Your Commodorable has been the butt of many jokes and a lot of inuendo all week – his favourite was when he was told he was a lot like hurricane Teddy: “unpredictable pain in the ass!”. It got me thinking about what it must be like to have the same name as a hurricane. A long time ago when I was working at Lloyd’s of London, an underwriter with whom I was quite friendly (there were so few of us girls back in those days that we tended to stick together), named both her children after hurricanes: Hugo and Camille. I remember thinking that a) she had obviously never experienced a hurricane first hand, because if she had, they wouldn’t be fond memories and b) that syndicate must have made such a lot of money on reinstatement premiums after hurricanes and, as a result they were linked in her mind with bonuses, so she was sufficiently kindly disposed to them that she named her children for two of the worst storms of the 1980s!
Thankfully the National Hurricane Center is showing no tropical development in the Atlantic and long may that continue. That doesn’t mean there are no more headwinds facing your Club though. We are struggling to get our revenues to pre-pandemic levels and this will be hard with the reduction in outside functions and the restrictions on numbers for inside service. Now we also have to fund the expense of the insurance deductible for the damage that Paulette caused to the marina. All departments are having to present new budgets and budgeting for next year is nearly upon us – what assumptions are realistic to make and what aren’t? It’s so hard to know when we have no idea how long we have to live with Covid-19 and its implications, and do we now have to assume at least one hurricane each year?
Your Committee of Management has, however, agreed upon a plan for a new bar; as a result of the successful notes offering, we have the funds to proceed with this and it is to be hoped that a more efficient bar and a lighter, brighter environment will bring increased revenues and encourage more members to come and support the Club. If we can get the necessary construction quotes and permissions, we can proceed with this towards the end of February in the hope of having it all completed by Easter. If this is too ambitious a time-line, then we will delay until next winter.
A more thorny subject is the purchase of the sailing boats (RS21s). I have absolutely no doubt that having a fleet of boats that can be used for international events will be a game-changer for the Club and indeed for Bermuda. The struggle I have is whether it is fair that the majority of our membership, who are non-sailors, will be contributing to this purchase. On the one hand, we are a sailing club and there is no doubt that having boats available to members will help to keep sailing alive in Bermuda and I am also sure that it will be an added attraction for new members to join the Club. Other clubs (in the US) that we have spoken to have confirmed that having the amenity of a sailboat for members to use has been a definite advantage in attracting new members and encouraging more member engagement with the Club. That has to be balanced, of course, with the expense of purchase, maintenance & insurance of the boats. Even the initial depreciation has to be accounted for as an expense.
If only we could find more members who would commit to chartering one of the boats for Wednesday Night racing for the next 5 years at a cost of $20,000* (for the 5 years); that would give us a $100,000 ‘cushion’ against the purchase price. Just as we stipulated that we would not proceed with the construction of the dry storage for boats on the tennis court until we had pre-sold a certain number of spots (to ensure we knew we could cover the cost of the construction with future revenue), so it would be good to have some more tangible member support before we commit to this expense. The trouble is that apparently RS Sailing will not hold this attractive price out to us indefinitely; HM Customs won’t give us an answer about Duty relief until we have purchased the boats and international events won’t commit to coming here and giving us boat charter income until they know the boats will definitely be available. For sure a chicken and egg situation.
*having a race boat fully equipped to just step on and step off for $4,000 annually ‘all in’ is actually a relative bargain! Between the 4 crew, that is only $1,000 each.
Elspeth Weisberg
Commodore
30 September, 2020