by Commodore Jim

 

With three blasts of the klaxon, a WW II fleet submarine emerges from the depths.  Shortly thereafter, the order “Lookouts to the bridge” is passed and the lookouts climb up into the periscope shears to view the surrounding ocean to see what’s going on out there.  Well, much the same thing goes on early in the year for a Club such as ours.  We need to look ahead and all about so as to know what to expect.

First, I was again elected Commodore for 2012, so you can expect these From the Bridge items out into the foreseeable future.  For right now, I want to give you an idea for the activities for the Club in the upcoming year.  In January, we had our first ever indoor sailing event at the Mehlville High School pool.  It is indeed nice to be able to sail boats in January in St Louis.  Clear water and no chance of really losing a boat are also both nice features!  If things work out, we will have another indoor event there before the weather gets warm enough to venture out to sailing ponds.  We also again participated in a static display of boat at the Westport Toy Show.

Looking ahead, we will generally have our normal sailing sessions at St Ferdinand Park before our business meetings.  Also dinners at the nearby Appleby’s.  So that pretty much is as it has been in the past.  Last season we had some great times sailing at Forest Park at the Boat House Restaurant, and I will be working to again set up one or more of our Club sailings there.  It’s a fun place to run boats and explain our hobby to the inquiring restaurant patrons.  Depending on how things work out, we may also sail at Benton Park and Kirkwood in conjunction with their activities.  And maybe a couple of other special events that may come along…..

Although we had a relatively light turnout for our Regatta at the Boat House last year, the members found it to be a great place to have this annual event, so I will again pursue this idea with Catering St Louis for possible dates in the fall.  We now have one such Regatta under our belts, and that should make the planning easier.  Having the Regatta under the big tent was really nice.

In the way of strictly social activities, we hope to have a picnic and a Christmas social.  These are nice times to just relax with our members to discuss boating adventures and enjoy the comradeship of being in a Club.  I have learned how important this is, especially for some of our older members who have been Admirals for a long time.

Our Club membership numbers are remaining fairly constant, roughly around 40 members.  We have been blessed with a few new members, which is good.  We are all also getting older, and that factor sometimes causes some special considerations when it comes to holding sailing activities.  But our meeting attendance has been really good as a percentage of our total membership.  We just all need to stay healthy – or try to do so…….

In order to keep things going, we are also going to have to look at our finances for the year.  We have lost three hobby shop sponsors, and that means a reduction of $300 in revenues, the equivalent of the dues from ten members.  While not being a crisis, it does mean that we will have to look a little more closely at where and how our funds are expended.  That may mean better control through sign-ups and a little more financial participation in events that cost the Club money.  The dues will remain the same, but timely payment will assist in our planning.

And we plan to keep things active and informative – and FUN.  Start thinking about model boating activities now, and get busy in the basement so your boats will be ready for spring, or for another indoor pool run.  But whatever you do, let’s plan on having a FUN year together.  “Clear the bridge. Dive.  Dive.  Aoooogah.  Aoooogah.”

Commodore Jim