Tower Hamlets Canoe Club

 

Robby Russell:

  

There are a lot of people who are willing to assist in this matter, but perhaps are reluctant owing to uncertain parameters of authority. It would greatly assist me if you might issue the authority to sell named and identified sea kayaks for x price on the open market so that there might be no confusion about proceeds, etc., and then I will put them on ebay. The authority should be issued by the Committee, preferably in writing.

 

Permission has been given to the Sea Kayak Reps.  Email them and simply ask if you can go ahead and help them with this. They have a list of the boats that they were looking at selling.  Surely a response from the rep is all you need.

 

Robby Russell:

The purchase of the replacement kayaks might also be executed in a similar fashion, but I will need the written assurance from Lars that he will reimburse me £x for replacements on production of the requisite invoice and physical proof of purchase before I can buy anything on my credit card.

 

Find boat on internet / shop whereever.  Email Sea Kayak Rep and Commitee and ask it you can go ahead with purchase.

Their reply should be enough.    And Robby if you email the rep and commitee and they say it is okay I will personally underwrite it for you. 

Cheers Geoff

Generous! Do the sea kayak rep (Nick the Younger?) and club treasurer not read these pages?

Rob, you've only got a £50 limit...what are you gonna buy? a pair of hatch covers?

Robby, no I don't read these pages (not ALL the threads) very much - usually too busy planning trips.

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Nick the Younger

Nick, Its a deal - I will be there on the 10th June with my camera. The worst ones are not likely to fetch more than a few hundred quid, but selling the five (four?) un-seaworthy ones should raise maybe £1,500 or perhaps just less than this. I have received no details from the Committee (may they live forever!) about your budgets, but assume that sea kayak section can retain any proceeds to put towards replacement boats.

Gavin - you b@~#ard - I told you my credit limit in confidence.

Robby Russell:

Nick, Its a deal - I will be there on the 10th June with my camera. The worst ones are not likely to fetch more than a few hundred quid, but selling the five (four?) un-seaworthy ones should raise maybe £1,500 or perhaps just less than this. I have received no details from the Committee (may they live forever!) about your budgets, but assume that sea kayak section can retain any proceeds to put towards replacement boats.

I have posted comments elsewhere, but it seems a bit ego-centric to get rid of 5 boats so that you can buy 1.  Elsewhere there is a very large discussion going on about limiting numbers to the club, one issue being not enough kit!!!!!!!

If the kit is kept in good repair, then as Nick says elsewhere (this discussion seems to be spread over 5 threads), it gets more people out on the river.

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Jon

The following thread was the look at the boats Sarah  Larry and I did last year. it may be of some help. Note that my opinions and the conditions of the boats may have changed in the last year: http://towerhamletscanoeclub.co.uk/forums/permalink/8704/8704/ShowThread.aspx

I'm not sure that you will find more than 3 boats to sell. But if you raised 700 quid I'd recommend we thought about getting a second Valley Aquanaught club. They are on the heavy side  and we'd probably need to replace the foot rests (50 quid and a couple of pint bribes for Nick J to help out) for metal ones and sand down the hook for the skeg to get good milage from it. But its a low maintence boat cos the skeg is rope and so doesn't get damaged - I think its the only sea kayak that has never needed work on the skeg. Its also a good beginner boat with decent balance I spent a lot of time paddling the one we have.

As for the boats we have we think the Piranha Orca is raely paddled, the Orange Piranha Pilots aren't great - we fixed the back rest on one with duck tape but the thigh braces are just bolts i think. I've paddled one on the thames, but its hard to edge with no thigh braces or foot rests. I'm not sure if anyone paddles those either.  I don't think they are Basin boats but its worth checking.

Hi all,

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Nick the Younger

Hi Nick,

I use the term 'ego' in this instance to indicate a group rather than an individual. In this case the ego-centric decision indicates a decision that benefits a few without the big picture in mind (as an ego-centric person would do).

§         A sea worthy fleet of boats would be used by a sub-section of the club.

§         Whilst the boats in question may not be sea worthy, if maintained, they are river worthy.

