Commodore’s Report 63rd
AGM Perth S.C.
I would like
to start my report by mentioning the death of one of our oldest and an Honorary Member – Alan Ferguson.
I mentioned at the dinner, however, the
committee unanimously agreed another club stalwart should be offered honorary
status and I am pleased that Bill Inches has accepted.
This has
been an interesting year with our season producing conditions ranging from flat
calm to gale force winds, the latter throwing up problems in our safety
procedures, about which, more in a moment.
I would like
to thank all members of the Committee for their support and who have given up
time and effort to keep the club running on your behalf.
Ian Sadler
as vice-commodore has been a great source of help and advice, but alas, has
felt he has had to step down because of other commitments, which has deprived
me of a successor this time!
Bob Watson merits
special thanks for being responsible for producing the race card, collating the
results and dealing with the trophies. Most were presented at the dinner last
week. It was good to see an increase spread among the winners, especially with some
of our new members picking up the chocolates. He and Ann have also been
responsible for getting the race reports into the paper.
Colin Fullerton has again kept an eye on the finances and I am pleased that we are
still solvent. He indicated that this would be his last year as treasurer and I
am sad that he is leaving office and would like to thank him for all his work
keeping our monies safe.
On the
social side, Audrey Robertson has combined picking up a number of prizes with
adding to the club funds by running a number of social events and feeding
members craving for hot drinks and sweets. She deserves a special vote of
thanks for organising one of the best prize-giving dinners that we have had.
Her presence
on the committee has meant that jokes about women drivers have almost ceased!
John
Ferguson has again organised training sessions for the club. Four youngsters gaining their qualifications and
thanks must go to all the members who helped with the training course. He has also arranged rescue boat training, which
is taking place this week end.
We are aiming to have three evening seminars in
January, February and March, on First Aid, Radio and Race Officer Procedures
and the Racing Rules. This will be an opportunity for members to brush up and
learn these skills.
Our boats
officer has felt in need of promotion:
We have
achieved this by renaming him the Bosun. Since Eric Taylor not only looks after
the boat parking, cuts the grass, and maintains both the club house and club
and members boats, we felt this title more nearly reflects his position.
Last
winter he with Chris Watson and Jose da Costa refurbished the old safety boat
and made a great job of doing up the club Mirrors, as well as repairing them
when Bill breaks them!
I am
grateful for Katriona Sanwell’s input as the junior’s representative. She has
been a diligent member with very useful comments at our meetings, and is going
to serve another year before as she pursues higher education.
Finally I am
most grateful to Keith Fergie who stepped in to replace Jose da Costa as secretary.
This vital post has suffered over the last few seasons with incumbents never
lasting more than a few months, which has made life difficult.
Keith seems to
have brought some stability to the post as well as lots of ideas to promote the
club, raising our profile in the wider world by maintaining our website and
publishing a blog on our activities.
We decided
because of the increasingly unreliability of the Johnson outboard to purchase a
20hp four stroke outboard. This is a more powerful and economic unit and we are
considering selling both our two stroke engines and buying another four stroke
outboard, which hopefully will simplify and reduce our fuel requirements.
Two very
windy days highlighted inadequacies in our safety boat, when it demonstrated how
difficult it was to recover people from the water in the ‘Lady Ann’, even
though we were dealing with a conscious being who was able to help. I think we
have to consider a more suitable type of boat, and we are intending to try out
a RIB in the near future.
We played
host to visitors from Arbroath in the middle of July and were almost
overwhelmed by visitors at two open days. The numbers rather took us by
surprise and next year we will be better prepared. Because of fine weather and
turnout on the ‘traditional’ open day we held a second which saw some seventy
visitors at the club. It enabled us to donate £70 to the RYA ‘Sailability’
program for disabled people. My thanks to Keith and the club members who turned
up in pirate costume to host this event.
The unused
door in the galley has already been blocked off as part of a program to upgrade
the galley with cupboards which have been donated. This should be finished
before next season.
All clubs
need to attract new members and we have had discussions with P&K personnel
to see how we can introduce local schoolchildren to sailing. Our tidal sailing
makes this difficult to have set dates and times, but there is still a
possibility we may be able to go ahead when TSF open the new pond. We are also
applying for the council’s accredited club excellence scheme, opening up
opportunities for advertising, grants and support from various bodies.
St Andrew’s
have paid to have trace heating installed in the pipes which allows the water
to be left on in the winter. They have submitted plans for a new boathouse
which you will be asked to consider approving at this meeting.
This report
summarised our club activities this year. If you have any questions or comments
I will be happy to try to answer them.
Malcolm Moore
Commodore of Perth Sailing Club
