THE COMMODORE

Two years have passed since you made me your Commodore. Years that have gone so quickly, but a time during which I have got a real feel for the Club. This feeling was perhaps best conveyed during my visit to Australia where our ideals are nurtured away from the influence of the `head shed', and where they have so few visitors that they remain largely `uninfected' by the currency of frenetic yachting activity that we take for granted. The result is an almost proprietorial attitude towards `their OCC' which is altogether admirable. This was exemplified by John Maddox's vigorous reaction to some rather loose wording in the minutes of last year's AGM where the question of limiting membership was aired. John's view is that we are not an elitist club; if you qualify you should be allowed to join. I am sure this is the correct course, especially as I now detect a real desire to join by many who are setting out and look forward to their first qualifying distance.

The 1995 awards are listed elsewhere in this edition but a glance through them shows the wide variation of activity within the membership. All are apparently modest achievements but all are understated when one looks behind the individual voyages. And these are only the ones we hear about; many go unsung. An unremarkable Azores qualifying voyage except that Jim Moore is blind. A `short voyage' to Iceland, but made during a summer break by a very busy couple, both in full time work. Yet another circumnavigation, but one in double quick time in a small boat with a changing crew of disadvantaged youths. Bob's voyage was, of course, only one of many that he has made in the same style, which together have earned him the Cruising Club of America's much coveted Blue Water Medal, for which we congratulate him most warmly. And a lifetime devoted to ocean wandering by the Pardeys, during which they have done so much by their writing and lecturing to foster small boat cruising and to encourage the more timid. All in a day's work, but exactly what our Club is about.

You will have read in your Newsletter that we have created a new appointment of Rear Commodore USA South East, and we were delighted when Bill Caldwell came over to the AGM to present himself for election. In the same vein we now have fifty Irish members, all hard sailors not entirely averse to the occasional get-together, so we are proposing that they too have flag officer representation. I see this as a natural development of the Club. Although the main committee must continue to operate from the UK, as we expand it is proper that we are represented at Flag rank in those areas where we have significant membership. This does not diminish the importance of the individual members but it does provide a focal point for the coordination of the feelings and desires of those at `the coal face'.