COMMENT
A very happy new year to you all. It is hard to believe that we are already halfway through January and in a short time the Chinese New Year will begin. The last few weeks have been busy times for everybody, not to mention times of 'flu' and other problems but we can all look forward now to Spring, fitting out, putting the boat in, pushing the boat out, in more ways than one and don't forget WORKING PARTIES. Some dates are already arranged and will be found in this newsletter, others are in the pipeline as is the 2004 diary. More about this in the General Committee notes. Have you noticed the new street light in the car park?

Would you like something for nothing? All the books and magazines at the end of the clubhouse will be disposed of along with other things. If you are interested in any of them please take them away soon before the clearance for the roofing, which will take place after the Fitting Out Dinner.

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2003

As all members were notified of the date and the agenda was circulated there would be little point in going over the entire meeting here.

The meeting started on time and was opened by the Commodore. There were a few apologies for absence and the members present numbered about forty-five
THE HON SECRETARY read the minutes of last years meeting, which were accepted, and then Mark went through the year very comprehensively. On the whole the activities of the club had been very successful with sailing, social and house activities being very enjoyable. There had been some changes in personnel as we lost David Rowles as Hon Sailing Secretary due to illness (He is now well on the way to recovery). Simon Markland was thanked for filling the post so ably. We were very lucky that the break-in did not do extreme damage, but there is a necessity for vigilance. Mark finished by saying that it gives him great pleasure to be the club secretary and he is happy to continue.

THE COMMODORE spoke of his first year as Commodore and was very amusing. However Mike told the meeting about the dire sate of the club roof, discussed the proposed building changes and the raising of money. Most people were in full agreement and the work will probably start in January and will be overseen by John Myerscough. Mike thanked all the members who had worked for the good of the club in any way.

THE HON TREASURER had circulated his balance sheet and he went through this answering any questions, which were raised. These were very few as the whole thing was very well presented and obvious even to the uninitiated. David also discussed the work done by those who man the bar and thus contribute greatly to our finances, not to mention those who spend the money! David also talked about the financing of the building project and feels that we will cope as we did with financing the new slips and the sea wall. David thanked P Williams and J Heyworth for auditing, paid compliments to D Warren for his astute wine buying for the bar and Ted Hassel for his help with depreciation.
ELECTIONS. The Flag and Club officers were unanimously re elected. There was one change in the General Committee with the resignation of Bob Chamberlain. The new nomination was for Trevor Meyer. As there were no other nominations all were re elected and the General Committee will remain for another year with this one change.

PROPOSALS. The proposal that Mr J Teire and Mr A Gelder should become Honorary Life Members was popular and so congratulations to them both.

Rule 9d in your current diary should now read. "Any member entitled to vote who desires a particular subject to be discussed at the Annual General Meeting shall give notice thereof in writing to the Hon. Secretary before 31st October.

Byelaw 21 This amendment caused more discussion than anything else in the meeting and many members felt that the amendment was not stringent enough.

The emergency moorings
a. Are for emergency purposes only.
b. Allocation and use for none emergency purposes will be through the Yard and Berth Master on behalf of the Sailing Committee at all times.
c. There should be at least ONE emergency mooring available at all times.
d. A fee per week or part of a week at the discretion of The General Committee be charged to members for:
1.Non-emergency use of a mooring throughout the sailing season (April to October inclusive)
2.Use of a mooring between the months of November to March inclusive.

. The use of the moorings is at the owner's own risk

Increase in membership and boat fees for 2004

The proposals for the new fees as printed on your notification form were accepted unanimously.

A letter had been received from Lorna thanking all members for the presentation she received at Prize Giving and also for the flowers and gifts, which she received. Thanks were also offered to Catherine for her work in the club and the bar.

It was good to see Arthur Mount at the meeting, looking much more like his old self and also to see Mark Miller who had made a great effort to come up from Cornwall.

Finally the meeting came to a close after Charles Lloyd proposed a vote of thanks to the Commodore and all the Flag Officers.

NOTES FROM THE GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING JANUARY 2004-01-13

Apologies were received from Carole Fielding, David Griffiths and Bill Woods.

