|
AREA STAFF OFFICER BOATS
MOD BOAT PROCUREMENT: MOD has delivered 6 Halmatic 19's this year at a cost of around £300,000 but no additional budget for maintenance, As reported in HQTM's funds for this years biennial survey and repairs has been spent and reduced by 80% for
subsequent years, suggest that the future of MOD power craft is in doubt unless some agreement is made. Laser Pico's are still being purchased and a small number of Laser 2000 to go into boat stations. There has been no replacement found for the ASC and some consideration is being given to a two man Scull called the Yole ( www.virusuk.demon.co.uk/yole/index.html ), it is made of plastic and is virtually maintenance free costing about £2000 each (Awards for all max £5000 could buy two).
AREA SAILING: Due to restrictions in the number of boats held at SCTC Thrapston I am finding it more difficult to loan boats for the Area event. Units should be encouraged to bring their own boats to this Trail and Sail event, boats will in future only be loaned to those units that have no boats of their own or are unable to borrow from units that have boats but are not entering the Regatta.
NATIONAL SAILING REGATTA: 2005 We held the race training at the Eastern Area Boat station at Thrapston, the weekend before the event for cadets in Bosun, Laser Radial, Pico, Topper, and Windsurfers. We arrived at the event in confident mood. In the sailing we had mixed success and maybe some poor calls from the race committee which resulted in a number of our team losing first place in the 1st and 3rd race, this race being abandoned after about a third of the fleet had finished. The windsurf event went very well with 7 gold and 3 silver medals to show and both senior and junior National Champions.
NATIONAL COMBINED REGATTA: This years regatta was held in London for the first time, at the Excel centre for accommodation and on the water at the Royal Victoria Dock. The accommodation for the cadets was a large exhibition style hall one each for the boys and girls. The staff in conference rooms on an upper floor. The water areas for the various competitions were good and spectators were treated to an excellent view. The Area team put on a good show with Flitwick & Ampthill getting Gold in sail boathandling, Nottingham Silver in pulling Boathandling and Northampton gaining second in Junior girls pulling and third places in both boys pulling events giving us 3rd place overall. Unfortunately we were unable to hold onto the Bell Davis cup this year.
BOATING ACTIVITY: SCTC Thrapston; has been returned to Eastern Area from SCC HQ and John Chambers has retired after many years of excellent service to the corps. This has resulted in several changes to the staff, Lt SCC R Theobald RNR has taken on the role of boat station Superintendent and I am now the RYA Principal. This has left us with a short fall in senior instructors and instructors without whom the boat station cannot operate. This combined with the electrical problems in the early part of the season meant that ABW1-4 had to be cancelled. The electrical problems have now been resolved and courses are
running again. ABW5-10 has provided over 50 cadet qualifications and lots of experience in working to the next level. BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! There is still a shortfall of
instructional staff and help is still needed in this area, please support your area boat station in any way you can. A number of adults have attended National training courses in Pulling and Power.
TARS 2003: There has been a great deal of discussion about the current TARS and the difficulties that they give unit and boat stations. I had hoped that the Sea Cadets would
rewrite a clearer version just for us; I still await this but have been told any rewrite will not be till 2007!
PULLING: Pulling certificates should be revalidated every 5 years with evidence of
teaching and a current first aid certificate. However my database taken from RNI paperwork shows this is not happening. Please note that it is a requirement of the pulling scheme to notify the ASO boats if planning any instructor training. You are reminded that to use your qualification you must hold a valid first aid qualification. Are you still an instructor?
R C MAYNARD
LT CDR (SCC) RNR
ASO (BOATS)
|
|
