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MAIN COMMITTEE REPORT TO THE 1991 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Our new Commodore presented three papers to the new committee at it's
first meeting on the Duties of the Management Committee, Budgetary Control
and Food for Thought and Comment. After a lively discussion the new committee
got down to work.
The dates of all the 1990-1991 committee meetings were agreed. Sunday
was chosen, three hours after high tide, to leave time for all racers
to shower and get changed after putting their boats away and to allow
all returning cruisers to safely dock or moor. A time limit for these
meetings was agreed of two hours.
By and large these decisions were successful and the attendance rate increased
to 58%. If one considers the attendance of the senior officers this was
much improved and is now up to 85%.
New rates of subscription were agreed, based on roughly the then 10% rate
of inflation.
The social programme was planned and agreed. By this time Kathleen Topping
had volunteered to act as Social Secretary, and Fred Hoyle had been persuaded
to carry on as President.
Budgets were prepared by all officers and a development plan for the year
was drawn up based on the expected income and capital available and the
urgency / desirability of the projects.
The following monies were available for special projects:
1990 surplus £ 2 000
1991 surplus (based on expectation of 140 members) £ 2 250
Total £ 4 250
We were fortunate in being able to continue the £ 3 000 loan on
a reasonable rate of interest. Therefore we decided that as the roof was
in an appalling condition it was a matter of emergency that we put it
right and if necessary we would dip into the emergency reserve (£
2 000). We decided not to use the loan but to keep it as our new nominal
reserve fund.
This made a Total available for development and recovery of £ 6
250
The following monies were allocated to projects:
Main clubhouse roof (excluding changing rooms) £ 1 050
House neglected maintenance £ 750
Cruiser Trailers £ 350
Winch £ 200
Clubhouse electrical safety £ 250
Electrical wiring & water piping, cruiser park £ 500
Safety fence round slip, spiky bushes £ 200
New refuse system £ 120
Total £ 3 420
We later were forced into replacing the Rescue Boat engine.
This cost £ 1 300
Making a total expenditure on special projects of £ 4 720
The slipway fund stood at £ 2 050
We agreed to concrete the bottom six metres of the apron as this was considered
too great a task for the geriatric committee members. We felt once this
was done we could do the remainder ourselves as it was on a gentler slope
and barely covered at neap tides.
This took the whole of the slip fund.
We actually spent the following:
New winch £ 550
Winch Base £ 90
The whole of the roof, barge boards and guttering £ 2 750
Extension to the cruiser hard £ 950
New Rescue Boat engine £ 1 300
Cruiser trailers £ 115
Bushes £ 75
Refuse bin £ 120
Water pipes & connections £ 200
Total £ 6 150
We had unexpected income from:
Andrews Hydrographics £ 650
Extra income from engine appeal £ 446
Anticipated draw income £ 300
Barry Owen-Smith had to give up the position of Moorings Officer because
of pressure of work. Gerry Wiggins was elected to take over but within
a month he moved his boat to Whitby where he had been on the waiting list
for years.
Ray Morris was elected a Vice-President when he gave up the position of
House Manager, as he no longer felt he had time to do it properly. Joint
House Managers were elected to replace him, Anne Marshall-Lee and Nick
Milner.
Ray's election made Don Barnes the Senior Vice-President.
Neil Applegarth gave up his committee position when he started at Falmouth
college to learn boat building skills. Ivan Haslam was elected in his
place but has found that he cannot keep up the commitment and is therefore
not seeking election.
One of our trustees resigned, Colin Jex, so Brian Roberts was elected
to take his place. We have three trustees: Fred Hoyle, David Woodhead
& Brian Roberts.
Sadly one of our Honorary members died early this year. John Howes.
Membership has held up, on balance we are a few down on last year at 164,
including 10 life or honorary members. We have 23 new members this year
so we have lost about 30 (about 20%, the national average), many of these
were the ones recruited before Christmas when it is only necessary to
pay the £11 entrance fee. Because of this we have changed our policy
on fees payable after the 1 October. We used to just charge the entrance
fee, as the sailing season was over, but now we are charging full fees
which will carry the new member through to the end of the next membership
year. It will not cost them any more but we will be more confident of
their serious intention to join.
The trend in membership appears to be towards dayboats and small cruisers.
Two youngsters from the village were awarded grants from the Melvyn Taylor
Fund to help them go on an Ocean Youth Club cruise from Glasson on the
Greater Manchester Challenge.
We have allowed the Glasson Dock Youth Club to store their newly acquired
National 18 on the club premises. They are allowed to have access to our
facilities so long as a senior youth club leader is looking after them.
