The Porthole - March 2016

Commodore's Section
Dear Members
You may have noticed that last month’s E-News had a new look and more functionality through links and electronic booking capability. We have decided to re-brand the monthly bulletin “The Porthole”. It will be your window into the Club and as well as updating you on relevant news in the Club and the community, it will be your guide to what is going on both on and off the water, with the ability to book in to events and courses directly from the text. The idea being that, if you choose to, you should be able to organise most of what you do at the Club through The Porthole on your smart-phone, tablet or laptop from wherever you may be in the world, without having to go to either the website or the notice-board or phone the office! We will refine The Porthole over the coming months to make it as useful and user-friendly as possible: your comments are most welcome – please send them to Daniel - daniel@bembridgesailingclub.org

We are also in the process of developing a new website. The current one is cumbersome to use and time-consuming to keep up to date and as a consequence is not as useful to members as it should be. Our new website will be fully interactive, easy to use from a computer, smart-phone or tablet and should be a vast improvement on the existing website. We are planning to have the new website up and running by mid-summer. More details will follow in due course.

I am delighted to inform you that at its meeting earlier in the month the Management Committee decided that Dorian Campbell should be proposed to become our next Rear Commodore (House) at this year’s AGM. Dorian pursued a successful career in the catering and hospitality industry, lives in Bembridge and has supported Lisa when needed during her time in office, so she is very well qualified for the role.

Please join me in extending a very warm welcome to all of the new members detailed below who were elected at the recent Management Committee meeting. I would also like to welcome the Revd. Dr. Amanda Bloor and her husband, Mark, who became honorary members at the same meeting. Amanda is the Priest in Charge, Bembridge and has agreed to become the Club’s Honorary Chaplain.

In a fitting tribute to the memory of one of the Club’s most distinguished sailors the Management Committee also decided, with the Janson family’s agreement, that the racing mark “Patch” should be re-named “Janson”, in memory of Johnny.

Easter is not far off and it will now not be long before keelboat and dinghy sailing starts up again. We are very grateful to Michael and Miranda Acland and Alastair and Fiona Gornall who have, respectively, donated a Topaz and a laser to the Club. Together with the two Fevas that we are acquiring for BSDC, this enables us to offer a wide range of dinghies for hire to cadets wanting to start sailing or move up to different boats, but for whose parents acquiring a boat doesn’t currently make sense. We hope this will further encourage cadet sailing and enable more children to attend our courses.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Club over the Easter break.

Hugh