§         Whilst sea kayakers regularly paddle on the river, not all those that paddle on the river do sea kayaking.

§         Reducing the number of boats would therefore affect more people than having sea worthy boats would benefit

§         Shorter sea-style-boats can also be used for Training – again a larger part of the club are in training than go on sea trips.   

In fact given the new syllabuses, trainees should be introduced to sea kayaks in 1 & 2 star, as well as open canoes & even bell boats. 

Given the club has issues over capacity, to reduce the number of boats seems like a decision made without looking at the big picture; hence the use of the term ego-centric.

Whilst I certainly support the expansion of sea worthy kayaks I do not think it should be at the cost to the total number of boats that the club has.

We should keep all current boats & ideally make more money available for sea worthy boats as the number of sea kayakers attending sea trips increases.

I accept the club has limited funds and many demands on those funds and will never be able to please all the people all the time, but as a community club we should cater to the wider population, making sea kayaking available, certainly, but not at the cost of reducing our ability to provide paddling to the wider populous.

I hope this clarifies any misunderstanding that may have arisen from the term ‘ego’?

Cheers,

 

 

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Jon

Jon,

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Nick the Younger

Hi Nick

I am not looking for an arguement. I completely understand where you are coming from.  Don't get me wrong.  If the boats really are in *** state, are unusable and dangerous, then they should be binned.

nickJ:

Why are you so hung up on getting more and more boats?  

Due to the fragmentation of this thread you may have missed my original point; "at a time when we are experiencing increased numbers and have issues over capacity, why would we reduce the number of boats in the club?" 

My point was essentially a question, or it may have been originally phrased as a statement, can't remember now, but based on the fact that I am involved in the sub-committee which is looking at capacity issues.  On the face of it, these two things seemed to be inconsistent.

I'll be honest, the capacity sub-committee don't seem to be acheiving anything anyway.  At the end of the day you know I trust your judgment. 

One concern would be; if the boats really are that bad, surely there is a liability on the club if it sells boats that we know are clearly dangerous?

Should we not just bin them?

To be honest, I stood down for a reason, that I really need to keep in mind when I volunteer for things(!), but I will leave this issue to you, and, actually, the capapctiy issues to others.

later,

 

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Jon

Jon, I can see how the two things are related, however there are other benefits to expansion (if it happens) such as increased money coming in, which could pay for more sea kayaks. There are other funding issues for sea kayaks such as their expense and the damage they receive. A while back Ailien raised the idea of increasing membership dues for SK'ers, or perhaps a whip round by SK'ers matched by an equal amount from Club funds. It depends on the £ 10,000 limit and Club turnover as to how much will be available I guess.

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O London, see
Swelling with naval pride, the pride of thee!
Wide, deep, unsullied Thames, meandering glides,
and bears thy wealth on mild majestic tides.

When is (or was?) the EMG that was declared at AGM?

Martin K:

Jon, I can see how the two things are related, however there are other benefits to expansion (if it happens) such as increased money coming in, which could pay for more sea kayaks. There are other funding issues for sea kayaks such as their expense and the damage they receive. A while back Ailien raised the idea of increasing membership dues for SK'ers, or perhaps a whip round by SK'ers matched by an equal amount from Club funds. It depends on the £ 10,000 limit and Club turnover as to how much will be available I guess.

& that's all I was really saying.  If there is a relation between the two should we not look at that relation and the bigger picture before selling.  Clearly there are many issues & solutions. 

I just envisage that we reduce boat numbers to get better boats, then in 6 months need more boats, but with not enough money made available to sea kayakers so then there are issues over capacity, which means less money coming in & thus even less money for the boats, etc...

One aspect of reducing club boats is that there is space for  Robby, Sean & others to store their boats? Thus having less of a requirement for club boats?

It's a complicated one.  It would be a shame to sell boats & then realise 6 months down the road we would have been better off fixing the ones we had?

Still I am sure Anne & the committee have considered all the angles, so I will leave it up to you guys. 

Later

 

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Jon