned to take place on a Saturday afternoon from about 14.30–15.00 hrs running into the evening and ending with supper at 19.00 hrs. These symposia type meetings usually have a defined theme of a relevant nautical nature appropriate to cruising people and have three speakers. With members’ posing their questions it makes the Symposium very inter-active and fun too.

Friday and Saturday Dinner Meetings 

The December and April meetings are usually gatherings for a dinner after which some fun and entertainment is often introduced by a willing member such as a nautical quiz, frequently illustrated by slides. The bar is open from 18.30 hrs and the dinner is usually at 19.30 or 20.00 hrs. These meetings provide an excellent opportunity for members to interact and discuss their boats, their boating experiences and their plans. Conversation is never dull where yachting and cruising are concerned, and many member and their spouses make life-long friendships out of the section’s meetings and summer ‘Meets’. More full details of this winter’s meetings will be posted in due course. We hope you will  come to as many of the meetings as you can, and we will look forward to that.   

SECTION COMMITTEE

If you would like to help and get involved with the running of the Solent Section, please contact one of the committee.

Section Secretaries: Tim and Liz Dodwell

Contact Tel: 01590 623 434 Email: Solent@cruising.org.uk

Section Hon Treasurer: Richard Maclaurin-Pratt

and Solent Section MyCA Editor

Contact: See Contact Us & Tel: 023 9246 5639