Dear Members,

In the next two years our Club will be celebrating its Diamond Jubilee , 75 years since its inception. This has come about due to the unwavering effort of a lot of the past and the present members who have devoted voluntarily considerable time and effort to skillfully manage the welfare of our Club throughout all these years.

Our fleet of twelve single and double handed dinghies and nine larger three / four men boats have been augmented this season by the purchase of a newly furbished Seabird “Neil” which is already making its mark on the sailing scene by winning numerous cups / trophies in Bombay harbour. The acquisition of Neil will also enable members to use it for long distance cruising events jointly sponsored with RBYC and BSA.

A programme of maintenance / refurbishing of our ageing Lightning fleet, the workhorse and backbone of our Club, is in progress. Two boats have already been thoroughly inspected and attended to and are already in service. Two more are at present under repair and should be in the water in the first quarter of the coming season.

Our keen young members have as always shown their prowess in events held in Bombay and elsewhere in the country by winning amongst other trophies the following — Lightning Cup, Lightning Nationals, Commodores Cup ( Lightning), Single handed race ( Lightning ), Arnold Boswell Cup.

A few of our members took part in weekend cruises to Revas and Nandgaon / Kandheri , which proved to be quite adventurous. We hope that the lessons learnt on this cruise will not be easily forgotten. Some of our senior sailors had the good fortune to take part in a cruise to Male, in the Maldives archipelago, and back on yachts Tir and Tara , two around 35 feet keel boats. Thedistance sailed was around a 1000 nautical miles each way, during the months of March /April .

In the last few seasons you must have noticed that the sport of sailing is arousing considerable interest in the harbour. This has led the Managing Committee to consider making some modifications in the Club working. This will
involve undertaking certain steps to improve the safety and security of the Club staff, property and its members. These ideas are in the formative stages and as and when they are finalized you will all be informed. Your earnest cooperation is solicited in making this move a success as it would benefit all of us.

During the coming season, all those who sail in the harbour should keep a very good look out for floating containers which have come adrift after a collision between two Panamanian flagged cargo vessels in the shipping lanes of Bombay harbour in August this year. Of around 500 or more containers carried by MSC Chitra about 200 to 250 containers have been cast adrift. Of these a very small percentage have been recovered . Please keep in mind the fact that depending on the cargo stored and its buoyancy, some of these containers may still be floating a foot or two below the surface of the water. Such drastic impacts have occurred in foreign harbours as to hole keel boats and sink them. So please keep alert for any floating objects while sailing. Do not be unnecessarily alarmed as there is a remote possibility that you may encounter such an obstacle while sailing , but if you do sight any, please inform the sailing clerk immediately on return to land.

It gives me great pleasure, before concluding, to thank all the Committee members for their hard work and unstinting support. A very hearty thank you also to both RBYC / BSA for catering to all CSC needs, whenever required. Lastly but not the least thanks to the RBYC sailing room staff and the tindals, for their hard work in making this season a success.

J S Bandorawalla
Commodore