About the Jersey Sailing Trust, By Ian Vidamour..
The organisation started in 2004 when a particular 36 ft yacht was withdrawn from use and all that was available was a burgundy coloured Etchell owned by Mike Plunkett-Cole. He suggested that I try it and I was hooked immediately. The following year I was also racing with Julian Rogers in SurfDancer and together won the Beer Race series two years following. The three of us formed the Jersey Sailing Trust.
The only vessel that was available on a regular basis was the burgundy Etchell " Naqapan" and an Etchell is rather small and requires only three crew. But there was another just sitting on the trailer on the pier that had not been used for six years. I made a telephone call and the owner agreed to lend it to us. The Jersey Sailing Trust was created on 2006 and sailing was regularly on offer each weekend.
An Etchell has no engine and occasionally the crew would have to paddle to save their embarrassment. After several such struggles it was decided to buy a 4 metre RIB with a powerful engine that could be used as a tug. The RIB "Tickler" joined the fleet.
A year later we were offered a 24ft Sonata called "Rondo" and that was joined the following year by a third Etchell called "Bacchanal" which is being bought on a HP agreement.
"Rondo" has since been disposed of because a friend who was out sailing with us on "Rondo" and thought that she was a bit short in length and if he could find the money would we be interested in something more substantial. I was dubious but the money was found and "Raddedas" was bought and made available to the Trustees. That arrangement proved difficult to sustain as the source of funds had implications between our friend and his lender which resulted in the incorporation of the company "Jersey Sailing Ventures Limited" and the setting up a facility with Acorn Finance. This has sometimes been considered a financial mistake as the big boat is like a mill stone around the neck of the Directors ( Russell F and myself) and the financial burden has caused severe differences of opinion between the Trustees and the Directors to the extent that the Directors have taken control of the big boat to push forward and make it work.
In the near future we do need to find additional "management" but there is snag...the funding has to be linked to the control of the assets. A Trustee would normally be a low profile person with experience but the Jersey Sailing Trust has to be led from the front and the lions share of the organisation and promotional effort is provided by two Trustees and one Director in their respective contributions
Some contributions are financial but that does not mean putting up cash it means sharing Guarantees with a finance company and making the boats earn their keep. People who come sailing are called "crew members" and they subscribe to the income of the Trust to support the yachts. There are no "paid officers".
Owing to the pressure of varying degrees of success of the Jersey Sailing Trust (JST) the time is rapidly approaching where the two different types of sailing need to be financially segregated and the operations of the ketch (Raddedas II) need to be divorced from the activities of the keelboats.( Ecrola, Naqapan & Bacchanal)
The first change that has to come is that a management committee has to take over the supervision of the ketch and work out a financial plan to keep her. Otherwise she will have to be sold and without the ketch there is no certainty of any cruising for the members because owners cannot be on tap every weekend.
The priority is to separate the ketch into a "cost centre" that is entirely focused on the cruising aspect of the activities of the JST. The activities of the keelboats as a single class of racing yachts can then revert to promoting sailing to the public.
The first step will be to form an interest group that will focus on the management of the ketch and to empower them to become self-governing, self funding or ultimately to dispose of the asset.
The interest group will be encouraged to form a Management Committee ( perhaps under Russell) to make recommendations to the Directors of the company ( IV & RF).
The Management Committee will need to address the following issues as a priority:
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Reinforce the income stream. Basing the business plan on higher Frequency rather than higher Fee. |
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Appoint a First Officer, First Mate, Secretary/bookkeeper |
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Repair and restore |
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Clean and tidy the interior |
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Fit and install the Garmin GPS 450 |
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Repair the Rubber dinghy |
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Restore the fenders/rubbing strake on the glass fibre dinghy "Argo" |
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Refloat the ketch |
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Carry out basic tuition on the functions of the unit related to navigation. |
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Propose/Confirm the Cruising Calendar events and |
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Designate a Skipper for each of the Calendar Events |
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Take over the "group bulletin board" as the primary communications interface between the Raddedas Command/Management Committee and the general public. http://groups.google.com/group/raddedas (Let me know if you cannot get access but I have made it "public".) |
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All members of the JST will be made aware of the site and have immediate access to the cruising activities. |
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Non-members are not permitted to use the ketch by reasons of the Insurance Policy and all interested persons are obliged to become subscribing members. |
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Consider the marketing strategy: low budget networking, media coverage etc. |
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Prepare a business plan on behalf of the owners to support the concept under which the ketch can be retained independently of the cash resources of the Trustees. |
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Cruising Fees. The cruising fee for 2009 is already set and the only option is to increase the frequency of activities. |
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If the income from one ketch cannot cover the running costs then consider a cruising club where third party yachts convey members in consideration for modest expenses that exclude maintenance and capital purchase of their vessel. |
