KESSINGLAND SEA SAILING CLUB

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting

held at

The Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club

on

Friday 19^th November 2004

The minutes were agreed as an accurate record.

A number of improvements had been made to Explorer during the winter.

We are in credit this year, with savings being made by reducing memberships with RN&SYC and revised arrangements for public liability insurance. Geoff Heath asked if the club had a target for the amount of surplus. Paul answered by saying no, but we aimed to be in credit each year, to avoid depleting our reserves.

The accounts, audited by Clive Rowe, were accepted.

A discussion about increasing boat use followed. Dave Wesley said he felt we shouldn’t be too concerned but build on the seeds of new members from last year’s Boat Show. Geoff suggested that some days, planned in advance, for new members to gain more experience might increase take up and enable more members to become skippers. John Whiteside said he felt the club needed a better system for enabling new members to become skippers. John Bird confirmed that the club is working on agreeing a list of those members who are considered competent to skipper.

Once again the financial situation, which is still very satisfactory, belies the fact that we have not really been a sailing club for much of the year. If fact, the boats have been taken for less than 15% of the available time.

Socially I think the 2 summer BBQs were very successful and I hope we can repeat them next year and hope the weather is kind to us again.

You all know that we took the opportunity to have a stand at the LOBOSHO which was an unexpectedly successful and enjoyable event for us. We gained about 8 new members and will take part in the 2005 event to spread the word around that we do exist to as many folk as possible. It’s on7th & 8th May.

But even with this welcome influx of new people it seems that this year the boats will be used for the shortest time ever. About 6 of every 7 weeks they are not used! You may remember that this time last year I said we would consider changing Explorer or dropping the cost to use her. In the end we did neither and I guess the result was predictable and inevitable. The usage is down.

We have discussed the problem again and have taken the decision that we will keep Explorer and drastically reduce the cost to use her to try and get her out much more. This is the reason for the 2"° proposal, which we will discuss later, and I hope you will give your support to the committee as we try again to resolve of the lack of sailing that this club does.

This change will not affect DA to the same large extent that it will Explorer, but, at present I feel that its essential to keep and use Explorer much more to give people the chance to go big boat sailing.

The other very positive reason to keep her is that, as you know, Clive has offered to give up some of his time to help anyone who wants to improve their sailing skills and, by Explorer being much less costly to use, we should find that she is sailed more with Clive and then by the people who have been with him.

DA will we expect soon to move about 50 miles North of Barcelona to give sailing in an area more akin to the scenery and calas of Majorca. It will however still be within easy reach of Girona airport, which has plenty of cheap Ryanair flights. So, we hope there will be renewed interest in using her more.

Explorers summer visit to the Orwell was not as successful as we had hoped. In spite of a good mooring, beautiful scenery and mostly good weather she wasn't used much at all.

We have not given any thought yet to if and where Explorer will go next summer. If you have any preferences please let us know tonight or tomorrow.

As usual at this time we have not yet decided the level of subs and boat use costs for next year. One good reason being that things may change a lot depending on tonight's meeting, as you will see.

For all of us in the club I must thank the flag officers and all of the committee for their continued work and support and hope that we succeed in running a sailing club for another year without to many worries.

But, that mostly depends on members going sailing.

Bob Shackleton had resigned as a Flag Officer and as Social Secretary. Paul thanked him for his work. The meeting agreed that this year’s social events had all been a great success.

Explorer (Sid Pretty)

The sailing this year has been one of opportunity for members. It has also been one of some anxiety for your committee. John Bird has ensured DA has been ever ready, in excellent repair in Barcelona. He has worked tirelessly and professionally to enable each and every member the chance to use this lovely boat. Some members may believe that the cost of using DA is too high. I say this because the uptake has been disappointing. It is certainly remarkably economic if compared with commercial rates. It has occurred to me, that because it is a club boat, some members believe it should be much cheaper. It could be if we could guarantee 15 to 20 usages per year. however this does not seem likely. With the prospect of a different base for 2005 perhaps uptake will improve, however it is entirely up to members to take advantage of the investment.

The club has invested time and money on both Explorer and DA. The Lowestoft Boat Show was an undoubted success, giving the club a, perhaps, necessary open window on its objects and assets. Several new members (about 9) joined in its wake.

The adventure to Fox’s was a partial success. 12 members used the convenient location, however the majority were short and very short outings and were not really enough to consider the experiment a genuine success. On the plus side, the lack of hard sailing brought Explorer back to Lowestoft in pristine condition. It was certainly a good spot for members to descend on her and accomplish boat maintenance.

Deuxieme Amour (John Bird)

Utilisation. The boat had 8 weeks booking originally plus some as a houseboat. Not as good as hoped.

Costings. Revenue generated in the year was about £4,500 with costs of about £6,000 which includes cost of travel etc for maintenance, as well as a number of new parts for the boat. We can expect the next two years to be relatively maintenance free.

Maintenance. 9 days were spent on maintenance with Paul, John and Terry Ash doing much of the work. John predicts the expenditure on maintenance to be about £1000 per year.

Location. John outlined that DA must leave Port Vell by 10^th December. Any marina is likely to cost £3,000 - £3,500 per year. The boat has therefore been booked into Palamos for just over 3 months. This area offers excellent cruising.

All nominations were elected.

(a)To amend the objects of the club as follows:

• To provide boats for members to go sailing.
• To organize instruction, when possible, to those wishing to learn to sail.
• To arrange general boat maintenance.
• To encourage members to participate and assist in all aspects of the club.

Proposed by Paul Noton

Seconded by Laurie Rainger

The proposal was agreed unanimously.

(b) (i) The General Management Committee consider and set the amount of annual subscription such that it generally pays the bulk of the normal running costs of Explorer.

(ii) The club adds a new category of membership "Non Sailing Member"

Proposed by Paul Noton

Seconded by Laurie Rainger

Paul proposed an amendment to correct the final sentence to read:

(ii) The club adds a new category of membership "Sailing Member"

The proposal, with the amendment, was agreed unanimously.

The meeting closed at 21:15pm