WCOA Secretary, Robin Gabbitas, recalls the January 2005 AGM and Dinner held at St James Church Hall Downley High Wycombe.

The Chairman welcomed about 35 people to the AGM.

Chairman’s Report:

The Chairman gave his report on the year, which he described as windy. There had been some very successful events, notably the training session at South Cerney, which had attracted 40 boats. A good yardstick of the success of each event was the smiles with which participants left.

Membership:

There were some concerns about falling membership and sales of Wanderers. A priority for the future was to retain existing members and recruit new ones. We also needed to be alive to any ideas to make the boat and membership of the WCOA more attractive. In that vein, the Committee wanted to open a debate about making further changes to the boat, for example, slot gaskets and centre main sheeting, which he would invite the meeting to discuss later.

Treasurer’s Report:

The Treasurer announced that income was again down on last year, and costs needed to be cut. As had been tilled last year, this would be done by cutting the cost of the magazine by limiting issues to two main colour editions, one in the spring and one in the autumn, with the usual black and white announcement of the AGM and possibly a ‘cheapy’ in the summer.

Income continued to be generated by donations from John Russell Insurance and there was potential for more income from advertising and sales of clothing. At the moment there was no need for an increase in
subscriptions.

Committee:

The existing Committee was re-elected. Welcome refreshment to the bloodstock was achieved by the nomination and election of Jean Whittaker and John Talbot.

Resolutions:

There were no resolutions but, as last year, the Chairman opened a general discussion about the general direction of the Association.



Open Discussion:

In the discussion, the following points were made:

a. The fall in membership was of concern. There were some 1500 boats and only some 300 members of the association. We should strive to increase membership. There were potential ways of doing this, such as considering other media for advertising other than Yachts and Yachting, use of the web site, following up sales of second hand boats and concentrating on the clubs with the biggest numbers of Wanderers.

b. We should have open minds about other forms of income, such as charging for various services we provide, particularly non-members.

c. It was important for event organisers (and other entitled members) to have an up to date list of members of the association. [Note: Member’s details held by WCOA are only ever used for strictly WCOA purposes and never disclosed to other organisations or individuals. Ed]

d. The boat was basically sound, but it could be improved by allowing slot gaskets, and centre mainsheeting.  There would need to be careful consideration of issues such as any improvement in performance, cost of modification, safety, making the boat more marketable, all in the back-
ground of adherence to the principle of one design racing.

e. It was considered feasible to trial and undertake some basic research on some improvements, such as centre mainsheeting, on one or two members’ boats. The changes under discussion were not exclusive to racers, cruisers might also be attracted to these features.

The upshot of this lively discussion was that the meeting had no objection to referring back to the committee for further discussion the possibility of changing the class rules to allow the introduction of slot gaskets and centre mainsheeting. The objective was to formulate a resolution for the next AGM.

Awarded Trophies:

The winners of the Association’s major prizes were as follows.

* Cruising Plate - This year the winner was David Lavender for his article and report on “finding the North West passage”.

* Ken Dickinson Award - This was a new award, to commemorate Ken who was an enthusiastic cruiser, and was a very hand-some engraved tankard. The criteria for the award, were “services to Wanderer cruising in general”. The award was presented to David Davies for organizing many successful
cruises in the West Country.

* Racing Plate - Another closely fought year, and the award was presented to Jack Mann and Adam Wickenden.

* Ian Proctor Memorial Prize - Jill Davies presented the handsome award to our illustrious Treasurer, Alastair Barclay.

* Barry Hillier Clanger - For reasons which were completely unclear, the clanger was awarded to the Secretary.

Addendum:

If any member wishes to comment on the general direction of the association, and in particular any modifications to the boat (e.g. centre mainsheeting and slot gaskets or any other change for that matter) they
are invited to write or E mail the Secretary (Robin Gabbitas) who will undertake to distil any comments, report them to the Commit-tee and feed back to the membership in the magazine.