The Victoria Shadow Association

Annual Luncheon and General Meeting Our members gathered at Linden House, the home of the London Corinthian Sailing Club, from 11:30 onwards on Sunday, 22nd November 2009. The weather was truly awful with strong winds and heavy showers and many arrived somewhat bedraggled. The London Corinthian has been used for this event ever since the Association was founded and we always receive a warm welcome. Just to the west of Hammersmith and on the Middlesex bank of the River Thames, it provides a central meeting point for our annual meeting which is mainly social with just a little association business and ending with an illustrated talk. The three course luncheon was scheduled for 12:30 so we start in the first floor bar to enjoy a pre-dinner drink and swap stories and experiences.

Linden  House

 

Anne Grubb accepted the Office of Chairman a year ago and has attended almost every event the Association has staged during the last twelve months. During the afternoon, Anne would chair her first General Meeting and keep the rest of us in some sort of order! Simon Fraser would later give the illustrated talk with details of his cruising in the Caribbean aboard 'Simoon III of London' and then the voyage home via Horta in the Azores that included lying to a parachute drogue, while a storm raged about them.         We numbered nineteen in all with two having to cancel at the last moment due to illness and a family bereavement. So, a fairly select group were able to move from the bar into the Commodore's Room, where two tables had been laid, to enjoy a very fine lunch.

Anne Grubb talks with Simon Fraser

 

On this table, starting with myself and working around the table, we had Peter and Jenny Cosker, Brian and Dawn Smith, Michael and Anne Passmore, Janet Gayler with Simon Fraser and John and Wann Sadler.

 

On the table by the window, with sunshine now streaming in, we had George Warrilow, John Walker, Anne Grubb, Angela and Richard Jones, Carolyn and John Cade, Gillian Walker and Gloria Warrilow.

 

The lunch was really good; everyone said so. Once lunch was finished we moved downstairs to the Ballroom, which had been nicely set out for our meeting and where tea and coffee were waiting. This is not the place to enter into all the finer points of the General Meeting. They will be found in the minutes, which you will receive in due course. There were two items of particular note, however. John Sadler had requested that the subject of Electronic Communications should be re-visited at this meeting and besides introducing the subject also proposed a motion that was then carried by the meeting. In effect, the Association will use e-mail rather than the postal service in future. Don't despair if you cannot stand the sight of a computer, as John has included an opt out clause and so nothing will be forced upon you. The other item of note was that no nominations were received and the Election of Officers proceeded very quickly. This has resulted in you having exactly the same team on the Committee, as before! Michael Passmore proposed a vote of thanks for our Chairman, Anne Grubb, and this was warmly given.

John and Wann Sadler

 

Simon Fraser gave us a most enjoyable talk. For those of us who have not spent too much time in the Caribbean, it was interesting to learn of the characteristics of the various 'Virgin Islands'; the British ones, of course, then the United States Virgin Islands with the big cruise ships and onto the Spanish Virgin Islands, where you can get a pretty cheap day return on the ferry to Puerto Rico. The ocean sailing business is a bit more complicated; where you have to head north to get above the Azores high to find some wind but then sometimes you do not have to do so, and then again, you may end up finding too much wind. It is all very complicated but it can all turn out fine, if can find a parachute drogue at the bottom of your locker when you need it. Naturally, there were masses of questions and our meeting over-ran, as usual, but everyone enjoyed the day and we should like to thank everyone present for coming.