This year has been a very active and successful one for the Club, despite dreadful weather during the early summer, reduced  numbers of visiting yachts and a difficult economic climate

A tremendous amount has been achieved with the juniors going from strength to strength with a waiting list for next year. The Friday sessions  provides structured learning with many young members obtaining their RYA certificates whilst having  a tremendous amount of fun.  This year they have benefited from another safety boat, purchased via match funding from the RYA small equipment grant and  this little orange boat has proved really useful; the Committee have also approved the updating of all the Topper sails  and have submitted a  grant application to buy  some more Feva dinghies. We are actively encouraging the juniors to take part in more racing, both in dinghies and keelboats, and the race training is already showing results. I would like to thank everybody involved with Friday evenings and for giving up your time for something that is so worthwhile and has always been at the heart of our club.

Adult sailing has also flourished, with numbers increasing and our thanks go once again to those who have toiled for many hours to keep  the Wayfarers in good condition and the club now has 26 boats to look after which is a sizable fleet. The Sailing Committee will be taking steps in the new race programme to encourage more adults to take part in the dinghy racing. Dinghies and Keelboats have had some very good racing and well run regattas throughout the summer and with the increasing number of 707s for the coming season we are looking forward to some really competitive racing.  The new dinghy park is a means to an end and is not ideal but has helped with space issues; however, the Committee are now looking to initiate discussions with the local planning authority to and obtain permission to extend the dinghy park on the foreshore, which was originally objected to by Natural England.

This year we attracted some excellent sponsors who kindly supported and helped towards the ever increasing costs of our racing series and our thanks go to Hine Downing Solicitors, The Budock Vean Hotel, Penrose Sailmakers, Stephan and John from Albia and Mark and Heather Ibbotson of Cowls Nets.

All structural repair work on the clubhouse and facilities has been brought up to date as have all risk assessments and Health and Safety documentation; and improvement to the lighting and heating will be addressed in the second phase of the Development. An enormous amount of work was carried out on the pontoon this year, 6 new finger berths were purchased to reduce the waiting list, and all corroded hinges were replaced on the fingers and our thanks must go to Captain Moorings for re-bolting the whole pontoon himself.  He spent months working and bringing this facility back up to its original state and saving the club enormous amounts of money.

The Development Plan

Following the EGM and the support of the Membership for the adoption and continuation of the Development Plan, and for the Committee to implement this, we applied immediately to the Council for planning permission. This was granted in November and works will commence next week on the first phase, which will be the upgrading of our changing rooms and disabled facilities.  Updates of the plan and of all club information are available on our really good website, and it was through this that the RYA, our governing body, first noticed and complimented the professional way in which the Club was administered. They were impressed with the Development Plan and after visiting our club during the summer and being appalled at our outdated changing rooms and absence of disabled facilities were keen to add their weight to our application for Sports England grant funding. I am delighted to announce that this has just been fully approved and a grant of £50K has been awarded to the Club for this part of our extension works. Our thanks must go to Garth Weaver and Tony Statham for their considerable work in putting this all together.

John Jane who with his considerable experience as a professional builder will oversee the works acting as Project Manager, with Garth Weaver, a Chartered Surveyor, as the driving force behind the scheme and Tony Statham, Chartered Accountant as our financial expert overseeing the Development Plan finances. Tony is always on hand to offer sound financial advice which has been invaluable to the Committee and his projected cash flow to the end of September was a testament to this. Together with the whole Committee I have been privileged to lead a team who are passionate about the wellbeing and future of the Club. We are now, through our website able to offer Members access to more information than ever before and all projected cash flows and updates will be posted.

Once again we are looking for Stewards and this is one of the greatest problems faced by Clubs such as ours. We have had a limited response to our advertising which has been both at local and national levels, and our greatest asset which is our wonderful position on the river is perhaps our downfall in trying to attract the right people to live and work in an isolated area which can be very quiet in winter with all the income having to be made during the summer months.  We will try and find the right Stewards for the Club and have longer this time to try and find the right people to cater for a demanding and varied membership, but maintain a family friendly atmosphere which is essential.  It is this atmosphere that is remarked upon whenever I visit other clubs up and down the coast and by the visiting yachtsmen who are always made welcome and appreciate what wonderful and extensive facilities we have at Helford. Running the club is all about finding the right balance between good business practice and keeping members happy and this is not an easy task with a large membership of over 1200 people. Difficult decisions sometimes have to  be taken to safeguard and  move the club forward, and to protect and update the infrastructure and I urge Members to  remember the ethos of our club which is for ALL to have access to the lovely river, irrespective of their choice of boating activity.

Thank you to all the Members and volunteers who have given their time this year. Thank you to the Committee who over the past three years have shown so much commitment and who have been so supportive, progressive and hard-working, achieving much in a short period of time.

I would like to present the Robin Preston memorial Trophy this year to a Member, who is our technical wizard and has worked tirelessly behind the scenes, often through the night to keep our office up-to-date and protected. He has installed Wi-fi for members and visiting yachtsmen and a CCTV system to help protect our premises and is also working on getting an Electronic Purchase & Ordering system in place for the coming year. It gives me great pleasure to present this trophy for outstanding services to Andy Dennis.

At the last AGM we were asked to look into having the Club accounts audited.  Both Tony Statham and I have taken considerable advice from several accountants and the firm and unanimous opinion is that it is unnecessary at the present, as we take all reasonable precautions to safeguard the club and the committee, but is something to be kept in mind.

Following a proposal from Mr Ray Hosking, the Committee were asked to consider that Dr John Lansdowne, who was Commodore between 1987-1990, be elected as an Honorary Life Member for his leadership during a difficult time.  The Committee have unanimously agreed and I would ask that Members endorse this proposal.

Finally, I couldn’t have carried out my time as Commodore without the tremendous support Wendy Moore, I couldn’t have had a more supportive Vice Commodore.  There are two further people I must thank. The first whose friendship, advice and help has been invaluable.  Having been Commodore twice and returning once again to the Committee he is now overseeing the building project and this club and I owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for the endless work that he continues to do.  Thank you John Jane.

Finally to my husband Allen, he calls himself the ‘Commodore’s wife’ and his patience, hospitality and generosity to visitors and members alike has been much appreciated. Having completed nearly 25 years on the Committee it is time for a break but I shall miss it and now It just remains for me to once again thank all Committee Members and to wish the new Commodore and Committee well as they take our Club forward.

Thank you

Jane Benney