Commodore's Report - 2012 - Stan Macrae

Commodore's Report - 2012 - Stan MacRae

APPRECIATION

Can I take this opportunity to thank everyone in the sailing club during my time as commodore and all the guidance that was given along the way especially from my Dad (despite not always taking his advice).

The heart of the club, and the future of the sailing club as I’ve already pointed out is the Tuesday night training sessions. The trainers and helpers do a fabulous job and I’m sure the club will continue to provide support when required. I’m sorry I was unable to attend these sessions but the motivation and enthusiasm to sail in all weathers was very evident over Regatta. Keep up the good work.

COMMUNICATION

The club appears to be widening it’s communication network by means of facebook and the website. It’s a great way to provide information about the club, upload photo’s and generally spread the word. The advertising appeared to be fantastic this year with many more posters around. This, along with the encouragement of those involved, led to one of the best attended ‘Ragamuffin’ races in a long, long time.

Recommendations

TIMEKEEPING

Time-keeping requires to be computerised, not only to make the job simpler and more efficient but we need to bring the club into the 21st century. A printer should be at the starting line so that results can be printed immediately and at the same time they could be put on the website. Come on.....let’s make the job easier and perhaps we will get more people volunteering to become time-keepers. PRE-SEASON LACK OF BOATS

This year we tried to revamp the racing schedule to encourage more people to sail pre-regatta. However, this was unsuccessful and there were several races with 3 or less boats. These races require the same resources, the rescue boat and consequent waste of fuel, 2 time- keepers and officer of the day. One example is the ‘George Farquhar Memorial Trophy’, a race which is obviously close to my heart, but with only one boat participating, a faulty engine on the rescue boat and an increasing easterly wind up to 15 knots I cancelled the race. Later I realised that if this race had gone ahead my grandfather’s trophy would have been unsailed. The Johnny Ruari race is another event which appears to be unpopular and therefore requires discussion for this future event.

It should be considered whether to start the racing calendar later in the year or perhaps the committee should discuss with the skippers their reasons for not sailing these earlier races. This not only includes local boats but also centreboards.

RESCUE BOAT TRAINING

I feel strongly that there should be basic core training for all crew members on the rescue boats. This should include righting up-turned boats, casualty recovery from water, including casualty entrapment and regular up-dating of first-aid skills. This is not only for the safety of the sailors but safety for the crew themselves and also litigation avoidance for the sailing club. Myself and Hayley would be willing to help out with this if required. The committee would have to decide whether this should be under the remit of the rescue boat or under training but I feel that training are under a lot of pressure with club nights. HEALTH AND SAFETY

With regards to litigation the subject of Health and Safety within the club must be explored. Despite the restrictive rules and regulations we undoubtedly have to conform to the constraints in order to protect the club and its members.

One example of this is the fishing competition. During races, centreboards and local fleets sign in and complete a disclaimer, yet the fishing competition have not been required to do this to date. This is an event run by the sailing club and therefore the sailing club are liable should any damages to persons occur and I would strongly advise the same documentation cover as any other event.

POLITICS

I am deeply disappointed at the underlying tension within the club. We are very fortunate to have some very enthusiastic, focused, hard-working and motivating individuals within the club. These individuals are necessary to the club as they bring a forward-looking attitude encouraging changes to better the clubs’ profile. However, it is disheartening when I read the war of words on endless emails often boycotting an idea without any consideration or discussion. This type of negative thinking is very discouraging to those individuals who are only trying to bring improvements within the club. It can also cause a bad atmosphere within the club and will do little to encourage new members to join. Often trivial changes have been fiercely challenged and I find it difficult to understand why some people feel so threatened by change. Being narrow-minded will only serve to disunite members and threaten the existing good name of the club. PSBSC is fortunate to have such terrific members but everyone needs to work together in order to move forward for the success of the club. Thank you all again for what has been a wonderful and memorable experience and privilege as commodore. I wish the new commodore every success next year.