Frostbite Day report

We went to the frostbite day and though it had rained in the night the car park at Etherow was still quite icy underfoot, still due to the cold weather once we were indoors at the clubhouse we didn't venture out much again.

The event was well attended even with the bad weather and there were about 25 members with their partners so in all about 40 people.  Velda, John Davies and Mike did sterling service in the kitchen serving up the soup and bread rolls and tea, coffee and mince pies afterwards, The bar was open as well for the non drivers of course.

Whilst there I had the chance to look at some of the new items of club clothing Mike had advertised in the September newsletter and some members were wearing ie the waterproof  heavy duty jackets and found the quality to be very good see below

NEW CLUB CLOTHING IS ALL PRE-ORDER…

For a good reason – not only is the club logo embroidered onto the garment

 of your choice (in the price) but you can have your name as well for an extra 50 pence.

 Payment in advance is thus essential.

The garments are nice quality and there is a wide choice of sizes and types: Medium weight polo shirt	£8
Heavyweight polo shirt	£10
Long-sleeved polo shirt	£11
Ladies polo shirt	£11
Hoodie	£15
Crew-neck sweat shirt	£11
Full zip fleece jacket	£16
Full zip heavyweight fleece jkt	£20
Full zip Regatta waterproof jkt	£31
Regatta body warmer	£17
Men’s classic shirt	£11
Men’s button down collar shirt	£12
Ladies button down collar blouse	£12
Baseball cap	£8

 Turn-round is about 7 to 10 working days

 Order from Mike Hodgson.

 Mike also had a new item there not covered in the advert above , a woolie hat with the club name on and only £7 , sold a lot that day with the thought of more wintry weather to come I'm sure

Great for keeping your ears warm on the landing stage, unfortunately with wearing hearing aids not very practical for me!.  

Not much sailing done on the day due to thick ice , though some members did a bit of fishing !! getting the small table that's usually on the left side of the gates on the landing stage off the ice on the big lake where some idiots had broken it off its mountings and threw it.

  I must say don't try for a job in Galveston  where the targets are moving you guys.

One of the first jobs must be to replace this in the better weather ready for the spring.

Frostbite day

Don't forget its the Frostbite Day to-morrow ( the 27th ) at 11-00am , where we hope to see everyone, there will be the usual free soup and mince pies and drinks , bit like a soup kitchen really !

The renewal forms will be available from the secretary so bring your money and save the club and yourself the  price of a costly stamp! 

 As the lake is still deeply frozen I don't suppose there will be many boats out but still come and have a chat about what  kits you got for Christmas and what you are up to on the modelling front.

New committee

Check out PAGES on the left under Committee Members to see your New Committee listed

And as you can see the January issue of Model Boats magazine has a full report of the

 International Model Lifeboat Rally 

Hosted by Etherow Model Boat Club earlier this year, that's good publicity for us isn't it. 

New season

Not much done in the way of modelling at the moment, as we are getting the system in place to start our jobs on the club committee, ie the renewal forms for the new year.

When I say We,  the Secretary and I as the Members rep are working together to formulate the system to be as smooth as possible to give the club members as much help as possible.

Please can you read the details of the renewal form and check your details before you return the cut off slip with your remittance. There have been people who have sent back their forms last year and I know they are not right, so be sure to check well this coming year 

I have noticed that there are more and more members on the web these days and we are going to send as many people their newsletters via e-mail as we can as the postage keeps going up and up as you know, so make sure your e-mail address is right.

So once again

Hope to see as many of you at the Frostbite Day as possible 

Christmas

To all our readers may we wish you 

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 and hope to see many of you at the Frostbite Day ( Don't forget its the 27th ) though the way the weather is going there won't be much sailing what with the ice, snow  and the cold !.

And one for the young at heart amongst you

Once again all the best to you and yours

Bleak mid-winter

Went to the lake yesterday and was surprised to see the lake still frozen over quite deep.

 Got there to see the Head Warden Wayne with our club boat out, on investigating found the boat had been broken whilst getting it out of the ice in the boathouse, the oar lock on one side had its mounting broken and Wayne was replacing it with the one off the back.

Its repaired now and was told it was being used to rescue geese and ducks frozen into the ice! not heard of this before but its happened a few times this year, so it was all in a good cause and reminded  the warden any damages would have to be paid for.

Don't see the car park this empty very often at 2-00pm

The village Christmas tree outside the Post Office looking nice.

Award winners at the AGM

Though we weren't able to make the AGM though illness in the family Dave Lee has sent me some of  the pictures from the nights proceedings, presented by the outgoing Commodore Lawrence.

There are no award categories to each picture at the moment, I think I could have a good guess from past years but I will wait until I get confirmation from Dave first ! and then put the names in later.

If you couldn't get there either at least you can see who won something.

Captions added as soon as I get them !.

Awards 2010 AGM Meeting

Alan Hayward 1st Scratchbuilt 

Andy Glen , The Derrick Bingham Trophy

Graham won the Kit semi scratch build Award with his Tug and Barge  " Malliag"

1 st Club 500 

3 th Club 500

1 st Best Kit Build

2nd club 500 

Trev Redford 1st Fiesta racing

Trevor Redford, The David Swain Trophy

Dave Lee 2nd Fiesta racing

To everyone who took part.

 They say its not the winning but the taking part, but don't you believe it !!

The cool park

Another couple of Pictures from the park kind permission of Bob the Abell , we haven't ventured there since the snow, looks pretty and grim doesn't it 

Can't see any sailors coming out in this weather though.

The big freeze

You don't see this very often.

Bob the Abell reported this from yesterday's visit to the lake !

Went to ECP today

 

A goose had got stuck to the ice......the wardens used our boat to implement the rescue

 

Didn`t stay too long...we were freezing

 

Bob the Pappa Ratsi

This is on the big lake !

