Firstly I would like to thank Mike for all his hard work and Laura for her support of Mike, I don’t think there has been a busier time in the history of the Club. During Mikes commodore-ship we have purchased extra land over doubling the size of the Clubs free hold, suffered a large fire and lost two Presidents, and some very dear friends and members.

A lot of people have put an enormous amount of effort into the running of the Club and especially keeping it functioning over the last year. A special thanks goes to the Crouch Yacht Club who took us in as their own.

Normally a committee is a group of indecisive people coming together to have trouble making a simple decision. Well not in the BSC! We are very fortunate to have a brilliant team, and this is reflected in everything the Club does, I am always amazed people just muck in and get it done with out any fuss.

I am very proud of the Burnham Sailing Club, the skill level amongst all our sailors is incredibly high, you only need to look at our honours board and the continual stream of good news of our youth sailing achievements. The ease of how we achieve such high standards in teaching, coaching, safety-boat work, race organisation, social functions, catering and fund raising, just proves the quality and effort every one puts in.

I feel very strongly that the Club belongs to us all, it doesn't matter whether you have been part of the Club for years or have only joined this year, the BSC is ours. If you are an old member, (Been a member for years that is not necessary old and wrinkly!), why not come and watch the Children on a Friday evening and enjoy the atmosphere. Why not even get involved and help, similarly if you are new to the Club, please don't think working and running the Clubs activities is only for long standing members.

I also feel strongly and am proud that the BSC is about sailing and not politics. We are a very open club with no secrets, we publish on our website our committee meeting agendas and minute notes and Karen is continually emailing out a stream of information.

So what would I like to achieve in the next two years?

Firstly opening the Club House again is a priority, I am excited about what the Club will look like inside. Digger, our project manager, and Tracy our internal designer have been working hard to achieve a bright welcoming environment for us all to enjoy.

Then there is sorting out our new land purchase and new building (pump house).

There is a huge enthusiasm for disabled access and the extension to the Club, we should be in a position to apply for planning permission within weeks, so if the fund-raising can keep up we should be able to start in the near future. It looks logical to do this in two stages, the first stage being the disabled access and decking.

I would like to put a Club manual together so jobs can be defined enabling knowledge and experience to be easily passed on from volunteer to volunteer.

I would like to promote membership and to build the membership further, also to continue to build on the success of our sailing activities. Please feel free to bring your friends so that they can see what we have to offer.

New for this year, we are jointly hosting the East Zone Youth Championships during the Carnival week end.

Lets have some fun, lots of parties, (fund raising socials seem to work well!). Details of our reopening party coming soon.

If you feel you can help with any of these please let me know.

Here’s to a good sailing season.

Kind Regards

John