And Just Been.
The Spring Launch Party at Manns
Both members and potential new members braved the wintery conditions to meet in the Swan in Old Isleworth for a couple of beers, before heading to Manns Beijing for a Chinese. A big thank you to Steve for organising.
TYC Talk by Darren Knights
A good crowd packed into the ground floor of Twickenham Yacht Club to hear Darren Knights talk about his role at the PLA and his part in organizing the Queen's Jubilee floatilla. Darren was responsible for choosing which boats were part of the floatilla, a task which was far harder than anticipated, as unexpectedly, practically all of the boats that applied fitted the strict entry criteria. Darren and his team managed to anticipate just about everything, so despite the appalling weather everything ran like clockwork...or so it seemed. The only thing that nobody had anticipated is quite how long the raised oar salute by the rowers would take....and the delay was such that the organizers were 30 seconds away from having stop the whole floatilla, which would have called early end to the day.
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Darren has a number of ideas as to how facilities and communications for recreational boaters could be improved however as ever getting the budget to put them into action is another matter. With the gradual closure of the Shellhaven oil terminal, a major source of income from the PLA, staff numbers have been reduced and budgets cut. Darren remains upbeat however, and is happy to provide whatever assistance to boaters and clubs on the Thames.
