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1st May 2014

Greetings!

I am pleased to say that I have finally got around to giving the BCC website an overhaul and its now fully up to date and is a better reflection on the club and what we do.

Brentford Bock Marina is operating at near capacity currently and some new boats have brought the club some new members.  I am pleased to welcome, Allen and Martin from The Flying Squid, and Scott from Wanderer II to the club. The owners of a couple of the other new boats are also planning to join adding some new boats to our little fleet.

The costs of running the club, sending these e mails, hosting the website etc are met by members subscriptions. I would therefore be grateful if those of you who have yet you pay your 2014 subs would please send Christine a cheque or make a BACS payment asap.


Best wishes
Andrew Kirkwood
Commodore

Assn of Thames Yacht Clubs Update

The ATYC has sent us an update on their dialogue with the Environment Agency and it appears that an EA budget cut of �1m announced. 

 

The largest "saving" as part of the �1,000,000, has been identified as �370,000 from the budget for Summer Relief Lock Keepers (from 26 down to 18), and NO Summer Assistants at all this year. These are front-line positions as far as boating customers are concerned and will directly impact on the level of pleasure to be enjoyed from our time on the river. In the upper reaches, we are being told to expect 'Self-Service' throughout the year and most of the rest of the river will see reduced service levels throughout.

 

Lack of lock staff does not only make going through locks more difficult it takes two or three times as long to transit an unmanned lock (especially the beam locks above Oxford) as compared to a manned one. At peak times this leads to major delays, frustration, danger (as boats hover because lay-bys are full) and anger. It also means that more people will move faster between locks in order to maintain some sort of reasonable schedule. Not exactly what we are looking for! Protests from boating representatives were met by the comment from EA Board Member Mr. Peter Ainsworth, "The public are not interested in boats and boating". It is not a big step from there to "Neither is DEFRA or the Agency", which is certainly the impression with which one is left.

 

All of this, of course, is in parallel with above-inflation increases in license fees. Another example of the Agency's attitude that 'boaters are all rich, they can afford it'

 

ATYC, along with all other boating representatives have worked hard to mitigate the excesses of the River Management. It is hard to quantify the benefits of all this work, except to ask, "What might it have been like had we not been there?"

 
Lunchtime Cruise to The Anglers

Our first cruise of the season was not without incident as no sooner had Clive got Club Claret out of the marina, than the engine spluttered and died leaving Clive and his crew adrift in the river. Fortunately help was at hand as the RNLI were passing on one of their regular exercises, and so were please to be able to deposit Club Claret back in the marina.

While Hebe stayed behind and took Club Claret's passengers aboard, Winston and Lisa went ahead and bagged us a space on the Anglers pontoon. The beautiful weather had brought quite a crowd to the Anglers however we managed to get a table and everybody had a good lunch before heading back to Brentford.

 


Poppadums with Twickenham Yacht Club
We were delighted to welcome TYC to Brentford for their first cruise of the season, for the second year running. Once moored up in the pontoon, the crews headed over to Poppadums for a great curry. As daylight faded the boats headed back to Twickenham for last orders at TYC
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BCC Events 2014

Coming Up

10th May TYC Cruise to The Olde Swan, Thames Ditton
The plan is to leave TYC at 3pm so any Brentford boats wishing to join this cruise will need to leave Brentford in good time to reach Twickenham by then. HW Brentford is at 12.15. If you would like to join Hebe III and the Twickenham boats on this cruise, please let me know.  [email protected]

17th May Trip to London VTS in Woolwich
Steve has been in touch with the Port of London Authority and managed to get us a behind the scenes tour of the London VTS Centre. We will travel there on the tube/DLR to get there for 11am and probably find a local hostilary for lunch etc afterwards. We still have a few spaces to if you would like to join this trip please let me know.
[email protected]

23-25th May River Wey Trip
The River Wey is beautiful and last years trip was a lot of fun. If you are interested in joining this years trip, please let me know. [email protected]
Please renew your membership
Membership this year is �20, a slight increase, but the first rise for 6+ years and reflecting increasing costs of running the website and newsletters.

Your subs may be paid by cheque which should be sent to the Treasurer, Christine Peppiatt, 30 Orchard Road, Brentford, Middx TW8 0QX. Alternatively, you can pay by BACS to account number 50198811 sort code 20 72 17. Attached below is a membership application and renewals form. Please complete this and send it with your cheque or e mail it to Christine if paying on line.

Please pay your membership as soon as possible so that you can be included on the membership list and continue to receive notice of events.

Quick Links
PLA Tide Tables 
River Conditions

March 2014
15th  - Saturday - BCC Launch Party at the snug then the Thames Restaurant

April 2014
13th - Lunchtime cruise to the Anglers or other pub

18th
- TYC come to Brentford and visit Poppadums Restaurant

26th/27th TYC Cruise to Greenwich
May 2014
10th The Olde Swan, Thames Ditton

17th London VTS

25th-27th River Wey

June 2014
Trip to London VTS - Date TBC

July  2014
4th-6th London Ring

20th Greenwich and the Thames Barrier
August 2014
9th - Sunbury Fireworks

22nd - 25th AYTC Rally at West India Dock 

September 2014
27th Great River Race and BBQ

28th Night Cruise to Limehouse

October 2014
11th - Meet TYC at the London Apprentice followed by fish and chips

25th - TYC End of Season party  

November 2014
26th BCC AGM

December 2014
12th BCC Xmas party

    Brentford Cruising Club | |  [email protected]   | http://www.brentfordcruisingclub.co.uk



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