Ladies and Gentlemen and Members,
It gives me great pleasure to present my report for the past year 2010/2011 and I will try to keep it brief...
The year started well with the opening cruise being changed to a sail past and then a sail around to Dukaduka and a very well received braai ashore. This was planned to be the start of many social occasions but unfortunately some unpleasantness took over the focus of both myself and the executive committee and this consumed valuable time that should otherwise have been devoted to the club affairs.
That been said. We did embark on a positive program and we were delighted to advise that not only had many months of hard work by our President, Rob Bell, result in our obtaining our liquor licence but that we had convinced Debbie Greyling to return to the club as full time caterer and bar manager. This of course showed up a number of flaws in the food area and as a result we replaced a very ageing fridge, attended to the replacement of a suspect sink and cupboard, and then purchased two lounge suites to try and make the clubhouse a little more welcoming and comfortable.
The benefits of having an albeit full time secretary was obvious in the quick action regarding payment of accounts and maintenance of the club books on a weekly basis and thanks go to Heather for this.
The very low water levels over summer gave us the opportunity to look at and to decide to widen the slipway from the edge of the car park and down the jetty side to make all round launching far easier. To this end our thanks go to Peter Goble and Rob Tarboton. Fortunately shortly after the completion, late summer rains started and the dam proceeded to fill up and has continued to do so over the past few weeks to its present levels.
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Unfortunately we were not able to elect or convince anyone top take on the task of Club Treasurer but with the assistance of Heather, Jean Wagner and Alan Barr who have been able to maintain accounts and have figures to report back on at each of the Exco meetings. I am delighted to advise members that we ended the club year showing a profit of some R40 000 and have similarly ended the year with a balance in our accounts of some R175 400. The hiring of the hall resulted in a profit of R20 000 which is not insignificant and was a very welcome source of income. The new setup at Midmar may have a future negative effect on this as all visitors without exception, now have to pay the full entrance fee and this may affect future hiring of the club. However I am delighted to also announce that the traditional hiring of the club and grounds by the swim school from Johannesburg has been negotiated for the next 5 years at an increase of 10% per annum.
You will note over the past few weeks that the boat parking areas have been tidied up, boats, trailers and dingies have been moved to their correct allocated spaces and new parking bays have been set aside and painted. All of this work has been voluntarily carried out by Calvin and our sincere thanks go to him and his son for the hard work. Unfortunately, some members have taken their tenders/trailers and put them back where they should NOT be and to this end we would request that they adhere to the allocated bays and not use other member’s bays.
On our sailing side we are proud to announce that one of our ex junior sailors, Luke Wagner and has been selected to represent South Africa at the Worlds in the USA. Andrew Tarboton is taking on all comers in his bid to sail in the UK and we wish them both well. We are also very pleased to announce that we invited Craig Millar to represent the Club at the Lipton Cup with the Provincials and Nationals as a warm up. He will make the final decision after the Nationals. The HMYC team will be made up of some very fine sailors with Craig who was the very successful Skipper of the Spirit of Durban in the Round the World race as skipper, crew made up of Francesco De Vita one of the America’s Cup sailors from Italy and then two very good and old friends of HMYC in the persons of John Brookman and Dave Martinson. We are proud to be associated with them as they are proud in representing the club and wish them every success.
Finally, the club cannot function without the very hard and dedicated work put into it by the Executive Committee and of course the two bosuns and ground and club staff and to all of you I would like to express my very sincere thanks for your support and
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dedication and I am sure, the thanks of all club members, to you. Your committee for the past year has been VC Sailing – Dave Wagner, Rear Commodore House – Jenny Kilshaw, VC Youth – Jean Louis Swart, Secretary Jean Wagner and Exco. members, Rob Tarboton, Alan Barr, Louis Le Grange, Marius van Vuuren, George Muller and Des Fairbank.
The two (mostly) silent but very important members of our club and Exco. are of course our President – Rob Bell and Vice President – Rob Barker who have also put in a tremendous amount of work in the guidance and running of the Club…thank you both.
The un-named people who also deserve thanks are all of you who have assisted with Bridge, Regatta and race duties…thanks to all of you too.
Richard Solomon
Commodore
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