Around 40 members and guests attended this year's AGM, held again at the New Inn Rockland.  Six intrepid boaters (4 boats) arrived by water, or, rather, crawled and slid their keels through the mud of Rockland Dyke during an incredibly low tide.  Several pints had to be taken before the meeting to recover from this ordeal.  The Commodore was rather glad to have left Vixen in Reedham and booked a room in the pub instead.

After welcoming people, Margaret gave her Commodore's report as follows:

"When I was elected as Commodore last November, my main aims were to consolidate the club and to build on our links with other clubs.  I hope we have made progress on both those fronts.

There was quite a bit of change on the committee this year, with a new treasurer and some new members.  Will, Bob and I have been working over the year on consolidating our membership base and tidying up the record keeping - more of which later when we come to Item 7 on the agenda.  Sadly, we lost John Tunwell and Gerald Wells during the year, but on a more positive note, we have gained new members from EACC.

Sally, Pixie and Sabrina 2 from EACC joined us for Reedham Regatta and it was pleasing to see positive comments from them afterwards on social media.  We are hoping to forge closer links with EACC, especially as they are a similar club to ours and a joint night out in January is in the planning, as you can see from the proposed programme.

We have had closer links with Beccles Amateur Sailing Club this year too.  Not only did they finish the Perryman Race for us, as usual, and put on a splendid barbecue in the evening, but they also kindly supplied safety boat cover for Breydon Regatta.  We also invited their Commodore and his wife, Richard and Caroline Baylis to join us at our annual dinner last February.

The Vice Commodore of the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk , Kingsley Farrington, also joined us at that event, along with his wife Janet, representing their Commodore, who had a previous engagement that evening.  Of course, we also enjoyed a very successful club cruise to Lowestoft at the end of August.

One proposed inter-club venture that didn’t work out was the planned Brown Boat racing weekend at Cantley in May.  We were keen to run this, but unfortunately the class felt they did not have enough entries to make the event viable and called it off.

Numbers for our regattas generally held steady this year.  Reedham was boosted by visitors from EACC, as previously mentioned, but the turn out for Breydon was disappointing, perhaps partly because of the extremely windy conditions, but also because of a birthday party on the northern rivers.  This affected the overall total of yachts racing with us throughout the year, which was down to just 27 different boats this year from 38 last year.  Despite this, it is pleasing to see a higher than usual number of qualifiers for the Luna Barometer, with ten yachts in the running and another six boats which only needed one more result.  This trophy will be presented at the annual dinner, of course.

In March, I attended an RYA evening at Horning, which was intended to suggest ways clubs could increase numbers racing with them.  It was gratifying to discover that we already did many of the suggested points, but of course there is always room for improvement and new ideas are always welcome.

I am aware that not everyone likes this venue for our AGM and some would like the Turkey Race to move back to Reedham.  I can assure you that both these matters are discussed by the committee each and every year, but feedback from members will always be listened to and, if anyone can think of a different venue, on the northern side of the river, that is suitable for holding our AGM , please let us know!

Finally, I would like to thank Bob for his support as Vice Commodore, Will for agreeing to take on the role of Treasurer, which I realise has not been an easy task this year, Neil for endless hard work behind the scenes looking after the club’s racing equipment and all the rest of the committee for their help and support throughout the year.  Grateful thanks are also due to those who have helped out running raffles and raffolas and those who have been officers of the day and otherwise helped to run races.  I am not going to name you all for fear of missing someone out, but you all know who you are and thank you.

The committee have also decided that they wish to recognise the long contribution of Pam Wells to this club.  She was a founder member and our first secretary and has been an active member throughout, sailing many races with Gerald and latterly as a regular attender of events in a social capacity.  To mark this, the committee unanimously agreed to make her a life member of the club.

Three committee members are standing down this year.  Betty has been on and off the committee for a few years now and has decided it is time to stand down again.  We will miss her contributions, but hope she will still be available at regattas to help out if asked. (Flowers and chocolate presented)

Mark is also hanging up his committee hat.  He was, as you all know, instrumental in founding the club in 1985 and we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude for that.  Can any of you imagine a world without the Yare Sailing Club in it?  He has been commodore no less than five times and has been on the committee, I guess, for 31 years. (Wine and a framed photograph of Melody presented)

Last, but not least, you will all know that John is standing down as Secretary after five years in the job.  John, you asked me not to keep thanking you throughout the year, on the grounds that you were only doing your job, but I’m afraid there is no escape now!  So, thank you very much for all your hard work and organisation and thank you for putting up with me always wanting alterations when you send me paperwork.  You’ve seemed very tolerant, but of course I don’t know what you say behind my back!  We have all seen how hard you have worked at club events, particularly keeping waitresses in order! But I know you also do an enormous amount of work behind the scenes to make sure our events run smoothly.  Julia was a hard act to follow, but you succeeded admirably. (Whiskey and a painting of Pandora III presented)

Finally, I would like to thank you all, as club members, for supporting this club. As I’ve said before, without our members we would be nothing.  Many of you support every event and I think that is a real testament to the hard work that the committee put in each year, as well as being of great encouragement.  I was not expecting to be nominated for another term as commodore next year, but should you elect me, I hope we can continue in the same successful vein.  Thank you."

John, as secretary, then outlined the season's events, noting that it had been another successful year.  He also thanked everyone, naming names and being confident that he was not missing anyone out.  Will Armour, after presenting the accounts,  was proposed as our new Secretary and Christine elected in as Treasurer to replace him. A trip on the River Orwell was proposed by Mark Wells and met with enthusiasm.  A survey was taken to gauge interest in reviving a club cruise in the summer and there seemed to be sufficient take up to warrant arranging two weeks, one in July and one in August.

Following the meeting an very good meal was enjoyed in the usual convivial atmosphere.  A latish night for some was followed by breakfast in the pub for 8 people before dispersal in rather better weather than the previous day.