Rockley Cruising Club

January 2010 Newsheet

Welcome to 2010 and a Good New Year to you all. May this year bring Good luck and Good sailing!

The AGM on the 21^st November was both an enjoyable and successful occasion with plenty of opportunity to 'catch up'. Not much has changed: The same officers remain in place for another year and perhaps more importantly, membership costs have been held! Tony and Debbie were awarded The Presidents Cup. The minutes of the meeting and the entries for The Presidents Cup will be published in 'The Bulletin' in the spring.

An invitation to renew your membership is enclosed. Please help me and be prompt in your renewal!

Please come along to our planning meeting for 2010 and give your ideas on what we should be doing!

Please make a New Years Resolution to write of your experiences during the season and enter for The Presidents Cup next year. We all enjoy someone else's experiences!

Immediate events.

Saturday 23^rdJanuary

2010 Planning Meeting at The Black Bear in Wareham.
Come at 12 o'clock and order your lunch from the pub menu, then catch up on gossip with members before lunch and then the meeting.
Planning meeting at 13.30.
New ideas will be particularly welcome!
The programme will be what you, the members, want!

Please tell Sandra if you intend to come.
(Just to be able to give the pub notice)

PHC News

The ferry operators are expecting 2010 to be a 'challenging' in terms of traffic and despite Senior Harbour Authority staff visiting ferry HQ in Cherbourg, I hear on the BBC South News' that Brittany Ferries (therefore Barfleur) are likely to move to Portsmouth next year.

The Poole Harbour Steering Group, which includes Reps from Natural England (Gov. Advirors and have great powers under EU legislation!), The Environment Agency, Purbeck DC and Dorset CC, have met and discussed 'eel grass, The Poole Aquatic Management Plan, The Shoreline Management Plan and Long Island'. It's good to know that PHC are on our side (latest PYA/PHC meeting), particularly for eel Grass. Natural England seem intent on 'protecting wildlife' against all else.

Mooring costs this year have been published as:

Harbour Dues	£8.35/m/yr	tenders exempt
Swinging Moorings	Up to 8m £500	8 - 10m £575	10 - 12m £650

Not strictly within the harbour, but I expect many of us have seen that the surfing reef off Boscombe is now operational.

Report from PYA/PHC

Tenders were due for return by December for the second bridge with the selected tenderer to be announced early in the New Year. Building is expected to start in February, assuming the tender was within budget. Some clearance work in Holes Bay has already been completed.

Moorings in Holes Bay were being re-designed to maximise the number of worthwhile moorings.

The Dep. HM reported that most mooring failures in the harbour were due to failure of 'top gear' from the buoy to the boat and recommended frequent checking of this and to ensure it was suitable.

The safety record of the harbour remained 'good' with clubs dealing with errant members internally.

Additional measures were likely to be in place for the Bournemouth Air show next year. These would include:-

More bridge openings after the end of the show and the availability of mechanics and divers.
A harbour 'Notice to Mariners' would be issued to cover the detailed arrangements before the event in 2010.

Permission had been given to dredge and dispose of, 20,000 cubic metres of silt within the harbour. Poole Quay Boat Haven has been dredged under this permission and the licence could in future be extended to other club and commercial marinas.

Apologies were given, particularly to members of Poole YC, for the imposed picture on the PHC web-site of a cruise ship off The Turning Basin. It was in error! The ferry companies weren't happy either! Should this ever be likely to happen, full consultation was promised.

Members were reminded, that although some speed restrictions were relaxed within the harbour during the winter, this DOES NOT include the Harbour Entrance, where a 10kn speed limit still exists!

Report from the PHC Public Meeting.

This was held on Thurs 26^th Nov. in the harbour offices. Some 100+ people attended - public, by invitation only! A generally up-beat report on the finances of the harbour was given, also a report on the activities of the Marines within the harbour. There were no great revelations to affect us.

I have a copy of the PHC Annual Report.

The buffet after the meeting was up to the expected high enjoyable standard.

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