Chichester Yacht Club Magazine August 2019 | Page 3

Firstly, this month I would like you to join me in congratulating Juliet Brecknell for winning
the RYA 2019 Award for Lifetime Commitment. Juliet has been a member of Chichester
Yacht Club for over 40 years and during that time she has dedicated much of her time
to supporting the Club and Dinghy Sailing in particular. She, together with her husband,
David, has been an active sailor encouraging both adults and youngsters to sail. She has
be a major contributor to the success of our volunteer-ran tea bar. For many years she
has organised the rotas, ordered food and been the welcoming face to our members
coming off the water. Much of the current success of the Tea Bar has been down to
Juliet’s hard work over many years. Juliet has been a key member of our Dinghy Week
support team which helps organise and arrange the children to start sailing and have fun
on the water. She has been the very much go-to person during our week of junior
sailing. Over recent years since Juliet has retired from full-time sailing, she now supports
our open meeting programme. She organises the race entry desk, so she is the
welcoming face of Chichester Yacht Club to our many visitors coming to the Club.
This role involves checking the race entry forms, taking the monies due and reconciling the accounts at the end of the
day. This is a critical volunteer role and one Juliet executes with flare and
enthusiasm. Well Done.!
I was honoured to be invited to a seminar on Microplastics in Chichester Harbour, sponsored by the Harbour
Conservancy and hosted by Chichester Yacht Club. The seminar discussed recent research by Brighton University on
the levels of microplastic in the harbour and its effects on the wildlife. The levels have now reached levels which could
pose a significant risk to the human food chain. We, as both individuals and harbour clubs, can play our part in helping
to reduce the levels of plastic in the harbour. The Club has introduced a new policy on single-use plastic and we are
working with our partners and suppliers to discuss their plans to reduce/remove their use of single- use plastics. I
believe the Club is taking a strong leadership role in this area within the harbour, by raising the awareness amongst
pour membership and, in particular, within our youth section. To this end, this year during our Dinghy Week we
introduced a “Beach Clean” activity. My thanks to Christina Hall for organizing the event and to Kate Whitton from
the Marine Conservation Society for their support and help.
A group of Club volunteers collected several bags of plastic and other
material from the shoreline by Coppras woods. A survey of the contents
has now been sent to the European Commission to incorporate into their
review across the UK We are planning further Beach Cleans later in the year
and possibly in conjunction with Dell Quay Sailing Club. I am also hoping we
can find time within future RYA Training courses to incorporate a Beach
Clean within their training to help raise the awareness among our
Younger members.
It seems strange thinking about the Club’s AGM in October during the height
of our summer sailing season, but your General Committee is already looking
towards next year. The Club relies strongly on our member volunteers to help make both the Club and our sections
run smoothly. The General Committee is currently exploring different operating structures for next year which I hope
will reduce the loading on some of our volunteers and open up the possibilities for personal development and
give-back to the Club. I will talk more about this next month. If you could find few
spare hours in your hectic lives
and would like to assist me in ensuring the Club remains a vibrant, exciting and
successful community then do contact me.
Hope to see you at the Club soon and Happy sailing.
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