Watermark February 2022 #215

BBQ at the Probert’s place in lieu of sailing

March          Jan Probert, Rob Lorden, Michael McCook
April            Barry Jones, Roger Hawthorne, Peter Longbottom Lyn Viskovich
  
An important message – aka Commodore’s Report
We hope you all have been enjoying summer, both on the land and for some of you on the water. One thing that the last few months have highlighted is the vagaries and frustrations of planning time on the land and water activities because of the weather, Covid restrictions and unforeseen events. For Manutaki, this meant we did not make Barrier this year.
Similarly the club’s social programme was not able to happen which was a pity as we were looking forward to visiting the Chateau, etc.
It was great to see six boats at Rocky Bay on our 19 February sailing event and having a BBQ on the beach. It was also good to see other boats catching up at various locations over the past few month including our latest members Graeme and Mike on their boat Escape at Bon Accord.
Times are a changing This summer, along with past summers, has highlighted the difficulty of organising a meaningful sailing programme and sticking to it even if the weather is good. It has also highlighted the advantages of being retired and able to go out at short notice when the weather is favourable as we have done over the past months.
The demographics of our club is changing with about half the club no longer owning boats. The committee have recognised the changing needs of members and want to rejuvenate the club as   outlined below for members to provide feedback on, and further discussed later in this Newsletter.
To that end we are proposing that the club focus on both sailing events and onshore events all year round, noting that when a sailing event is cancelled there is often a BBQ to which all club members are invited to attend.
On the Water
For our on the water events, we suggest having a more informal, but simple system (as described later) where members can share their sailing intentions or location with others as has been done over the past few months with texts to likely participants. We also suggest having some locations such as on Waiheke where others can take the free ferry and buses to join us on the beach and not necessarily on a weekend. This would mean we would not have a formal sailing programme as in previous years.
On the land
For our land based activities we propose to have at least one programmed onshore event each month and possibly more. Some of these events will require some organisation and others will be as simple as communicating to members, at short notice, that we are going to a certain place at a date and time so come and join us. This has worked well in the past with up to 14 people attending some events.
Fresh thinking
Our committee up until now has consisted of five couples most of whom have been on the committee for some time, all with boats when they were elected. The committee suggest that we need some fresh blood and need at least two people/couples(?) on the committee that no longer have boats in order to better address the land based activities that members want.
To that end, our AGM is planned for the 25 th of June 2022 and we will be encouraging members to put themselves forward for membership of the committee which meets about 6 to 8 times a year.
One of the positions we will be looking for is a new Club Secretary. We would also encourage members to volunteer for organising one or more social events which could be as simple as telling members that tomorrow, we are catching the 11:30 ferry for lunch at the Onetangi Pub, meet at a certain place for a walk/coffee etc.
Please consider both:
1. Standing for the committee at the coming AGM and
2. Putting your hand up and organising a social event on a specific date of your choosing. If you have some suggestions for a social event, please forward then to Barbara M.
Stay sane out there
Rob

Off Water events
The social committee are meeting within the couple of weeks to organise events
Please forward any ideas or preferences to Barbara McEwan
But feel free to organise an impromptu event

On Water Events
Mar 5th    Old fox #3 Rocky Bay/ Huruhi Bay
Mar 19th  Dinner in French Hot Café Picnic Beach

​​Communication:  On the water and Off
​
Following on from the Commodore’s report the committee have looked at ways to improve communication and involvement with club activities both on and off the water.  We are creating two communication chat rooms through Messenger. One is called “WYC sailors”.  This is for people who are on the water or planning to go out to communicate that what they are doing and where they are heading to.  The second one is “WYC Members”.  This group is for all members to communicate about off water/ land-based activities.  We would like to get everybody onto the WYC Members and anyone who wants to be on the Sailors chat room can whether they are boating or not.
If you don’t already have Messenger can you please download it and let me know when you have done it (probes). It can be downloaded  from the App Store (iphones) or Playstore (android phones) and instructions are given, or find a 8yr old. 
 

Club events and happenings

​The first BBQ in quite a while, Rocky Bay a very enjoyable couple of hours, even thou Wayne is molesting Barb

​The boys cooking, great concentration is required.

For those of us who like fishing, this year has not been a good one.  This is the only thing Jan and I caught after a couple of hours trying, after the Rocky Bay trip

This month's bad joke

Nautical History

Cup of Joe
Josephus Daniels (18 May 1862-15 January 1948) was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his reforms of the Navy were inaugurating the practice of making 100 Sailors from the Fleet eligible for entrance into the Naval Academy, the introduction of women into the service, and the abolishment of the officers' wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard Navy ships could only be coffee and over the years, a cup of coffee became known as "a cup of Joe".
Devil to Pay
Today the expression "devil to pay" is used primarily to describe having an unpleasant
result from some action that has been taken, as in someone has done something they
shouldn't have and, as a result, "there will be the devil to pay." Originally, this
expression described one of the unpleasant tasks aboard a wooden ship.
The "devil" was the wooden ship's longest seam in the hull. Caulking was done wit
"pay" or pitch (a kind of tar). The task of "paying the devil" (caulking the longest
seam) by squatting in the bilges was despised by every seaman.
 
  
Even worst Bad joke of the month
This is something that happened at an assisted living centre.
The people who lived there had small apartments, but they all ate at a central cafeteria.
One morning one of the residents didn’t show up for breakfast so my wife went upstairs and knocked on his door to see if everything was OK.
She could hear him through the door and he said that he was running late and would be down shortly, so she went back to the dining area.
An hour later he still hadn’t arrived, so she went back up towards his room but found him on the stairs.
He was coming down the stairs but was having a hard time.
He had a death grip on the handrail and seemed to have trouble getting his legs to work right.
She told him she was going to call an ambulance but he told her no, he wasn’t in any pain and just wanted to have his breakfast.
So, she helped him the rest of the way down the stairs and he had his breakfast.
When he tried to return to his room, he was completely unable to get up even the first stair step, so they called an ambulance for him.
A couple of hours later she called the hospital to see how he was doing.
The receptionist there said he was fine, he just had both of his legs on one side of his boxer shorts.