The East Coast AGM was held on 19 November, 2022 at the Walton & Frinton Yacht Club. We’re most grateful to the Club for making us so welcome, providing facilities for the meeting and serving an excellent supper for everyone.
Prizes awarded at the AGM are listed here.
President’s Report
I’ll try to be reasonably brief as I’m sure most of you are fully appraised of the year’s events by Eastcoaster & the website. 2022 has seen a further move towards normality as Zoom Committee Meetings have given way to actual Face to face meetings at Stour Sailing Club as the year has progressed. Meetings have in reality become hybrid occasions, with some meeting in person, while others can join on Zoom. We managed a most enjoyable Burnham Dinner, thanks to Trevor & Elaine, after last year’s AGM, but otherwise our winter program centred on the ‘Boatbuilders’ Futtocks’, our East Coast virtual pub. Members who attended the Association AGM in Newcastle voted it a great success, despite numbers being somewhat depleted thanks to Covid.
Sailing events began with the Tollesbury small boat rally, where the Gaffling ‘Suffling’ accounted for herself very well. The second East Coast Gaffling, ‘Essling’ also took to the water this season. Both are now available for members to use, so why not give them a try? The late Queen’s Jubilee weekend saw the OGA gather on the Deben, where they celebrated another landmark occasion, ‘Clytie’s 100th birthday, all the more special for her having spent her 100 years in the ownership of one family!
Sailing continued with Swallows & Amazons, the East Coast Race at Stone, and a Summer Cruise which ended at another 100th birthday party, this time at Lowestoft, for ‘Excelsior’. The Stour Rally and Norfolk Broads small boat events, rounded off the East Coast OGA sailing programme.
We hope to offer a ‘less virtual’ winter programme this year, starting with a beer tasting at Isaac’s Briarbank Brewery in Ipswich on 3 December, where we have the opportunity to choose our preferred style of beer for next summer’s Jubilee Party for which a Gaffers celebration brew is planned. It seems like too good an opportunity to miss as a winter event and it enables the committee to draw on the membership’s undisputed depth of experience in beer tasting!
Hopefully we can look forward to a fairly full programme for 2023, with the OGA60 Jubilee Celebrations taking centre stage, but more of that later. Already, a lot of hard work has gone into this, for which I’d like to thank our Committee and indeed the extended OGA60 committee for all their help so far.
Sadly we lost two long standing East Coast members during the year. Graham Wadeson, who for a number of years served as our minutes secretary, or ‘scribe’ as he described himself, died suddenly this summer. In October David Lewin passed away peacefully at home on West Mersea, where his funeral was held a few days ago. They will both be greatly missed and our sympathies go out to both families.
Robert Hill, President, East Coast OGA
Secretary’s Report
Hello everyone, it is good to see you this evening. This year, things have felt like they are getting ‘back to normal’, as they say, which is a blessing. I’ll try not to repeat what the President has just said too much, but an awful lot of my secretarial time this past year has been spent dealing with all things OGA60 and our forthcoming Jubilee Party next year. Our OGA60/Jubilee Committee has grown over the last 12 months and we are grateful to those members the President just mentioned, who have kindly joined the existing team. They have put a lot of hours in between them. Thank you.
If you thought it might be a daunting task to arrange such an event as this, at the best of times, try and imagine the added complications of spiralling inflation, contractors reluctant to quote and as yet, working with unknown numbers of attendees! The Committee deserves a big thank you for persevering and attending a huge number of Committee Meetings over the year. Thankyou! It’s probably going to notch up yet!
We have maintained a steady flow of new members throughout the year which is encouraging and a warm welcome to all. Please can I ask for nominations for the Annual OGA Awards to be made asap, either to myself to forward on, or direct to the Association Secretary, Colin Stroud. If you take a look at the website you will be able to study the various categories.
Lorna Hill, Secretary, East Coast OGA
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