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Commodore's Musings May 2018

Published 19:37 on 9 May 2018

What a fantastic sight - over 130 SUPers paddling for all they were worth. Once again Brian and his team need a round of applause for pulling off one of the largest SUP events in the country Battle of the Thames. The event went very well according to a number of accounts, we even managed to sell beer which certainly helps the bar profits. There were a great number of volunteers manning rescue boats, directing visitors etc. Thank you all.

The Boat Shed, like the general fauna and flora, has suddenly woken up and boats are eagerly being prepared for Bourne End Week. No sign of any significant upgrades, but Scamp have certainly upped the budget. There are now 4 Raters on the Water and a further 5 due to join them shortly, I can't wait for a full turnout. The racing season has been hampered by the high flow rate of the river, but now it is sailable for both Raters and the Handicap fleet, who have already had some good racing. All we now need is for the temperature to stay warm and everything will be perfect.

Unfortunately, it is my sadness to report that Bob Shepard passed away recently, we are in contact with various intermediaries and will share details of his funeral in due course. Our thoughts go out to Ruth and her family. Bob was an enthusiastic sailor and painter and a number of his paintings are around the club, most notably above the mantle piece in the club room.

As I have reported before we have received planning permission from Kingston Borough council to replace the boat shed and changing rooms as well as making improvements to the club house. This is fantastic news and now the really hard work begins. I have formed two working groups to assist with the Development of the sail shed and changing rooms. Jemma H, Adrian D and Justin D will help to develop a project plan and refine the costings of each element. The fund-raising team is Mary H, Niamh H, Brian J, David D and Malcom C. As you can see by the size of the teams the priority is fund-raising and we will look to develop a broad split of targets for various forms of funding: Grants, large scale donations and smaller scale activity. We will come back to you, to help us get this right and develop the right contacts to help secure the funds that we need. This task will require all of us to pull in the same direction. So please stay in touch and if you have any bright ideas feel free to tell us. My target is to have the development operational in 2020, our 150th year so the pressure is on, let's see what we can achieve together.

We have already identified a need for a Cost consultant / Project Manager with a civil Engineering background so if you know anyone with these skills please feel free to get in touch.

May is a busy month at the club, there are two significant events: 12th May the Cocktail party, Justin is playing the part of Tom Cruise so please come down and watch his skills! Dress code is Beach so get those Hawaiian shirts out. The weekend of the 19th and 20th is the Classic and Merlin Open, there will be more info but if you have a Merlin I hope that you will make the effort and get to the start line, sometime over the weekend.

Finally, sadly our sister clubs of CVP and YCIF have suffered some damage during the winter floods so the membership is concentrating on repairs and will not be able to join us in June. Thank you Mel for trying to organise this hopefully we will be able to repay Loic and Herve's hospitality shortly.

Regards,

Miles Palmer

Commodore

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