MINUTES OF THE 39TH
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Held at the Royal Harwich Yacht Club Woolverstone Suffolk on Saturday 18 June 2005 commencing at 1900.
Present: Chairman John Williams
Treasurer David Liddington
and 17 members
The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming the members present and particularly those from Falmouth.
1) Apologies were received from Geoff Bacon, Henry Baker, Chris Brown, Mike Conlin, Delia Hazell, Glen Litherland, Jeremy Prosser and Peter Wright.
2) Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting held at St Mawes on 31 July 2004. These had been circulated. Proposed by Doug Sharps and seconded by Richard Chenery, these were approved unanimously and signed by the Chairman.
3) Matters arising. The Chairman apologised that the acceptance form for the boat owners list had not been circulated. This would now be sent out to members by the Treasurer with the 2006 subscription notices.
4) Chairman’s Report. This had been circulated to members. John Williams said he had nothing further to add. Proposed by Bob Tate, seconded by Ewen Stamp, the report was approved by the meeting.
5) Treasurer’s Report. David Liddington stated that the result of the year was a deficit of £334. This was due to the cost of printing the Handbook and the agreed costs of storing the Mould including a contribution to John Selby who had stored it for many years at no charge to the Association. He would be asking for an increased subscription to meet escalating costs. Funds in hand at 31 December 2004 were £1370. There would be no distribution to the individual fleets as in past years because of increased commitments.
£500 of Premium Bonds were held by him personally for the benefit of the Association, the numbers of which were shown on the Balance Sheet.
6) Approval of Accounts. Proposed by Gordon Sutton and seconded by Kelvin Douglas that the Accounts be approved. All were in favour.
7) Election of Officers and Committee
The Chairman said that this meeting marked the end of the five year period for the East Coast Fleet to provide the Chairman and Secretary. These tasks would now be undertaken by the South West Fleet. Cedric Thomas had agreed to be Chairman and Simone Kennett would act as Secretary. David Liddington was willing to continue as Treasurer and Anthony West as Auditor. The present committee members of Doug Sharps, Frank Norman and David Mayne for the East Coast and Bob Edwards and Anthony West for the South West Fleet were willing to continue. A new member would be required from the South West in place of Cedric Thomas.
The meeting expressed their grateful thanks to John Williams for all his hard work on behalf of the Association over the last five years and also to Peter Wright as Secretary. It was agreed to take these en bloc. Proposed by James Skellern and seconded by John Selby, the new Officers and Committee were welcomed with acclamation.
8) 2006 Championships. These would be held in July at St Mawes at a date to be agreed. This would be circulated as soon as known.
9) Rules regarding the building of new boats. (Motion 3)
John Williams opened the debate by reporting that Cedric Thomas and David Liddington had that day inspected the mould. Their view was that the condition was reasonable except that the external supporting frames had been removed and the hull mould would need to be set up in a jig to ensure that the original shape was restored. The hull mould was longitudinally sound. John Selby said that Halmatic after making the mouldings would put the deck moulding on and clamp the hull and deck together. The last and only yacht made at Shotley did not have a jig to true it up and when they tried to fit the deck on top, they cut the stringers to force the hull out to fit.
A new keel pattern would be required to conform to the measurements of the majority of yachts as the old pattern had long ago been lost.
David Kerridge said that it would be possible to measure hulls for evenness in performance by an accepted rocking test used by other classes. (The "Lamboley Test")
Peter Nicholls said the Class had to answer the question, did we want more boats? Could the mould produce more mouldings to be of the same characteristics as those of 40 years ago? Ewen Stamp said – was there a market? John Williams thought that at least £20k would be the cost of a new boat but the meeting regarded this as a low estimate.
Thanks to John Pack who had transported the mould to Ipswich, it was now under cover and would not deteriorate. David Kerridge said it was not a problem to retain it other than storage costs of £30 per month?
The Chairman referred the meeting to his discussion document which had been circulated. There were three points to answer.
i) Should we keep the moulds or destroy them?
ii) If kept, should we allow amateur build?
iii) If kept, should we only allow professional building?
After further debate, it was pointed out that the Association was the final arbiter as to who could mould and fit out new yachts. A specification could be produced for the hull moulding, the original lay up detail having been lost. John Selby was willing to obtain quotations for restoring the moulds and for the cost of a finished set of mouldings. He and David Kerridge could produce the specification to include the new keel pattern. A surveyor would cost approximately £150 to measure a selection of hulls for lay up purposes. For information, a new Squib was selling at £13500 ex sails.
The meeting then considered the formal resolutions:-
i) To retain the mould in store at the Association’s expense.
This was proposed by Tony James and seconded by John Selby and carried unanimously.
ii) To allow amateur building. No vote was taken on this because the Association retains the right to nominate builders in future.
iii) On the basis that there may be a demand, to define the specification for new hulls, decks and keels. It was suggested that a technical team of David Kerridge and John Selby could be granted a budget to pursue the task of compiling the specification using the services of a surveyor as required.
After further debate, it was proposed that “The Association agrees to allocate up to £400 for the provision of the first stage of a draft specification”. This was proposed by Doug Sharps and seconded by David Pearce and put to the vote. The result was 15 in favour plus 1 proxy vote and some abstentions. There were none against.
The Treasurer confirmed that he had paid an initial 6 months rent for the mould storage including insurance totalling £208, the annual cost being approximately £400.
10) Membership Subscriptions. These were agreed at double the previous rate i.e. £12.00 per member.
11) Any other business.
David Liddington presented John Williams with a small gift for his hard work as Chairman.
There being no further business, the meeting closed at 1950.
Chairman Date