THE COMMODORE welcomed the members and wished them a Happy New Year. An especial welcome to Trevor Meyer, our newest committee member. Mike went on to outline the responsibilities of each of the committee members, which are the same as before. He thanked Mark Meadows for the splendid organisation of the AGM. The Christmas Party was a great success with good food and music and the New Year Party, run on a 'go as you please' arrangement seems to be getting better each year.
The speaker for the Fitting Out Dinner had to back out at short notice and Mike is in the process of finding a replacement, he will be someone from Royal Mersey Yacht Club.

The business of the boat Cathy is now done and dusted; she will be removed from the boatyard shortly to be repaired by the new owner.

There is excellent news about the Club Lease. It will be renewed from July this year for twenty-one years.

THE VICE COMMODORE Dave reported that there is one change in the Sailing Committee due to the resignation of Austin Bridges. Dave Ward has filled Austin's place.

The landmark (Stephenson's Cross) is in need of repair. Dave is looking into replacing it.

The sailing committee discussed moving the start of the Altmouth Cup race to the International Starting Line near the Albert Dock but the points against far outweighed any advantages and therefore the start will be as usual. To help the O D's with this and with starting other races, Ian Cowell is commissioned to buy a hand pumped foghorn at the Boat Show.

The Yard and Berth master reports that any ladders and dinghies unsecured will be locked. (In the case of ladders this has been done, they are locked to the winch). There is still one mast up in the yard. The owner will be asked to appear in front of the committee with an explanation unless it is taken down immediately.

A new turning/winching point is needed in the yard. Bill Woods will arrange for a digger to make the necessary hole and order the cement and Alan Roe will make the shackle post.

The yellow pillar buoy has come adrift and has now been moved to the dinghy park.

The Club Captain said that the Mersey River Festival would be held on 18th-21st June .Due to difficulty with tides it won't be possible to organise a block booking so please make your own arrangements.

The Spring Working Party will be held at 0.930 Saturday, 27th March. All members should attend.

A Boat Jumble/Auction is to be held on Sunday 25th April. Viewing from 12.00. Start 14.00. Bring your goods on Saturday. See notice board.

BOATYARD SECURITY.

Despite repeated requests there are still those who are too lazy and selfish to be bothered to lock up their ladders.
Whenever boats are broken into it is almost always with the aid of a handy unlocked ladder.
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The Vice Commodore has now locked all the unsecured ladders to the old winch. If you are one of the guilty ones you will need to see Dave or Bill to get your ladder back.

You can of course always saw the lock off or cut the chain. Be advised however that Dave said he has plenty of locks and chain and will continue on his quest to make the yard as secure as practical.

There have also been repeated requests that extension leads must be unplugged if you are not in attendance. This is for both safety and economy reasons. This too is ignored by some. Any such leads will be unplugged.

Dave warns that members who continue to act selfishly may find that they need to explain themselves to the General Committee under Byelaw 14.

D.W. Jan '04

HOUSE COMMITTEE NOTES Dave Warren gave the salient points from this committee. The committee will remain the same with the addition of Phil Wright.

The Bar staffing situation is awaiting further attention.

There is a new telephone in the porch, which can be used in the usual manner. It will probably be moved after the building reorganisation when the plans mentioned in the last newsletter will come into operation.

John Tiere's clock is now fitted, as you will hear when you use the clubhouse.

Some discussion took place about closing the early session on Friday due to lack of attendance. It was decided to keep it open for now.

THE HON SECRETARY Mark gave details of correspondence received. Please see the notice board for Notes to Mariners 2004 and details of the next past Commodore's event 20th March. Letters of thanks have been sent to Rita Gilbury, Alan Tosh and Bill Woods for all their hard work with the Christmas decorations, so important to the clubhouse.

Notice has been received about a Coastal Forum Meeting in Sefton. Representatives from all organisations in any way connected with the coast attend. Phil Wright will represent the club. We are the only organisation with frontage to the coast except the pier, and our bit of coast is eroding. This will take place on Saturday 7th February.

Mark has secured a monthly complimentary copy of the magazine Sailing. This will be made available behind the bar but please do not remove it from the clubhouse.

