THE AQUARIUS SAILING CLUB
NEWSLETTER
Commodore's Report -
Nigel
Knowles
Welcome to this, the first newsletter of 2006
and the first under the governance of your new man-agement
committee! Actually its not really "new" - most of the team
who have served the Club so well for the last few years
continue - albeit in slightly different roles. That said I
would like to record the Club's thanks to Ron Munden who
steps down from the Management and Bar Committees and
wel-come Dave Jennings and Stuart Schaffer who bring some new
blood to the Management Committee.
Most of all however I want say a "big
thank"-you to Mike Baker who stepped down from his second
term as Commodore at the end of November: Aquarius has been
blest with some excellent Commo-dores but Mike's tenure has
been outstanding.
He has been an inspirational leader who
has very much led from the front - whether this means drawing
up the Club's Health & Safety Policy, rebuilding the Bar
or making sure that the ladies loo is spic and span before a
social function.
I guess we all have our own list of highlights of his
tenure-winning the mid-Thames trophy? -then hosting it and
losing it to Hampton?, Bodgit & Co's escapades? battling
the bureaucracy associated with the new licensing
act?........Most of all Mike has ensured that we are a happy
Club and we are all indebted to him. He is also a thoroughly
nice guy and I for one have very much enjoyed working with
him- Thanks Mike!
Mike steps down with the Club in generally
sound shape, but one of the issues that the Committee will be
addressing is the need to attract some new members -
particularly younger ones who want to sail.
Our total membership has been fairly constant
over the years, but the numbers who actually take to the
water on Sundays has declined and those who do sail are
getting quite "mature". It’s great that we have
the potential for a "golden oldies" sailing program for
retired members on Wednesday after-noons but we do need to
ensure that younger members are attracted to the water
also.
This problem is common to many sailing clubs
and the RYA will be chairing a discussion about it at the
Commodores Conference (held in conjunction with the Dinghy
Show at Alexandra Palace - of which more in a later
newsletter).
I believe we need to raise the Club's profile
so that potential sailors are more aware of us and in
particular we all really must get behind our Open Days this
year (May 6th & 7th ) with both advertising and by
encouraging our friends and colleagues to come down and try
sailing.
On the social side the social committee, ably
led by Diana Carpenter, have planned an active pro-gram,
comprising the usual favourites and a couple of new ideas. As
an experiment we have provided a 3-course Sunday lunch at the
Club on two occasions over the winter. Twenty two members sat
down to roast beef and trimmings on Dec 11 - my thanks to the
Courtney family and Liz Archer who organised it - and 28
enjoyed roast chicken on Jan 22 followed by a cruise cum
treasure hunt up to Sunbury lock.
This was then followed by our traditional (if
traditions can be established in a mere 4 years!) "ladies"
night. By common consent this was the best yet - 45 members
and their ladies enjoyed a su-perb evening of Venetian style
Masquerade and a lot of gondolieri had a lot of fun preparing
for it!
Well done Rodger! and our thanks to the
resident orchestra (Pat Halling and Mike Leigh) and to two
mystery cabaret artistes masquerading under the name of
Bodgit Ballet. The only problem is how to follow this up next
year!
These social occasions highlight the
inadequacies of the Clubhouse for the larger gatherings. We
can’t realistically do much about the size of our
premises but we can improve the facilities. Accord-ingly the
Club's maintenance contractors of Bodgit & Co. have a
number of improvements planned.
Top of the list is an upgraded galley. In
addition the window frames on the river frontage need
re-placing, the back door is to be replaced, the Bosun's
store restored and the upstream ramp repaired.
The list seems endless! - but I believe very strongly that
we have to refurbish the Club if we are to provide members
with the facilities they rightly expect and are to
attract new members.
The constraint is not so much financial but rather a human
one - our inability to find sufficient peo-ple willing and
able to organise and undertake the work. If you would like to
get involved please speak to Bodgit & Co (aka me or Mike
Baker)
The Sailing Programme starts again on 26 March
and is preceded by the start of season party on 18 March
(7.30 for 8.00pm). I look forward to welcoming you all
there!