It was a great honour to be elected Commodore in April, although I was less appreciative of the honour on my birthday when I received a phone call from the police to inform me that the Club's burglar alarm had gone off! Needless to say it was a false alarm.
Also in April Mrs Nichola Lane became the first lady Vice Commodore of the Club, although lady members date back to 1875, when Mrs Gerard Leigh was elected. Nichola has kindly agreed to chair the Motor Cruiser Committee. The two new Rear Commodores are David Caddy and Peter Tarrant, and while Brian Cole has steppcd down as Rear Commodore he has very kindly agreed to stay on as Moorings Officer. Don Whistance has taken over from me as Honorary Sailing Secretary, and Harry Powell remains Honorary Treasurer.
A key member of the new General Committee is Buddy Godfrey, who has full responsibility for the Bar. With the assistance of Brian Cole, he has already made several improvements. We now have cooled piped soft drinks instead of serving from plastic bonles, plus there is a constant supply of red and chilled white wine on tap.
As the new Commodore, I have been particularly impressed by the time and effort the General Committee is putting into the Club. In particular, Peter Tarrant has put in many hours together with the Honorary Treasurer to produce a proper budget for the current financial year, the first priority of the new General Cornininee being to put the Club on a sound financial platform.
In trying to balance the Club's books we have not been assisted by eleven members moving their moorings over to RNSA although we fully appreciated their reasons for moving. Mr Gollop gave us no notice of his plans to move from Weymouth Sailing Centre to the new sailing academy at Portland and even placed an advertisement for Weymouth Sailing Centre in our current sailing programme. However, I am pleased to report we have already made some progress in obtaining new mooring holders so the loss in revenue will not be as great as first feared. Earlier this year we negotiated a favourable rate for Portland Port dues for the current year and we are in negotiations with the Crown Estates regarding the rent on the sea-bed in our moorings area.
Regarding the Club premises, a new fence has at last been erected around the rear yard. Having disposed of the rubbish and rubble, work will soon commence on preparing the area so it can be used for outdoor functions.
An ongoing problem in recent years has been the Club food. I am therefore very pleased to be able to report that we have recently arranged a new franchise agreement with Flood's Restaurant for them to do our catering. I do hope you will all give both these new arrangements a try, and be as supportive of our social events as possible since all these things help with the Club's finances.
Mark Kemmis Betty
Commodore