Tower Hamlets Canoe Club

Like Jon I'm typically reluctant to turn 3 uncomfortable but functionable seats into 1 comfortable seat, however I trust Nick and Dan (etc)'s judgement that if a boat is truly neither sea- nor river-worthy, and cannot be made so without unreasonable cost, it is of no use to us, and should be removed. The sea section has been mandated to sell these older boats for whatever they can get since their proposal was agreed earlier in the year. If the Basin wants them, that could make the process easier. If not, ebay or the scrapyard.

We are about to embark on another spending round - spending meeting is set for next Tuesday 8 July. The total budget I am working off for 2008/2009 is about £7,500 - £8,000. If we assume that the sea section can have half of that (which I doubt anyone would argue against) that gives a tidy £4,000 to spend on new boats, plus the unspent carry-over from last year. If a new boat is around £700 (?), it looks to me like we can get 6 - 7 new sea boats in very short order. If the other sections have modest spending plans there could be even more dosh available. There is no need for unnecessary arguments or to break open the piggy bank. We just need to figure out where to put all these new sea kayaks.

A brand new Valley (Aquanaut LV/HV, Avocet,Nordkapp) all cost 1K.   With the £5700 I am sure you could do a very good deal and get at least 6 or 7 brand new boats..

It would be worth considering the valley aquanaught 'club' edition as it is cheap (around 700 quid) and requires little or no skeg maintenance, which is our major on-going problem with the sea boats. Its not perfect[1] but its its cheapness and cord based skeg might outway its issues.

also see : http://tornarsuk.blogspot.com/2007/03/valley-aquanaut-club-pe.html for some comparisons and thoughts on some plastic boats

I'd love to see a mix of boats but it makes maintenance harder. But as Lars said, we need somewhere to put the boats before we but a load :)

[1] the plastic footrest rails will need replacing at somepoint for metal ones. Unless valley has sorted it themselves the skeg rope holder will need to be filed down. the thigh rests are fixed and may not suit everyone.

Just to be clear - the Committee isn't allocating money to anyone at this time; it's not witihn our remit to do so. That will be for the spending meeting next Tuesday to decide, where we will have input along with all the reps.

I'm simply estimating the total budget and am speculating that the funds the sea section could have available for this year could be around £4000, plus the £1350 carried over from last year, giving a total of £5350. If we indeed go for the lower maintenance club aquanauts we could get 8+ of them provided the section has no other substantial spending requirements and we get a wee discount from the vendor.

LarsH:

£4000, plus the £1350 carried over from last year, giving a total of £5350.

My 5,700 was based on the same idea,  I had assumed they had £1700 carried over from the last spending review, but obviously some of that has been spent on stuff.

Either way  there is the possibility for lots of new toys (providing is gets accepted at the meeting).  But I would suggest, whoever is given the purse it is worth considering going directly to a supplier and striking a deal (ie.  one free boat!!)

Geoff:

But I would suggest, whoever is given the purse it is worth considering going directly to a supplier and striking a deal (ie.  one free boat!!)

And remember the traditional 'bung'!

LarsH:

Like Jon I'm typically reluctant to turn 3 uncomfortable but functionable seats into 1 comfortable seat, however I trust Nick and Dan (etc)'s judgement that if a boat is truly neither sea- nor river-worthy, and cannot be made so without unreasonable cost, it is of no use to us, and should be removed.

Apologies if this has been covered - but did we consider recycling a couple of the non-seaworthy Pilots  as swimming pool trainers ? These could be a good step up from the rotobats for realistic rolling and self-rescue practice. Stuff the ends full of bubble-wrap (or air bags) and the leaky bulkheads then don't matter...

TonyR 

nickJ:

I think the Pilots would be a useful in the pool, so long as we can fix the leaky hatches, knee braces and back rests.

...which I'm sure we can.

Martin K:

Not sure we need to keep the Pilots just for this, if they have no other redeeming features, and getting them up the stairs at the pool might be awkward.