How long has the club been around ?
Clifton SAC was formed in 1986 when a number of members of another local club , Westavon , broke away for reasons lost in the mists of time .
Who are your members ?
We had 50 diving members and 16 social members in 2019 / 20 . They comprised five trainees ; seven Ocean Divers ; 15 Sports Divers ; 12 Dive Leaders ; and 13 Advanced Divers . They cover a wide age range from 20-something to 60-something , and a wide range of interests from photography , wrecks , marine archaeology , marine biology and just a general love of diving and socialising .
Where are you based ?
We meet at the Rose of Denmark Pub in Hotwells , to the west of Bristol city centre , and we share a pool with another club . We have members living over a fair radius of the city .
Tell us about the club boat
It ’ s a four-year-old six-metre Humber Destroyer RIB with a 115hp four-stroke Suzuki engine . We bought it new and the addition of tweaks , including an automatic bilge pump , have made it a pleasure to use . To the surprise of our previous Diving Officer , when the prop was new 40 knots was easily achieved without kit and divers . We have a designated Boat Officer , who ensures the boat is maintained and serviced . We keep the boat at Queen Anne ’ s Battery marina in Plymouth during the diving season , which greatly aids launching . We move it into storage more locally for the winter .
How did you make diving happen during Covid ?
When we were allowed to dive in the summer , a Covid risk assessment was put together , covering travelling , kitting up , distancing and sanitising protocols . We limited the number that could dive to half our previous crew : so only four people were allowed on the boat at one time . We also needed to ensure that we had at least two coxswains out of the four people , so cox ’ ns would get priority booking on the boat . Out of our 50 full members , only a third or less were looking to dive last summer and fewer still wanted to dive from the RIB , so there wasn ’ t much pressure on boat bookings , despite the reduced numbers .
How else did members react to Covid , what did they want from the club ?
In the main , club members have hunkered down . At least one member had severe
Covid . A small number who can dive midweek have managed to be very active ; frustratingly , bad luck with the weather led to a number of club trips on hard boats , such as Tango in Weymouth and Swanage Boat Charters , being cancelled .
Why did you consider changing your membership fee ?
Early on in the situation , the committee had a discussion about fees as our renewal date is at the end of May . We decided to reduce club fees by a third to reflect the fact that there might not be much diving and we would have far fewer outgoings , mainly due to reduced pool fees . ( We normally pay out £ 2,200 a year for the pool .) At that time , we thought , as most other people did , that things would be back to normal by late summer . Had we known what was going to happen , we probably would have reduced the fees more .
What about new members , what have you offered them ?
During 2020 , we had a steady flow of membership enquires , asking about try dives , training courses and just simply going diving . We have recently had three new members join us , partly as
CLUBFOCUS
Rebreathing Rick Ayrton
we organised a Boat Handling course , which attracted two of them . In the current circumstances ( lockdown and out of season ) we have reduced our club fee by half , for the moment . All potential new members have been told about the situation and the club . They have been given details of normal training programmes and fees for when we can restart , and have been told we will get back to them when we can train .
Steve Lamyman , Kirsty Andrews , Dave Bulpitt , off Plymouth
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