New clubhouse at Netley Sailing Club progressing well
by Dougal Henshall 11 May 2018 14:30 BST
The new Netley Sailing Club © David Henshall
As the 2017 season drew to a close, the start of the meteorological winter should have ushered in a period of what we commonly accept as 'winter weather'! At the very least there was an expectation of bruising winds and lashing rain, only for the days to remain mild and benign.
As the work on removing the old clubhouse at Netley Sailing Club continued in winter sunshine, hopes were high that the longer the conditions stayed settled, the faster would be the progress towards seeing the new building taking shape. It was always going to be a tricky task for the club members and contractors alike, for the grounds of Netley Sailing club reside within a Country Park and are bounded by one side by the beach and on another side by an SSSI. The upmost care to protect these fragile environments had to be taken at all times, yet with the help of the weather gods, the old building was successfully removed piecemeal and with the project running to schedule. The club members were then gifted an extra special Christmas present as the groundwork ended and the first signs of some vertical progress were observed.
Once the main structural frame was in place, the building itself, which had been pre-fabricated offsite, could be delivered and the tricky process of erection started. It was at this point that the first really hefty winter storm was forecast, with very heavy rain and gales expected to lash their way across the south coast. The contractors pulled out all the stops in order that the work could be completed before bad light stopped play; early on a Saturday morning I was travelling down Southampton Water on an Isle of Wight ferry and though it was still dark outside, on shore I could see cranes lifting panels into place by the glare of floodlights. Work slowed up but didn't stop, but there were times during the 'Beast from the East – Parts 1 and 2' when progress was restricted.
By now though the building was sealed against the weather, allowing parties of hard working volunteers from the club's membership to interleave their efforts with those of the contractors. The generous and airy space inside the building (the bar area is of special note here) would be a challenge to get dry-lined and though the underfloor heating was laid by a specialist team, it would be the club members again who would be involved in laying the pipework for the showers, cabling for the electrics and many more of the tasks that see a building change from an empty shell into what, in just a few months, will be a busy club full of the membership enjoying the fruits of their labours.
Despite the winter dragging on into April (and looking at the forecast, early May won't be much of an improvement) the outside of the building, with it's smart cladding and wide wrap-around balcony that offers panoramic views out over the water, now gives promise that by later this summer, all the hard work will start to pay off. That said, it is likely that work will be continuing throughout the 2018 season, even if we finally get a long period of settled weather.
Even more amazing than the determination to see the new clubhouse build through has been the resilience of the sailors at the club, who have braved the worst that the weather could throw at them, with the minimum in the way of changing rooms and facilities, to not just keep the regular scheduled racing going but to see healthy numbers of people participating for what is still early season. At a time when many of the indicators that measure the health of the sport of sailing are showing some worrying downward trends, Netley Sailing Club is, to coin the phrase, "on a roll" and is looking forwards to some glorious sailing seasons in the years to come.