THE 200 CLUB

The winners for the December draw were 1st prize M. Bullen

2nd prize L Carlyle

3rd prize P Corbishley.

If your subscription is due please don't forget to renew it or if you have never joined this is a good time to consider doing so. The draw makes a valuable contribution to club funds. Get in touch with Mark.

Club Rule 7d Amendment. The word officers shall be inserted and the rule will now read:

The name of candidates for election as Flag Officers, Officers and Members of the General Committee must be submitted to the Hon Secretary in writing together with the names of the Proposer and Seconder and the written acceptance of the nomination by the candidate before 31st October each year.

The amendment to the above Byelaw has been carried out in accordance with Rule 13 BYELAWS

THE HON MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Stan will be posting the annual subscription notices in the next fortnight. Boats will be measured in the next few days.

The Fitting Out Dinner will be held on 7th February. The cost will be £19.00 per ticket. This includes dinner, wine and entertainment by comedian Hal Nolan. Time 7.30 for 8.00 pm

SOCIAL NOTES. Maggie cannot publish the dates of the Social events for this year until the dates of races and other thing are fixed. There will be at least four social events
The Ladies Evening will take place on the same evening 7th February and at the same time as the Fitting Out Dinner. The Ladies will dine in the Hightown Hotel. There will be a list for names on the hatch board. Please sign if you wish to go. The menu will be sorted out at a later date.

The potholes in the road from the gate to the clubhouse need filling. A working party to do this will be held on SUNDAY 1ST FEBRUARY AT 10.30 AM.. Stone has been ordered. Please bring tools as necessary.

THE CLUB DIARY

Work has now started to get this published. If you have any problems with your entry in the diary please WRITE to Mark Meadows with the changes and/or corrections that you need. The request MUST be in WRITING.

THE BUILDING FUND.

The amount raised has changed very little since the last publication and it is very disappointing that less than one third of club members have contributed either by gift or by loan. The work is very necessary and we do NEED your money. Please consider helping.

ICELAND AND THE GEESE.

There is some disagreement in Iceland, home to 90% of the world population of Pink Footed Geese, which come to Britain for the winter. In the North of Iceland where the Pink Footed Geese mainly have their breeding, feeding and moulting grounds the Icelandic Government is building a new hydro electric power plant which will power an aluminium smelter and they are planning to build another in the South.

The government are trying to develop the regions and to provide jobs. They get about 80% of their power from clean sources like geothermal springs. This proposal has been turned down once on the grounds that some thousands of birds will be put at risk. The Secretary General, Environment Minister for Iceland had a further study done and now claims that only 500 pairs of birds will lose their nesting area and they can move to other places. He claims that over twenty years the number of birds has increased greatly and thus the few will not make a difference.

The Ornithological Society of Iceland disputes this. They agree that numbers have increased significantly, due to less hunting and a more tolerant attitude towards the birds and better environmental circumstances in other countries. They also say however that the numbers could very easily decrease if the pattern of the birds' life is disturbed. They also claim that there is a world glut of aluminium and not enough is done to recycle the aluminium waste. In addition they claim that Iceland is home to thousands of other birds, wildfowl, waders and birds of prey and no attention is being paid to how these birds will be affected.

Permission has been granted for the building of the power station, which will be in use by 2007. How is it possible to strike a balance between natural resources and the economy?

ROAD MENDING PARTY. 1ST FEB. 10.30.am

FITTING OUT DINNER 7TH FEB TIME 7.30 FOR 8.00 LADIES EVENING HIGHTOWN HOTEL

SPRING WORKING PARTY. SAT.27TH MARCH 09.30

BOAT JUMBLE AUCTION SUNDAY 25TH APRIL

MERSEY RIVER FESTIVAL 18TH / 21ST JUNE.

NORTHERN BOAT JUMBLES Jnct 18 off M6 21st MARCH. AND 12TH SEPTEMBER '04
PRESTON 7MILES NORTH NR.GARSTANG. MONDAY 3RD MAY

The answer to last month's quiz question was "A vessel over 100 m at anchor.

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