Winter indoor pool meet, Potter Bar, Hertfordshire - ...trying again!

[Guest]

Okay, erm last time I brought this up, it resulted in an online scuffle and quite a few departures from the UK branch of the Sub Committee, ho hum!

Last year I posted up a note outlining a proposed indoor pool meet sometime in the winter months.

This was to be held at The Furzefield Sports Centre, which is located in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.

The venue is excellent and has good travel links for both road (just off the M25) and rail.

To make the event financially viable, I required a minimum of 12 paying submariners, assuming a £5 per person charge.

I fielded some enquiries, but received about 5 responses, a disappointing result.

One member suggested that sailing indoors leads to condensation problems, plus the chlorinated water plays merry H*ll with the radio signal.

However, I've noticed that Stateside members seem to enjoy indoor meetings, so I reckon it's worth a shot.

So, I'm giving it another go, however this time I'm raising the bet and asking if anyone would be interested in a monthly meeting throughout the winter months of 2004/2005.

This proposed event is not exclusve to Sub Committee members, if you have a working model sub (or even if you haven't) you are very welcome to attend.

Spectators wishing to come 'poolside' would be charged a nominal pound.

Cheers

Andy



Edited By Sub culture on 1081681897

[martin entwistle]

Andy
I can only express an

Andy
I can only express an interest and not commitment in the monthly pool meeting at the moment due to difficulties at work Never had any problems operating in swimming pools and have done it about 3 times now, although others have had difficulties. Biggest difficulty was turning within a pools width. What size is the pool at Potters Bar?
I'll know more about my situation an about 8 weeks. I'll keep an eye on the board.
Regards
Martin

[Guest]

The main pool is 33

The main pool is 33 metres long.

The width is unknown, but it must be at least a third of the length, which I would consider is big enough for even the largest of boats. (I've seen them practicing canoeing in that pool!)

There is a smaller practice/learning pool, next to the main pool. This is much cheaper to hire than the main pool, and will likely be the only financially viable alternative, if we don't get at least 20-30 submariners show up.

Main pool hire is about £60-70 per hour, and a large slice of that is for the lifeguard, which unfortunately you can't option out!

For three hours then we're looking at £180-210...ouch!

With a bit of arm twisting, perhaps I could get this knocked down a bit, but probably not by much.
Assuming I could hire the facilities for £150, then we'd still need a minimum of 30 submariners paying £5 per head to just break even!

The smaller pool is about £60 for the whole evening, a lot cheaper, but the pool is much smaller, therefore I don't think it'll have the same draw as the main pool.

Cheers

Andy

[nick-c]

I would certainly be interested.

Do

I would certainly be interested.

Do you know if there is wheelchair access to the poolside?

Regards,

[Guest]

Yes, wheelchair access is no

Yes, wheelchair access is no problem.

Everything is at ground level, and there are ramps to access the building.

Andy

[anonymous]

Count me in.
BTW I

Count me in.
BTW I think the effects of pool water/condensation have perhaps been overstated - we don't have such a big temperature difference between car parks and indoors - even in a British winter

David Forrest

[pete]

Andy
I was one of the

Andy
I was one of the five who responded with interest last time you sugested this event and I'm still as activly interested. Its a great venue having spent many hours flying indoor models in their sports hall. If you can get your pack of 12 why not go for it. I'm sure if we could get it of the ground it would be a success.

hope to hear from you

Pete

[Guest]

Indoor pool meet update


Okay, some

Indoor pool meet update


Okay, some good news, and some bad news.

First the good news

The pool facilities are available on Saturday evenings.The lady whom I spoke to was very enthusiastic about the event, so i think we have a sympathetic host.

Now the bad news...

It's going to cost a nice round figure of £200 to hire both the main pool and practice pool for a three hour period. This includes the cost of a life guard (unavoidable for legal reasons).

The cost drops by about £43 if the pool is block booked for a 10 periods, which would mean an outlay of over £1500.
This is clearly an unacceptable amount to risk, so I think we'll have to go with the afore mentioned quote.

The practice pool is available seperately for hire, but it is very small, and I don't think this will persuade folk to attend.

So we're looking at needing about 40 paying submariners turning up to just break even, assuming a £5 entry charge.

A higher charge would reduce numbers (i.e. £7-50 per person), but I think it would scare off a lotof people.

Opinions please.

Andy

[pete]

Andy
Does'nt seem a lot of

Andy
Does'nt seem a lot of money per session, but 40 paying submariners does seem a lot of people from the replys you
got so far. If only 20 people attended it would work out to be £10 for a 3hour session which is not to bad for an evenings sail. The only alternative would be the smaller pool which may bring people in for a start and perhaps if the interest was shown you could advance on from there. I think if nothing in attempted it will just die.

regards

Pete