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CHAIRMAN'S CHUNTERINGS -Autumn 2011 |
‘I can’t believe I’m sitting here in the
sun and it’s October already, the 30th anniversary year of the
Wanderer dinghy all but past…. Where did the time go? Well, most of
it seemed to be blown away by high winds over the ‘summer’ of 2011!
The omens weren’t good for the year when I had to cancel the early
season Norfolk Broads cruise due to very high winds forecast over
the whole long weekend – which did materialise as forecast so it
turned out to be a good decision – no one fancies driving for hours
over a bank holiday weekend only to sit in a tent listening to the
wind howl through the trees.
Other events were affected by high winds over the year, including the Cobnor training and cruise event (Sunday cruise cancelled), Sutton Bingham Hartley Open weekend (Fleet reduced to only the brave by Sunday morning), Whitstable YC Open (Again only the brave on the water by the end), the Nationals themselves blown out on Saturday and hard work on the Sunday…. I’m looking nervously at the Inlands weekend, hoping that the weather gods will smile on us at last and we can round off the class racing year on a high, rather than high winds again. I guess it is all my fault however as I bought a new racing main over last winter without reefing points, which made the high winds inevitable!!! So, often a challenging year on the water, but the boat looked after us and the people who are drawn to the class continued the proud and friendly tradition built over 30 years that has made the Wanderer Class what it is, best encapsulated for me by the gala dinner at the RNLI college over the weekend of the Nationals, with good company, some silly song singing and prize giving….combined with ample supplies of good food and drink – heaven! The 31st year of the class is already being planned by the committee, with the Nationals returning to Whitstable yacht club in July 2012, just before the Olympics kick off, and a repeat of the successful Sutton Bingham racing weekend being planned along with a couple of training events to help those new to the class to get the most out of their boats. Your committee have as ever worked hard in 2011 to provide three attractive and informative magazines, a useful website, training events, racing and cruising events, along with updating the class rules, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Wanderer’s birth with a delicious gala dinner and new promotional items… but I’m sure there is always more that we could do, so if you have ideas about what else the association could be offering to fulfill its mission of promoting the enjoyment of Wandering afloat don’t hesitate to tell your committee, whether it’s ideas for new events, new services to members or ideas about how we might better market the class association to the 1600 odd ( …and a few normal…) boat owners out there to swell the association and better serve the class, we want to hear what you as members and ‘shareholders’ in the ongoing happy Wanderer story want…. Don’t be shy. Before I go I want to pay tribute to Terry Pullen, a long serving member of the association committee, until this year giving sterling service as the class webmaster. Terry has arranged a smooth transition of this role to Mike Hamilton during the year whilst at the same time specifying and inviting suppliers to quote for a redevelopment of the whole website. I wish to record the gratitude of the association for the excellent work Terry has done over many years dragging the class into the digital age and promoting it so effectively to many thousands of web users (183,000 of them according to the visitor counter on the site today). Thank you Terry for your service to the class and excellent advice in committee. Hope to see many of you at the AGM in Alexandra Palace again to kick off the new year in style, until then, have a great sailing autumn and winter and keep safe’
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