Chairman’s Report:

Cedric began with a particularly warm welcome to all those from Harwich and thanked them for making the journey.  He said that looking back on the past 12 months he had mixed feelings about the state of the fleet.  Two boats had travelled from St Mawes to Harwich for the 2007 National Championships – Athena and Nemesis and Doug Sharps had lent him Avocet.  17 boats contested the event that was won by Ian Sharps sailing Goosander owned by Jonny Pack.  Second was David Liddington in Athena, Thunderer sailed by John Williams third and Nemesis sailed by Robin Edwards fourth.  He added that the less said about Avocet’s performance, the better.

Falmouth Week followed with one day lost to excessive wind.  Special note needs to be made of the fact that Athena sailed by David Liddington won the even for the 11^th year in succession, runner up was Amalthea sailed by Roger Wood and third Kali sailed by Oliver Edwards owned by Charles Emmett and just in weight(apparently!)

Two change sin the SW fleet – Indefatigable has been bought by Mark Cocking and Jonny Pack and Vim by Robin Richardson though yet to be seen racing.

The E Coast Championship was won by Thunderer and John Williams, second was Goosander with Ian Sharps and third Chris Brown and Mars.  A special race was held in the river Orwell to mark the 40^th anniversary of Ajax sailing at Harwich.  This was won by David Mayne in Guillemot.  Turnouts for Harwich this year have been generally good, whereas turnouts at St Mawes have been pathetic.  This leads me to wonder if perhaps I have been in Office just a little too long and  it needs a change at the top to kickstart the fleet.

I must thank my fellow Officers for their work and support during the past year.  David Liddington for the professional way he deals with financial matters, computing results and organising the prizes; Simone for the huge amount of work she does on the secretarial side.  Without Simone I just would not function.

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend at the 2008 Nationals.