THE
MAINSHEET

Autumn 2013

Contents

Vice Commodore's Bit

AGM, Prizes, & Party

Annual Dinner

Brilliant, Beautiful Bewl

Cannonisation

Cheats Xmas Lunch  

Club Management

Culinary Corner

Dangerous Waters

Dates For Your Diary

Don't signal to the Birds

Farewell

Goodbye

Interesting Statistics

Newsletter Format  

Newsletter Printing

Origin of the Speakies

Power of Prayer  

Pure Poetry

Quiz Night

Russian Night

Steering Backwards

Sunbury Fireworks

Undertaker

Who You Are?

Home

THE AQUARIUS SAILING CLUB NEWSLETTER

Contacts

Vice Commodore’s Bit - Graham Thompson

The sailing season is ending not so much with a bang as with a blow. Three weeks ago members present sat nose to window watching the steady downpour and only one foolhardy member went out for a soak.

The following Sunday promised gusts of 30 mph, but coming from the south the trees caused such turbulence that three of the four boats struggled to find a consistent wind direction, while Pat Halling simply romped away.

Last Sunday saw the approach of the 'great storm' and only Bosuns ventured out for the first and only race - one capsized, one retired after an over-vigorous workout, and the third only survived by putting up no more than 'a pocket handkerchief' to drive his boat. And I see that a new major storm is being predicted for the first weekend in November.


Quite why members prefer the warmth, burgers, cheap drinks and convivial chat of the clubhouse I cannot understand, but then I do need my cobwebs to be blown away after each week chained to my desk in the city.

However, the reduced numbers sailing this year do partially reflect a change in the nature of the sailing undertaken. From memory six members have cruised in the Med this year, one couple twice, while Nigel's exploits have taken him to the Scillies, the Shetlands and down the east coast. I suppose we are also seeing the club evolve to reflect the changing profile of the membership.

The social side, by contrast, had possibly its best event ever in the much acclaimed Russian night, which I missed due to a remarkable lack of foresight 30 years and 9 months earlier - it clashed with my son's 30th. And more is to come, with the annual dinner and cheats' Christmas lunch carefully recorded in my diary.

Between the two comes the more serious matter of the AGM, which gives about a month to consider how well the structure of 3 vice commodores and a troubleshooting president has worked. Certainly we have managed to better spread the load previously borne by commodores, but is there scope for the committee to better reflect changes in the profile of our members?

President’s Postscript
Rodger Wheeler

Very many thanks to all those who helped the club during the year with a special mention of An-Ony-Mous (alias Mike Hendra) who contributed all those unattributed stories in this Mainsheet and our 3 Vice Commodores who have successfully helmed Aquarius through 2013.