Eighteen members attended the first event of 2024/5 - our Annual General Meeting on 24th March. The official business was covered in about 45 minutes. Graham Snowdon was thanked for his service and stood down from the committee, to now be replaced by Fred Freeman. Vix talked everyone through the accounts and budget for the coming year - a healthy financial position which has been helped again by income from ITV's filming of detective series 'Ridley'. Darren reported membership close to 100. John led discussion on a variety of issues such as events, coaching, and recent and planned improvements by the Club and our landlord United Utilities.

After a short break we got down to some maintenance work! Eight to ten members got a very useful amount of work done:

• Gary's solo effort cleared weeds from the entire paved area around 3 sides of the clubhouse using our new high powered weed burner. We've never managed to do as much with previous tools/methods even with 4 or more people, so we'll be better able to keep on top of this job in future
• 6 of the 12 timber bollards near the building were replaced and concreted into place (Fred removed the previous rotten/shabby/crooked bollards last week in readiness) - the remaining 6 look good for another few years
• The fence around the central car park 'island' was replaced. Previous posts were rotten and some rails broken. Fred had also prepared for this job by removing all the old timber. A small amount of similar work for the West car park will probably be done by some of our retired members in the next fortnight and we may cap all the posts and paint the new fence
• All padlocks were lubricated
• Some vegetation next to the access road was trimmed, but there's a bit more still to do
• We deliberately postponed pothole repairs to the road. Ridley have paid a contractor to repair the damage from their vehicles. When this is done in April we'll tackle any further work needed ... using the small trailer just bought for this purpose (genius idea from Andy Pepper) which will make it a much easier job than walking several hundred metres with a wheelbarrow!

Let's start by saying avoid collisions at all cost!

Moving on from that important message ... when wind powered craft share the water there are just three rules:

1. When on the same tack, the windward (upwind) craft keeps clear of the leeward (downwind) craft.

2. When on opposite tacks, the port* tack craft keeps clear.

3. When overtaking, the overtaking craft keeps clear.

* You are on port tack on a windsurf/wingsurf/foil board if your left hand is nearest the mast/nose of the board (ignoring switch stance) and the wind is from your left/port side

Another way to remember it is, when approaching head-on, the person with right of way has their right hand forward (ignoring switch stance) and the wind is on their right/starboard side.

The right of way sailor maintains their course and the give way sailor makes an obvious early course alteration. Please also exercise extra caution when approaching someone slower/less experienced.

A sail/wing powered craft technically has right of way over boats with engines, but caution has to be exercised!

When sail/wing powered craft share the water with paddlers all should stay well clear of each other and generally observe the rules above. If approaching head on, both should turn to starboard (right) early on to avoid a collision. The paddler has right of way when being overtaken, so others should give him/her a wide berth.