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From the Wheelhouse - May 2021
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How the year is flying past, with sailing closing day just around the corner closely followed by Power Opening Day on 1st May.
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Casting my mind back to the last management meeting we seemed to move quickly through the business, and it wasn’t a late night, thank goodness.
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I’m a little late with this month’s article as there seem to be more functions and meetings than days at the moment; so without further ado...
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I had mentioned the GRaP (Governance, Risk and Policy Committee) last Wheelhouse. They have been charged with the job of progressively updating the JD’s (job descriptions) of all staff and committees, including Flags and Captains. This will be a laborious job, but we hope to have the main players JD’s and governance policies before management this month.
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This should be ready to table for the next meeting plus an action plan. This has been a long time coming and will only be a five-year plan as the committee believe the sport and our lifestyle are continually changing.
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The plan controls most of the direction we need to take to keep abreast of times and planning our club’s future.
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The Treasurer seemed quite content as he rambled through his dashboard as this is normally a good sign that the figures at the bottom of the page add up.
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This was only short lived as T&D had a CAPEX on the table for the purchase of two Quest training boats. After some debate, the Treasurer conceded as it had been budgeted for and followed the strategic plan.
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While a little baffling to a non-accountant, the auditor’s have decided to change the way we apply the nomination and pen entrance fees to our P&L. The recent changes to accounting principles require the clubs to apply these over the life period of a member. This will affect how we forecast and the budget. The finance committee has suggested the wording to be changed to a “wait fee” - which the auditors have accepted. The committee has struggled with the wording and hopefully this will be resolved by the half yearly.
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Pen fees have raised their ugly head again - unfortunately as you look over the fees, there are a few issues with how we have been applying the square metre formula. This has created a situation where some of our mid-size pens are well below the going rate. Finance has proposed we establish a floor i.e. the lowest rate per square metre with the view to rectifying this until we reach market rates.
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What does this mean? To put it simply, those members that have been enjoying extremely cheap pen fees will now have the privilege of joining the fees paid by other pen occupiers.
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Maybe we should go back to the “KISS” principal and charge at a lineal metre of the pen length.
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As a result of the feed back to the St Ayles skiffs (4 positive and 1 negative) the Management Committee has decided to underwrite the skiffs to the tune $30K, with the proviso a tax deductable Australian Sports Foundation fund be set up to offset the costs.
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With the end of the tax year on the horizon now is the time to donate to a worthwhile cause in lieu of Scomow’s tax legacy appeal.
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Click on Donate, then Clubs and organisations, explore projects, the next bit is more difficult - open your wallet and donate, you will feel better afterwards. Thankyou.
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With the sailing season closing, there has been a buzz from the Power Section organising opening day and hopefully they will have a full card of events unlike last year.
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With the uncertainty of covid 19 restrictions we have come to an agreement with Australian Sailing to postpone the Australian Youth Match Racing until 2022. There is a proposed women’s regatta in September which we are hopeful will be able to continue.
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In the light of this we will need to replace some of the sails on the BW8’s and re-weigh and tune the boats in readiness for the regattas. A CAPEX of $30K has been approved to facilitate the purchase of sails, repairs and tuning.
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We seem to be in a backwards and forward mode, but all the approvals are in place. To have the walkway frames manufactured we will require shop drawings. To have the drawings we need a draftsman and this requires an engineer as they will be attached to a floating deck (I guess the wobble fact and allowance for gates make it necessary) so we are no closer to the project commencing. Both the works and security committees are working hard to push this along and we are hoping to have a start mid-year.
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We are struggling to make any head way with the replacement of the wave attenuator screens. With the engineer’s report being tabled and costs associated to repair/replace the head stocks increasing, we will need to consider a method to enable us to remove the decking and carry out the repairs, then replace the concrete panels. Not a simple or easy task and the costs make the mind boggle. We are scheduled to sit down with the relevant parties to try and resolve this in the coming weeks.
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We have made some progress on the Quarterdeck Kitchen refurb. The tenders have closed and the evaluation process has begun. We are finalising the air conditioning design for the kitchen as we speak with the 8th of June 2021 being the target start date.
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Our Facilities superintendent, Kerry, is starting to get her feet under the desk and early signs of her hard work and efforts are starting to show. You should have noticed a new email has been set up purely for maintenance, maintenance@sopyc.com.au The idea is to be able to take a photo and send this to Kerry. She in turn can log a job in the system along with the photo. This should alleviate the need to go to site to assess jobs, hence saving time. This system is already working!
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Last Wheelhouse I mentioned we were a bit quiet over summer. I have sat with Kerry and we have uploaded all the planned works onto the data base. The works will be divided into groups with a team leader (Bosuns Mate). The jobs can then be organised, volunteers gathered and jobs completed in a timely fashion. We have also arranged under the control of member, Clive Blowers, an on-water team, comprising of safety boat skippers and crews, mark layers and crews, also a group of advance boat handlers for the start boat and Heathcoat. All members will be trained in RST with a safety vessel endorsement, mark laying and first aid, and advanced vessel handling as required. I know we all can drive and skipper boats, but regattas require ticketed operators. Hopefully, we will be able to build a pool we can draw on when running events, whether power or sail. If interested, please email to commodore@sopyc.com.au and I will pass your details on.
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There is also a need to have a couple of teams, possibly 4 volunteers, trained in crane operations to launch and retrieve the BW8’s. This would be a simple task once a procedure is in place.
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Brian has been extremely busy in finalising the pen agreement and the T&Cs to align the Club pen holders. It will be necessary for us to re-sign the agreement. This is nothing sinister; just good governance. This should have been a requirement years ago.
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The marina is full apart from a few large pens, but it would be nice to be at capacity. If you have the aspiration to be the Admiral of a fleet contact the Facility Superintendent assistant Tina or Brian
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The 75th celebrations are well under way; it was great to see all the efforts by the committee and staff to produce a memorable 75th birthday party and make it such a success. (this is proof I’m running late with wheelhouse as its now in the past tense).
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We have been able to team up with Fremantle Sailing Club on a combined Mess night. This will be in rotation, bringing the ocean to the river and vice versa. Do keep an eye on the date as it should be a good night. Remember (wives, girlfriends, partners are welcome)
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Faulty Towers is back! Keep an eye out for this as tickets generally sell fast.
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Weddings and function have been booking steadily which is good to see.
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F&B have been looking at ways to reduce costs and make it easier to extend our licence. It includes the temporary area of the beachside marque and the centreboard club house. In consultation with Liquor Licencing, the best way is to licence both areas. Word obviously got out and after a little investigation, you will still be able to BYO to the Centreboard area!
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Allan reported that we are starting to see the fruits of the work and energy being put into the OWG training programme. We are seeing this in the juniors sailing out of the club and a continuing interest in the SUP and foiling courses. Not to say this is the only direction we are going, but it does bring people who are interested in sailing and water sports into our club.
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I know I say this all the time, but sincerely, if you have read most of this, you will possibly know more than I do.
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