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to be very loyal , long-term divers . Many have been with the club more than 10 years . ESAC really is a club rather than a training facility , and we ’ d like it to remain so .
Does the club still own a boat ?
The club owns a 4.5m RIB with a 90hp outboard and has access to another similar member-owned RIB . But changes to towing regulations reduced the number of members qualified to tow to the coast . Changes to the demographics in the club also reduced the number of people who were able or willing to organise dives , and for a while the total number of individual dives completed in a year dropped to less than 200 .
How did you get around the towing problems ?
Both boats are based inland , near Chichester , West Sussex , in farm buildings belonging to club members who have moved away from west London . This makes for short local tows to places such as Selsey for dives including the Mixon Hole and the Mulberry harbours . When we go further afield it ’ s normally for a week , so the detour via Chichester is not too big a deal .
So you still do a lot of RIB diving ?
Yes , both boats can comfortably carry six fully equipped divers and , if necessary , second cylinders for a two-dive trip . In recent years the boats have been down to Plymouth and Cornwall . Having our
Try-dives run all year at ESAC .
Diving operations completed on Viper out of Swanage
own RIB is very useful for Dive Leader and Advanced Diver training . This has been difficult over the past 18 months though , because of Covid .
What about charter boat diving ?
While many club members enjoy RIB diving when the weather is favourable , we have more luck with charter boats in poorer weather , as the local knowledge of the skippers often allows for a Plan B , or C or even D to be implemented if the original dive plan gets blown out . Recently , an enthusiastic Chairman and a few enthusiastic qualified members from other local clubs have joined us and they have been instrumental in getting more hard boat diving into our calendar . Being a land-locked club , it also allows us to go further afield on a day trip if no one has to tow . Day trips on charter boats from Swanage and Portland are becoming a regular feature of our diving .
Have your dive stats improved ?
Yes . Our last full year of diving was 2019 , when the club managed 700 + individual dives amounting to 400 plus hours underwater by 30 active members . A liveaboard in Egypt was the highlight of the year . The Chairman ’ s goal for 2020 was to be 1,000 dives , which we would have made , were it not for the dreaded bug . Instead , we managed almost 160 dives with 130 hours spent in the water . Foreign trips had been almost an annual event , but were curtailed due to Covid . Covid scuppered a lot of diving .
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What else has the club achieved in the past year ?
On a Tuesday night , which is our usual pool night , during the three lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 , the club had a busy Zoom calendar of talks and quiz evenings . Talks by external speakers included : - a day in the life of an underwater camera operator ; ECO Dive Cape Verde ; a Maldives marine biologist and plenty of more local topics .