COMMODORE'S REPORT

This last 12 months have gone past very quickly.   I must say that I have enjoyed serving our club immensely.   You would have to go a long way to find a  better collection of people.

Your board have worked tirelessly, harmoniously and very effectively to run both the social and the sailing sides of our year.   

The outgoing Committee.    Have been a great bunch of people to work with.   We are sorry to see that Jim Quinn has resigned after carrying the responsibility of Vice Commodore for so many years.    It is not an easy task making sure that our racing runs smoothly especially as we have to co-ordinate everything with Waterways, our local Council, National Parks, Water Police and so forth.

Another Director who has done a magnificent job is Peter Ballard as our Rear Commodore.   Peter has been a great asset to us ensuring that our Clubhouse maintenance is up to scratch and has also been in charge of the installation of the sound deadening and air conditioning upstairs as well as making sure that our coolroom and refrigerant assets are working efficiently.   Fortunately he has nominated to continue on the board as a director as his insight and advice has been a great assistance to us.

Bryan Shaw has decided to take a holiday from the board after many years.   He, also has  been of great assistance to us all and we will miss his happy disposition on the Board. We hope that his involvement with the Starters Caravan will continue.

Stuart Manley will be vacating his position as Membership Director but will be undertaking a RSA course on his return from the US of A so will continue to be one of our prominent volunteers.    His efforts with the database and the webpage are much appreciated.

A lot of credit must go to Bill Haskell who has done a magnificent job in overseeing the whole operation here in our Clubhouse as well as moving our Caravan on and off site on Saturdays.    He has stepped into Peter Foster’s shoes very effectively.   We do  miss Peter but we are so fortunate to have Bill.    His workload is going to increase dramatically with the onset of the Pacrim Yacht Challenge here next year.   He is the Chairman of our Committee which is really getting into gear now.    We only have seven months left before this event is upon us.

Peter Collins also has contributed greatly to our sailing scene with his input into the Birthday Regatta and other sailing matters as has Alan Atkins with his weekly updates to our results and handicaps.

Of course we must not forget our starters, Heather, David, Bryan, Jim and Jenny who have braved heat and cold over the last twelve months to make sure that our racing is run extremely efficiently.    We do need more volunteers for the Caravan as everyone needs a day off occasionally.   

Bar staff and volunteers   We were all sorry about Frank Morsley’s resignation as he had managed our bar operations for quite a few years efficiently and very profitably, so well in fact that we had to find several people to replace him   Peter Johnson has taken over the accounts and done a great job.   Craig Tucker the ordering and Doug, Bill, Gary, Max and others stocking the bar.   It really is working well and we all must do everything that we can to lighten the load especially when it comes to carrying stock upstairs.   

Our Social Committee, headed by Deirdre Roberts have had a great year, Oktoberfest, Rum and Champagne night, Christmas in July, Italian night and many other great events.  They will be tested this coming year with our Pacrim event!!

The Quadrant.   Many thanks to Pauline McCarthy for the great job that she is doing on this.   It is a demanding job and she is constantly looking for new ideas and articles, so, if you see something that might fill the bill, please let her know about it.

Our Volunteers.   Too numerous to mention individually, but they are the life blood of our great Club.   We do have a unique situation here.   No poker machines, no Keno and a great venue for us to  enjoy each other and the great sport of sailing from.  This would not be possible if it was not for your efforts.

The Webpage.    Has been completely re-vamped at last and I am working on it constantly.   Some of the newer pages include one for the Ladies, a Jokes Page, a Rules Quiz and a lot of links to other Club websites, weather reports and forecasts, and I am currently making big improvements to our sponsors advertisements.   I would urge those of you who have not joined the 21st century and connected to email to do so as soon as possible as it is a the best possible way to keep in touch with this Club and so many other happenings in our society.

We do value your input whether you are a social member, crew or skipper, this is your club and we want it to be as good as we can all make it.  So if you have any ideas for us, don’t be backward in coming forward.

John Way
Commodore