Chichester Yacht Club Magazine December 2019 | Page 16

By Honorary Secretary
David Pearce
Commodore Tony Mobbs recalled that 2018 had been a year of two halves, starting with the “beast from the east”
but followed by one of the hottest summers ever.
2018 was also the second year of a three-year strategy to return the Club to being a successful, thriving and sustainable
sailing club, both locally and within the Solent. This focused on the four strategic themes of increasing membership,
training, non-membership income and investment in the infrastructure.
We faced a number of challenges in 2018. One of these was to comply
with the new data protection regulation (GDPR) and thanks were given
to Philip Brown and Kate Williamson who steered us to compliance with-
in the legal deadline.
In early 2018 we were faced with the need to refurbish the kitchen and
food preparation areas which meant replacing the ancient extraction sys-
tem and install a new floor. The result was faster delivery of food orders
and more efficient catering for functions. We also installed a new coffee
machine, improving both quality and range.
Outside the building, we continued to improve the gardens and foreshore,
including the initiation of an ambitious
Waterfront Project to support dinghy sailing and training, about which more
information later.
As a result of this continued investment we saw significant membership
growth to just over 1,000 in 2018, on track for our strategic plan.
External events continued to grow income, generating over £100,000 profit
for the Club. Part of this was down to our licence to perform marriages
and civil partnership ceremonies, which paid for itself within the first year.
The accounts show that all this has led to annual revenue over £1million for the second year running, which raises
questions over how much longer we can rely on volunteers to perform critical support activities.
On the water there was a very active season, with a good mix of shorter cruising and longer voyages to the Continent
and the West Country as well as our summer and very popular winter dinghy racing programmes. Formal RYA courses
continue to be very successful and are usually fully booked well in advance. Use of the Club’s own boats has
introduced more members to dinghy sailing.
Off the water, we continued our engaging programme of events,
including the very popular section social nights, winter lectures,
rambles and quiz nights, together with two special interest groups
– art classes and Pilates/yoga classes.
The Commodore praised the collaboration and team effort that
went into running the Club, thanking General Manager Manu Jenkin
and her team of over 70 full-, part-time and casual staff. He also
thanked the General Committee members who were standing
down for their individual contributions to managing the Club: Kate
Williamson, Robin Hamilton, Bob Spencer and Mark Green who
will continue as Webmaster.
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