This year we have increased our charitable activities by allowing the
Morecambe and Heysham Sea Cadet Corps the use of club facilities including
the slip, the boat parks and the moorings.
We have had some security problems hence the combination lock on the gate.
We need to use this lock despite its inconvenience.
The bar and galley takings are not representative of the apparent sales,
ie possible theft or members forgetting to pay.
At last we have had the roof recovered and hopefully it will not need
any attention for another fifteen years. The new barge boards need painting
and Anne and Nick are going to organise this so any willing hands please
talk to them. I think that they already have had Paul and Jeff volunteer.
Anne has replaced the rain sodden carpet in the ladies changing rooms
with a combination of waterproof matting and available carpet.
Nick has been keeping the lawn mower petrol can full of petrol and he
and Anne have been cutting the grass from time to time with the help of
Ivan. There seems to have been more petrol used that grass cut though.
Is someone using the petrol for other things?
We have had the bottom six metres of the apron concreted professionally.
We decided that this was a difficult task considering the slope of this
part of the apron, the times of the neap tides and the difficulties of
raising a working party so we decided to pay to have it done. We are confident
that we can do the remainder ourselves when we have collected the money.
We have had difficulties with the Duchy of Lancaster over the apron. They
claim that it is on their land. We agreed that part of it may be on the
club land so we ended up agreeing to play a license fee of £50 per
year. They claimed that the moorings lease that we had given up, they
actually broke off negotiations before we had started to make concessions
taking us by surprise, had covered this land so that was why they had
never asked for money before.
Talking of land, we are in dispute, up to now still friendly, with the
Port Commissioners over them building on our land. Boece, in his capacity
as Honorary Surveyor, is looking into this with a mandate from the committee
to engage legal help if necessary. The Port Commissioners are also wanting
to raise the rent on the mooring area that we lease off them on East Quay
(£ 350).
All spaces have been clearly marked and numbered on the dinghy park. A
plan with boats and owners identified has been drawn up and posted in
the clubhouse. At the start of the new season each owner will retain the
right to his/her space providing that the fee is paid before the first
race of the season.
We are considering making the first row, next to the drive, available
to dayboat owners who sail regularly. This will make them more accessible
for day sailing, it will also make more room on the cruiser hard. We think
that it can be achieved by just moving the line of dinghies back a little
so no dinghy parking space will be lost.
For some time now we have believed that the cruiser hard standing is a
valuable income raiser so we have carried on with our policy of expansion
and improvement and increased the size of the stoned area westwards and
northwards.
We are setting up water and electricity stations at strategic places on
the hard standing. The water pipes are laid and waiting for taps and supports.
The electrical wires have also been installed but not yet connected. Equipment
is being collected to join up the wires and hopefully the will all be
operational before much longer. We have volunteers to do this.
The winch base is complete and soon we will be building up the winch.
We have volunteers who have agreed to do this.
A parking space for tenders is now in use. The plan is that the hard standing
adjacent to the tender area will be the north access road to the boat
park and the access to the trailer park.
We had a lot of trouble with the rescue boat early in the season to the
extent that the rescue boat crews were unwilling to go out in it so the
committee were persuaded to go over budget and buy a new engine. We decided
to borrow the money from the loan and set up a fund to pay for it before
the season was over. Martin Topping started the fund and we are pleased
to say that so far £ 500 has been raised. With the profit from the
Laying up Supper, how you can make a profit on £ 5 per ticket I
do not know but Kathleen manages to do it, and the £ 390 profit
from Patrick's draw we should only need a few more donations from the
members and we will be there.
There are a few new names on trophies this year, Mark and Garry, the Riley's,
they keep threatening to join but have not done so yet, Dave Gummer, Richard
Mountford, etc..
A new trophy, the Fred Johnson Memorial Trophy, presented by Fred's grandchildren,
has been competed for in a new series of races where the dinghies and
cruisers raced together. Dave Gummer is the first winner in a Drascombe
Coaster, assisted by Martin Topping of course.
Another new trophy is the John Howes Memorial Trophy presented by Teresa
Howes, John's widow. John died earlier this year. I notice from the visitor's
book that Teresa has been up to the club since his death, I think we ought
to have a place for the widows of honorary members.
A third new trophy was presented by Martin Yates Marine for the Martin
Yates Pursuit Race.
Glasson Week was a huge success for the members who took part but there
has been hardly any support for the mid week events over the last two
years so the plan next year is to have no organised racing from Tuesday
to Friday inclusive.
