The sun shone and our sponsors were happy. The sunsets at Amble were spectacular. The feeding arrangements at Blyth worked well and Margaret did'nt loose a fortune. Socially it worked well. I've got to say that, in fact it seemed like a four day party and that has been the feedback from our visitors, a lot of whom stayed for the final night when they are usually rushing to get home. Certain crew members from Hummingbird have personal invites to the Tay for next year!
East Coast Week 1999 did not loose money, the costs for the week, for infrastructure, marquees, toilets, prizes and all the costs directly associated with the event were financed by resources available to the East Coast Week Steering Committee from sponsorship, advertising and various donations.
We all owe our thanks to the people and organisations involved. I hope they consider that there was benefit to them in being associated with the event, without their support, it would be a much lesser event.
With regards to the Club, they supplied, in the early days of planning the `99 event, £250.00 "seedcorn" money (as did CYC) to cover initial printing costs etc., you have got to start somewhere, a professional approach to potential sponsors is essential.
The costs the RNYC did cover were those associated with bar staff, cleaning and whatever else was needed to feed and water all our Guests from the 72 boats entered (up on 1996 by more than 50%).
Taking into account the sales in the marquee and HY Tyne, our Hon Treasurer had a smile on his face to the tune of £2000+ profit. Similarly with CYC, although there was a shortfall in the sale of food, their bar profits more than compensated.
Excluding the sunshine, the weather, making it very difficult for the Race Officer to judge where to finish classes of yachts with very very different, performance characteristics. The weather compounded a lack of resource supporting the Race Officer on the water. That issue will be highlighted and addressed for the next event.
The results, there were no problems with the computer programme. The problems we did have were due to a dodgy keyboard, "imputers" fingers and thumbs and not subsequently check reading everything before publishing. We set too ambitious a prizegiving window and we rushed it, again a lesson learned.
As a matter of interest, Allan Smith must have spent hundreds of hours developing the system, when you first think about it, it would appear to be a fairly straightforward task for all the RNYC spread sheet experts. When you look at it -- it aint! And, -- once again,our apology to Red Haze!
We did get our tidal sums slightly wrong at Amble and so did the boat which ended up on the cill. He did take the opportunity of cleaning his bottom at no extra charge and found the whole thing highly amusing.
The Steering Committee would welcome any other comments or problems identified by anyone, as long as they are constructive.
The usual comments about NECRA handicaps although the bigger boats from the Forth much preferred it to their own rolling PY system. We also have a moan when we go to the Forth or the Tay regarding their PY system. Apart from the "oddball" boat, whichever system you use, the winners win and those that don't try so hard do not, this shows up year after year.
John Liddle, who still thinks he was conned into being Chairman in 99 ( Tee- Hee) did a great job for all of us, raising money from sponsors and expending huge amounts of nervous energy.
Stewart Ayre (spelt correctly) and his Committee Boat team, with very little experience in running such events, went through a very steep learning curve, this was compensated somewhat by the rack of lamb and other such goodies served up for lunch by the Navy. As the word spread about the catering onboard, his team grew during the week.
Quote of the week by Allan, Stewart's assistant on the committee boat, referring to Stewart "he has the kittens and I drown them at birth!!
And finally the Navy, they gave us a great service supported by Members and Amble Diving Club who appeared out of the blue, we would have struggled without them and their flying machine as a mark boat.
The Navy want to come back next time and also make ECSW part of their annual programme, they thought it a very beneficial training exercise, they've never anchored so many times before (ever?) -- it had nothing to do with the social scene!!!
Stewart Emmerson