Commodore Bit

Firstly, welcome to all our new members. It's been an eventful quarter. We lost a much loved member in Maggie Rogers. Held the annual club open weekend. Went, ready to compete, in this year's Mid Thames Trophy, started a Wednesday afternoon series and our SigneTs kicked off their annual open series at Little Paxton, we sailed at Bewl Water during the late May Bank Holiday,and we held the annual regatta, Jazz night and barbecue .

The more observant of you might also have noticed that Bodgett & Son have also all but completed the extension at the upstream end of the club. Nice and homely as Aquarius SC is, it is in need of an amount of modernization, hopefully without changing its intrinsic character too much.

Last year we re-modelled the patio area, rebuilt the gallery floor, updated the bar area and addressed the club's electrical problems. Now we have a useable area which will be used purely as a storage facility to clear the rest of the club of items that are only used occasionally (i.e. stacking chairs, tables, cupboards, table tennis table, patio furniture, barbecue and of course sail bags, foils and clothing.) The men's changing room has also been partially refurbished as part of the job.

The cost for phase 2 development has now been approved and work commenced. The floor and toilet have been replaced, and we are about to finish panelling the walls. These improvements are not just for us. They will help with attracting new membership and be something that visitors can use.

Next year Aquarius will be expected to host the Mid-Thames Trophy. A year ago I don't think we could have provided the necessary internal facilities but now we have a plan and are pursuing it.

Alongside the internal improvements we now have a reasonably well balanced number of club dinghies supported by a reliable safety boat. We also have an excellent website and, although I say it myself, a not too shabby newsletter.

I'm proud of Aquarius; it's a great little club but it can't stand still. To secure its future we continually need to improve it and attract new members.

Certainly all the things mentioned in this article were directed toward achieving this, I hope you agree. The other thing about 'Bodgetts projects' is that they are great team builders. You start with a core team, call people in with the experience needed, add some willing hands and before you know it, job done.

I hope that all the new members, mentioned below, who have joined AQSC this year are enjoying the experience and that the club is all they'd hoped it would be. We try to meet people's expectations but we are only human and sometimes things slip through the net. So if any of you have problems, or suggestions, PLEASE talk to a member of the Management Committee and hopefully we can sort things out.

From the club's point of view it's great to see so many of you sailing on a regular basis, even going down to Bewl Water over the Spring Bank Holiday. There will be another opportunity to go to Bewl over the August Bank Holiday.

Mike (The Commodore) Baker