Don't suppose our lake is any better.

We haven't been to check

Pete the weak.!!

Even the fishermen are staying home.

Thanks for the report Bob, don't sit down there, don't want to finish up being chipped off the bench by the wardens.

None but the brave

Yesterday though cold but dry we ventured down to the lake and there was the "J" Class lads and a few motorised sailors braving the elements and having a sail

The lake level was still down so the wardens must still be having problems above the sluice gates 

My son RJR on the other blog mentioned in this blog has started a pusher tug for his railroad layout from links I sent him of pusher tugs  working the rivers of the USA and though he is not into model boats I think he is making a good job of it and though it will only be a static model I'm sure it will be well modelled if his layout is anything to go by.

Try here

I know some of you members are in to model railways so may be of interest to you !.

Wilton Castle

Here`s a picture of Wilton Castle

One of our old members Bill Goodall used to be the Captain of this craft on the River Severn at Cranwell dock.

He said the boat was very unstable and caused alarm and minor panic amongst  the passengers.

Check out the slide show on the right to see a picture of Bob Abell's beautiful model, as is usual he did all the research on the boat whilst building it

Club Trip to Warwick

Yesterday Saturday the 13th the Club laid on a coach trip to Warwick Model Boat Show, which was well attended with about 40 members.

 Bob Abell reported that a good time was had by all with a nice run,  good weather and plenty of reminiscing. 

As I'm building a Narrow Boat the pictures Bob sent me reflect that, so if anyone has other pictures from the show they want me to publish here please send me them.

Bob also reported that most of the trade stands were sold out of kits, so its going to be a busy winter modelling with hopefully some nice models appearing in the spring.

I suppose the shows are going to be better off now as most of the model shops seem to be closing down and everything going on-line, if you don't have a PC the shows are the next best thing.

Some more boat pix's just come in

Superb 6ft model 

 The fleets in about 500 strong

And last but not least Mr fix-it the organiser Mike 

Condition of lake

Went to the lake yesterday and tidied the garden up and swept the landing stage, got a bin load of leaves and then went for some lunch at the cafe.

Sailing was out of the question as the water was full of leaves and bits of twigs and would not take long to spin your props off, never seen it so bad ! but the other lake was clear and looking over the bridge realised that the water level was so low (about 3inches down) that it wasn't flowing over the lip into the big lake so it was backing up all the rubbish in our lake.


We went to see Wayne (head warden) and he said that it was full of dark brown sludge on the other side of the sluice gates and thats why he had closed them to stop this muck coming down and making the lake worse, don't know what he is going to do about it.

Yachts should be ok as the main rubbish is on the landing stage side of the lake.

Bob's Pix's

Whilst round the park the other day Bob Abell took these fabulous pictures which I've also entered in the Round the park section on the left.

Judging by the number of entries in our photo comp I know there will be plenty of members that will like these.

Velda and I thought that all the Mandarins had gone but Bob says they are all up on the lake above the weir.

Don't forget its the Warwick Model Boat Show this weekend !

Don't know if there is any room left on the club coach trip there on the 13th Nov you could always phone Mike to see.

Photos of boats

Another couple of excellent big naval boats built by  Alan Breese, his preference but builds other types of boats as well to the same high standard.

Alan Breese boat pictures

 

Just a test run Pete not sure how many pictures I can send at one go ?

Last Day of Competition Sunday 17th

At the lake to-day it was the last day of the yearly competitions  so it was a full crowded day on the landing stage with the Steering in the morning and the Club 500 in the afternoon !.

The Club 500 usually race in the evenings but its getting too dark now for that.

This is the start of the first 500 race of the day and won by John Davis

The boats in the lower picture were the only ones I managed to capture in full flight!.

For non-members here are some earlier pictures of the steering competition 

What icebergs? full steam ahead !

Even the yachtsmen from the yacht club were out in strength

So it was a good day at the lake and as it was the Blackpool Model Boat Show as well a very good turn out , most of the members in attendance had gone to Blackpool on Saturday so as not to miss the racing

Sweeping brushes repaired and returned to the box by the way .

Blackpool Show

Had a good run to Blackpool and got there just in time to jump into a parking spot in the car park.

There was the usual club stands and a good supply of traders 

Laurie White of Model Slipway with one of his latest kits "Our Lass"

And the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society to name a few.

I got all my shopping list but one and then as it was such a nice day we left and went to St Ann's for the rest of the day

Only saw a couple of our Club members there John Muncey and Alan Breese and Jenny but I'm sure there will have been many more in attendance over the weekend.

Looks like Trevor in the right background with his mate Bob, hadn't noticed them until I got home and edited the picture !.

Thursday 14th

If anyone is wondering where all  the brushes are out of the top box !


I took two broken brushes home and got a couple of new staves at Romiley hardware shop, ( its like an Aladdins cave in there) and when we got home I drilled the brush heads out and fitted the new handles, as good as new and all for 98p each, will have to wait to get them back now as its Blackpool show tomorrow. Perhaps Sunday .


Pepe even got a treat in the handware shop, shop keeper said no one goes out of here empty handed !!

Perhaps see a few of you at Blackpool !.

Ready for winter

Went to the Lake yesterday and Velda finished the winter planting in the garden behind the benches and we had a losing battle trying to sweep up all the falling leaves, No chance at this time of the year.

Don't forget its the Blackpool Show this next weekend !,

Check out here

 and if you are saving your pennies for the Warwick Show next month you'd better hurry up and get your coach ticket ordered with Mike as the places are filling up 

 Seen at the Park this week ! I know some of you members are motorcycle fans as well as Model Boaters

This is nice isn't it ! a Honda Goldwing trike, Cue Barbara Streisand with "Memories"