WORKING PARTY FEBRUARY 16TH
Another glorious sunny day for getting lots of work done - but not quite all that is needed still! Loads of people turned up, more others than Solos this time, which was just as well as much muscle was needed to lay the rubber matting from the East Ramp into the new Feva park; Nick Marine had about 25 people each side shimmying it into position. It took the rest of the morning moving all the boats back into position. More matting is needed here still, similar to that which is also needed for where the middle path is widened
Barry had a gang erecting a new and somewhat different North Barrier around the Fevas parked on the beach and for this we need to top it with, we thought, ex pre-stretched Main halyard. Does anyone have any more to go with what I have? Offerings to Nick Marine please.Another gang did some massive digging clearing the West Exit. Rob and Bebe helped out here which was very good of them as, with his new RS 200, Rob is not likely to use this bit again.
Rear-Commodore Tenders, Gary Gledhill and gang laid out the new Tender park on the east side of the pontoon, planted their racks, gathered and arranged the tenders and shifted more sand and shingle.
Jane organised the building of a chestnut paling fence round the west end of the dinghy park - a ploy introduced by Nick and the ‘Trustee in charge of Sand’ in an effort to keep out some of the dog walkers and assorted pilferers. This did not quite get finished as the project was delayed somewhat by the emergence, 9” down, of an underground bunker, which necessitated rerouting through the bushes. What did get finished, however, was the outside post and rope fence which was completely dismantled, lengthened and rehung in a manner, hopefully, strong enough to withstand being swung on! Some of the Social Sailing Ladies did a grand job here.
Barry has put in an order for many, many yards of Road Roll but it rather depends on whether it can come already filled with foam. We await developments.
Thanks to Shirley Wiles who arrived at coffee time with some shortbread biscuits which was just as well as all the cake went. In fact, some rather greedy people were noted going round sampling all the varieties, which was not quite the name of the game! The soup was scrumptious and plentiful this day - so thanks to John for that
Another happy note - friends will be relieved to learn that Fiona found her gold bangle caught inside her holdall. George was not amused at all by the extra digging he had had do, searching for it with the help of Ted’s Geiger counter, and warned Fiona to pad her backside before he got home.
WORKING PARTY FEBRUARY 9th (eventually)
What a glorious day - lots of sun and no howling wind! This encouraged a major turnout of over 50 members, about half of which were, of course, Soloists.
You can look at page - Work Parties to see what got done and what remains to be done next weekend, February 16th, and what we hope will get ordered!
Everybody seemed to have a great time and get on with their jobs at a rapid rate of knots. So it was quite amazing how much was achieved. Well no, it wasn’t really, considering the amount enthusiasm and bonhomie that was churning around!
Even our latest rock star turned out and everyone was secretly admiring the effortless way that he slung the sleepers about. Nick is going to have to look to his laurels - going to the gym occasionally is not going to produce that amount of fitness! Actually, both of them went to the Winter Championships, David McGregor coming 9th and Nick 13th, which is not a bad start to the season at all.
Another new Soloist, Nick Webb - Grinling Gibbons is now Doo Dee in memory of a departed cat - was majorly helpful when he finally realised he was building the wrong sleeper wall and moved himself to the appropriate party.
We have several new and passed-around-boats this year, Fred Mundle has a newer version retrieved from Frensham , Zyg has acquired ‘Pretty Fly’, Melvyn has 4444, passing his old boat to Bob Smith, Tim has a new Winder coming and we hope Gerald will also have a new boat. Possibly, I have forgotten some. Rumour has it that Solos are so popular now and that, although the rate of building has increased, anyone hoping to acquire a Winder will have to wait till summer 09!
So thanks to everyone that turned out and to the cake makers, Shirley (Wiles) and Jo, who produced some welcome variations to the standard sponge and to Val who helped with the endless stream of coffees required. Soup became a bit muddled with the Fefa training group but was none-the-less welcome
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