Coming of Age

I arrived at the Club just before Christmas 1995 to fill the newly created post of Administration Manager, which in practical terms came to mean Deputy Secretary. I had RAF, local government and TA experience, and clutching a relatively newly minted Chartered Management Accountant qualification and direct entry Fellowship of CIMA. I wondered a little how I had won the position, and despite the then Treasurer’s scepticism at my having qualified at the advanced age of 50, I realised that being a graduate of the RAF College had carried weight with Joff.

Joff Hutchinson took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. I recall that on Day 1 lunch was taken away from the Club, at the Chequers I think. I began working closely with Geoff Homes on the introduction of the first Members’ card system, in conjunction with Accounting Answers Ltd, and was also heavily involved in the Club’s 75^th Anniversary celebrations, with Marilyn Holmes and her team. Consequent on all these threads there was a fairly steep learning curve. On the first Saturday that I was in the chair on my own I recall two events that had me totally floored, the late Mary Falk won her class in QII in the single-handed Transatlantic Race and Les Powles in Solitaire had reappeared in the Solent after a single-handed voyage from New Zealand. This was clearly going to be an interesting job.

I should say at this point that in my first few months at the Club I had been most impressed by the energy, commitment and expertise that Members contributed, and the dedication and loyalty of members of staff. Nevertheless, there were issues that needed to be addressed. On the other hand I was well aware that I was the new boy on the block, and that in order to make what I saw as necessary changes I would need to tread carefully. However, I made explicit to the Flag Officers that I had no inclination to play ‘politics’ by playing one flag officer off against another, nor one interest group against another. What all would get was my view of a situation, what they decided to do with it was for the

I was lucky to have had the year or so to learn the ropes and get to understand the Club, its Members and staff, and Joff’s brilliantly well written, but undocumented, Club computer programme. Clearly there were many competing and at times conflicting interests. There was also something of a tension between staff interests and Members’ aspirations. Indeed a Member could appear one day arguing a case for the cruiser racers, and the following day arguing against it from the XOD perspective. Many members of staff were of long service, Michael Webb had been with the Club since a lad, and the persona of Doug Baverstock seemed to pervade the waterfront. Indeed I had been lucky on first meeting Doug that my previous 25 ft yacht, a Luke 5 tonner, had belonged to a friend of his and had been moored in the River. A silent prayer of thanks had been offered.

So what did I take over from Joff? The Club had an enormous reputation, it was the largest yacht Club by membership in the UK, it enjoyed Royal Patronage and in particular it had for 20 years run the Royal Lymington Cup match racing series, which attracted the top international skippers. The downside(s) were more difficult to fathom. The miasma of what were euphemistically known as ‘the troubles’ still drifted around and were at times called in aid of arguments for or against any particular proposal. Attitudes to families and children were pretty feudal: I often looked out for the Club child-catcher. There was a rooted objection to ‘non sailing’ activities, be they Winter Lecture topics or the suggestion of bridge nights. One of the Club’s crowning glories was the youth programme, with Wednesday Junior Sailing and the Junior Regatta/Youth Week providing an outstanding contribution to Club and Lymington Community and, in the long term, to sailing nationally and internationally.

I had learned early on in my days working for Joff that the ‘staff’ represented an interesting challenge. Many were related, so upset one, upset many. In many areas the prevailing attitude was that ‘we have always done it this way’. The waterfront still effectively ran to Doug’s mantra. On the other hand, as I made clear at an early staff meeting, if it were not for nearly 3000 Members there would not be some 30 jobs, full and part time. It might therefore be appropriate to become somewhat more flexibly Member focussed. I was not overcome by a wave of support. Indeed, one member of the office staff was so opposed to my finding out what she actually did that she resigned and then took the Club to Employment Tribunal. I took the case for the Club and won.

So what did I take over from Joff? The Club had an enormous reputation, it was the largest yacht Club by membership in the UK, it enjoyed Royal Patronage and in particular it had for 20 years run the Royal Lymington Cup match racing series, which attracted the top international skippers. The downside(s) were more difficult to fathom. The miasma of what were euphemistically known as ‘the troubles’ still drifted around and were at times called in aid of arguments for or against any particular proposal. Attitudes to families and children were pretty feudal: I often looked out for the Club child-catcher. There was a rooted objection to ‘non sailing’ activities, be they Winter Lecture topics or the suggestion of bridge nights. One of the Club’s crowning glories was the youth programme, with Wednesday Junior Sailing and the Junior Regatta/Youth Week providing an outstanding contribution to Club and Lymington Community and, in the long term, to sailing nationally and internationally.

I was fortunate throughout my time as Secretary to enjoy, or so it appeared, the support and confidence of Flag Officers and Committee. That does not mean that at times there were not usually the case but there were occasions when their case had to be argued. Sometimes a new member would join the Committee with a particular business practice they thought would benefit the bottom line, reduce headcount, or deal with a favourite complaint. What had to be argued was that the organisation was first and foremost a Club, so it was correct that the intrusion of mobile phones, laptops, etc should be controlled. Tipping of staff was anathema, but the Staff Fund had to be managed fairly and legally, and within the rules of the tax system, which I discovered had not been the case. I did not gain many friends on that one either, when past tax had to be paid.disagreements on some issues. I was adamant that the staff should be treated fairly, which was