Working party on Saturday 23 March: a big thank you (and a bit of a moan!)

Published 00:00 on 11 Mar 2022

A huge thank you to all the members who turned out last Saturday to rattle through the long list of tasks needed to wake the Club up from a windy winter.

Thank you also to Sue Slight and Andrew Thomson who stepped in to take the lead in allocating jobs when our usual stalwart of the list, Kyrle Hobbs, was unable to make it due to Covid.

The tasks included shifting the large amount of seaweed that had arrived on the foreshore during the recent storms, litter picking and grass cutting in the dinghy park and shovelling several tonnes of mud that had accumulated at the foot of the slipway, which had cut half an hour off viable access time. All carried out with a laugh and a smile followed by a well-deserved pie and a pint on the warm terrace.

Now for the moan! Despite removing a huge amount of used car tyres from the dinghy park this time last year, we once again find ourselves disposing of an even larger pile this year.

Quite apart from the cost to the Club at around £2 per tyre, having old rubber tyres degrading in the harsh conditions so close to the sea inevitably leads to thousands of micro-particles of rubber entering the sea and becoming a part of the pollution soup we are working so hard in other areas to prevent.

If you feel the need to support the bow of your dinghy trolley, please find an alternative to old tyres; a simple A-frame from can be easily constructed from scrap wood. If you need assistance with this, I am sure the Bosun will be willing to help for a small fee!

Tim Keeping
vice.commodore@emsworthsc.org.uk