2024 Eastern District Councillor’s Report

1. Sailing
The District got off to a good start with an excellent entry for EDCS 1 for IOM’s at Norwich in March.

This was followed by meetings at Huntingdon , The Broads and  Chelmsford. The final of this event is due to take place at CHF on the 24^th November.

There were also Open events for DF 95’s at Norwich, CHF, and Huntingdon.

6M events proved to be successful with open meetings at Harwich and Dovercourt, Norwich and The Broads.

There was also an Open Meeting for DF 65’s at CHF.

On the National scene, Norwich and Chelmsford both held National ranking events for RM’s and IOM’s.

The one point that came out of these events is that members are still not prepared to travel to events. Whether it is due to finance or that people prefer to race locally is unknown.

There is only one club, Huntingdon, where a few of their members attend other club events.

2. Grants.
Only 2 District Clubs applied for grants this year, Huntingdon and Norwich, both of whom were granted.

It beggars’ belief that the MYA offers £700 in grants to District’s for the benefits of their clubs, and these same Clubs do not bother to apply.

This can only be that either they have too much money or that they just cannot be bothered.

3. Measurement
The ability to get boats measured is improving, despite losing 2 of our most senior measurers. Attendance at the RYA measurers course is slowly improving. However, I strongly suspect that there are a large number of boats within the District that have not be measured. This is a matter that will be looked into and improved next year. The ability to get 6M boats measured has been difficult this year, however we now have a new measurer in the District who I am sure will be very busy next year bringing our 6M fleet into line

4. General
Sorry to say it but once again there is still an attitude of apathy amongst most of the Eastern District Clubs, who seem to be quite happy in just doing enough to get along. Once again attendance at the last  ED AGM was minimal, with only 4 clubs being represented, it will be interesting to see how many are represented in 2024.

5. 2025
Once again a full program of sailing events has been arranged for 2025, with Open events planned for IOM, DF 95, DF 65, RM’s and 6M. Norwich NMYC will be staging the 6M nationals in May.

Vinnie Zammit
Eastern District Councillor