The Committee held a special meeting on 17 March to discuss the impact on the Club of the Coronavirus pandemic.

We had a lengthy discussion on what to do with the coming events scheduled by the Club. Unfortunately, we all came to the conclusion that we had no choice but to cancel the Ladies Night and to postpone our Crane In.

We also agreed that to arrange a future date for Crane In without knowledge of the way this crisis will pan out would be pointless at this stage. Forsyths, our crane company, advise that there should be little problem with our re booking for a weekend hire at short notice at some time in the future.

To give some background to our decision, we discussed the following:-

– the current Government guidelines and directives
– the numbers of people necessary for crane operations with regard to safely and close proximity of the members
– the requirement of those members with underlying illnesses and those aged over 70 to have minimum contact with others
– the pressure on members to prepare their boats and moorings in the next 3 weeks whilst trying to limit contact with others
– the responsibility of individual members to look after their own health and that of their families
– the negative way we may have been viewed by the community as all local events have already been cancelled
– we would have no idea of the numbers available on the actual day to either help or be around to crane in their boats due to illness and self-isolation
– we would not be able to crane in some boats and move others out of the way if the owners would not, or could not, be present
– whilst in the past we have operated with nominated helpers to launch boats where the owner is not available, in the current situation there is no guarantee that the nominated helpers would even be available
-l astly we are aware that not all members would wish to launch their boats, or have them launched for them, and this would considerably increase the cost to others.

The Club will of course not be out of bounds to anyone wishing to continue preparing their boats and moorings for a future launch or use the Clubhouse.

The Committee are sorry we had to make such a decision, the first such ‘shut down’ since World War II. We trust that we have your support on this decision and we can look forward to enjoying ourselves on the water, albeit a bit later than normal. In the meantime please follow the Government’s advice and keep yourselves and your family safe.

Phil Whetton, Commodore