I am sorry to start this message with the sad news of the death of Richard Benton, our Boatwatch coordinator. We extend our condolences to Adrienne and all his family. Richard will be missed throughout the Kingsbridge community as he did not confine his efforts only to this club. His work on the Boatwatch scheme has been exemplary, and he will be a hard act to follow.
Our secretary, John Elliott, will be leaving Kingsbridge next month to return to the Midlands for family reasons. John has been an excellent secretary to your committee and would like to hand over to a replacement before he leaves.
Consequently we now have a need for two new committee members, one to take over Richard’s work with Boatwatch and one to become secretary. We really need volunteers from among you, the membership; please get in touch just to talk over the responsibilities and discuss possibilities.
Since my last letter we have had a very interesting evening with Asia Pajkowska, solo round-the-world non-stop yachtswoman. Asia’s description of her trip displayed her mastery of the understatement – when asked to describe the worst moment of the trip she couldn’t think of one. Only a couple of minutes earlier she had described losing her electronic self-steering system, having to manually steer for around fifteen hours until the storm force winds dropped to a mere gale and engaging her Aries wind vane system. This involved working outside the rail, over the stern and assembling intricate parts to put the vane in action. At the other end of the scale the best part of the trip was sailing in calmer waters in the company of albatrosses, whales and dolphins. Asia kept her audience totally engaged for a couple of hours, including questions.
Our next event is our post lockdown lunch at Salcombe Yacht Club on Thursday May 20th. SYC has shown an interest in cooperating with KEBC and we will be exploring possibilities. The lunch is a first step; it will be interesting to see where this leads us and your committee will be happy to hear any comments members might have.
Stop Press! Your events organiser, Linda Lee, has just released the following:
LADY MARY EVENING CRUISE
SATURDAY 26th JUNE leaving The STEAMER QUAY Kingsbridge at 6.30pm
(no boarding before 6.15pm)
£18.00 a head
to include a Pasty and Estuary Cruise
Please bring your own tipple!
Limited numbers so MEMBERS ONLY until THURSDAY 10th JUNE
after that date if any spaces NON MEMBER friends would be welcome
Tickets on Sale from MONDAY 24th MAY
from Linda Lee, The Barn, Coronet Place, Fore Street, Kingsbridge TQ7 1PT
Please enclose
1. Cheque payable to KEBC
2. Choice of Vegetarian/Meat Pasty
3. Stamped Addressed Envelope – tickets will then be sent
Thank you Linda. I look forward to seeing members face to face on Thursday and afloat in June.
Tony Watson.