The Lighthouse Series was again a success and we plan to be more ambitious
next year with the help of the Sea Cadets.
The Regatta was a bit short of wind but otherwise very enjoyable by all
who took part, the sad thing is that all the prizes were won by visiting
boats. There were more visiting boats than club boats, another disappointment.
On the bright side the Frostbite series got off to a good start with ten
boats competing in the first day's races.
We need more women on the committee running the club, with Kathleen Topping
and Anne Marshall-Lee we now have two but we need many more.
There are many more people giving their all for the club, many of whom
I am not aware. (Please let me know if you know of anyone who should be
mentioned).
We have created two new cruiser trophies this year, the Furthest East
and the Furthest West.
Alas there were only two cruiser races this year. This disappointed our
cruiser racers so next year we have made an administrative change and
cruiser racing will be the responsibility of the Rear-Commodore Racing.
We are going to organise cruiser racing along side the dinghy racing so
there will be ample opportunity to have some fun next year.
Yes fun. Racing at Glasson is fun. It is serious but it is fun. The atmosphere
is very friendly even though it is very competitive amongst the skilled
sailors. It is an exciting and absorbing way to learn how to sail. Three
years ago I would have challenged that statement but since becoming secretary
and involved with racing I have changed my mind completely. What's more
I am convinced that it is never to old to start. I was over fifty when
I bought my first dinghy. I was a competent seaman (well almost) but I
could not really sail.
We were unable to organise a Cruise in Company this year, much to the
disappointment of some of our members.
Kathleen volunteered to be Social Secretary shortly after the AGM and
as a result we have had an enjoyable social season. She has tried to contain
her activities but even so we have had successful musical evenings, thanks
to Stan and Freida, a lively Hoe-Down, thanks to Alan Forster and his
wife, many impromptu occasions and last night, again the Laying Up Supper
was a huge success. The galley has nearly always been stocked up and she
managed to keep Tony, Brian and Boece in check, much to Tony's chagrin.
Tony Gregory looked after the bar up to sailing off to the West Indies
keeping the stocks up and pumps clean. Unfortunately he did not get much
help so the bar was often closed when members would have enjoyed a drink.
We are still looking for an enthusiastic volunteer.
Patrick O'Sullivan, labouring under great difficulties, ie he does no
understand racing, has submitted regular reports to newspapers of the
dinghy racing and our other activities. One must admit he has a very creative
imagination and has effectively got us publicity many times.
He organised our stall at the annual Village Hall Exhibition winning praise
from all who saw it and a special thank you from the organisers.
His greatest triumph this year must be the draw at the Laying Up Supper
for money for the "life boat" engine. A new venture the results
of which he can be very proud. Incidentally next year's exhibition theme
will be "Historic Glasson" and we are hoping to have a stall
featuring the history of the sailing club and sailing. We would like to
borrow any old photographs and records please.
Another exhibition next year will take place as part of Preston Guild.
We have been invited to have a stall. We will need volunteers to man this
and we must have some commitment before we agree to take up the invitation.
Another useful money raising activity has been the 200 Club run by Peter
Squires. He had this somewhat thrust upon him as a result of other people
abandoning it and has done a fine job keeping it together. The activity
raised over £ 300 in it's first twelve months.
The 30th Anniversary of Club's first open meeting to enrol members was
on 3 February 1962, a meeting on 28 January 1962 having fixed the rate
of subscriptions. The January meeting was the 12th meeting. The eighth
meeting, the first one in the minute book was held on 15 October 1961.
Opening night was 20 September 1962, decided on 27 September 1962, no
that is not a misprint it is what the records say. The first AGM was held
on 6 April 1963. It was agreed to move to Fishnet Point on 29 May 1971.
The following work was outstanding: the Clubhouse external woodwork, the
Clubhouse painting, the Clubhouse electrical wiring, Roger is preparing
a master plan, the outside services, electricity, water etc., winch assembly
and commissioning, concrete remainder of apron, repair of the storm damaged
sea wall, spreading of the top soil and fill between swings and slip,
establishing club moorings for hire to members, the new trailer to be
completed.
Some further objectives for 1992, recognised as a result of discussion
at and after the meeting. Attempt to promote better understanding between
different group of members and cliques. Settle the question of Berthing
Charges once and for all (Dinghies v Cruisers, small cruisers v large
cruisers). Fuller use of Clubhouse. Proper use of Electricity. Correct
use of Slipway. Further advances towards developing income.
October 1991 Michael Swarbrick.
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