It is lots of fun running the Association.  We need volunteers to fill roles and support the General Committee.

Would you like to organise our presence at Boat Shows?  How about supporting the Membership Registrar?

If you would like to find out more, please email the Commodore

commodore@moodyowners.org

If you have a specialist skill, for example public relations, why not offer us a little of your expertise?

It is lots of fun and you make friends.

The new sailing season is upon us, and I very much hope that you all manage to get aboard and enjoy some great cruising, racing, or just pottering about in your local waters. The Association is in great shape with almost 2200 members across the globe. 

However, there are still other Moody owners who are not members, so please check your Membership Handbook when you are out and see another yacht. If it is not listed, have a chat with the crew and see if you can recruit them. At worst you may have a good discussion or make a new sailing acquaintance.

Talking of the Handbook, it is now available online at
www.moodyowners.info/resources/members-handbook-2023.1737/.

As a consequence of rising costs of publications and reduced advertising income, the General Committee decided to cease printing the Handbook and provide it as a downloadable document from our website. Details on how to do this and use the new version are available on the link above.

For members who do not have internet access it will be possible to have copies printed out. At this stage, and depending on numbers, I am not able to say how much they would cost, but Paul Woodward’s article in the latest edition of Compass addresses this in more detail.

We had an excellent AGM in Plymouth in February. After two years of virtual meetings, it was delightful to be able to meet up with other members again and conduct our business in a convivial and social atmosphere. We are planning on holding the next AGM in Belfast between the 1st and 3rd of March 2024, and further details will be provided once arrangements have been made. My thanks to our colleagues in Ireland Branch for agreeing to host what should be an interesting and very enjoyable event.

I would like to welcome Howard Weeks onto the Executive Committee as our new Membership Registrar. Howard will be well known to those of you in the Irish Sea Branch and will be in touch with all of you at some stage over the next year.

You will have noticed that your renewal notice for both last year and this year asked you to consider using direct debit in future for making your subscription payments. This method saves us considerable time and money in collecting subscriptions, particularly if they are increased, as they will be in 2024. While we recognise that this is not possible for our overseas members, we now ask all UK members to pay by direct debit and cancel their existing standing orders. New members will only be able pay by this method.

We have to say goodbye to some of our stalwarts on the General Committee. Sadly, Tony Wilding, the South West Branch Captain from 2017-2019 died in January. Tony organised the excellent Bristol AGM, and was a valuable member of the General Committee. Our sympathies go to his wife Margaret and family.

Neil Eccles, our long time Website Editor has decided to hang up his mouse. Following Neil’s resignation, we have retired the Website Editor role with him and instead created a website team consisting of David Longhurst, Matt Stibbs and Dan Withey. Neil will retain an ‘Emeritus’ role to provide consultancy, if required.

Finally, Sally Ousbey was our Hon. Secretary between 2016-19, and continued with the Membership Assistant until this year. We wish her and Neil all the very best for the future and thank them for the unstinting work they have done to support the MOA over the years.

Without members like this, the MOA would be unable to function. We still need a new Hon. Secretary and Advertising Manager to replace Chris Allcock and Colin Barber. These are interesting and enjoyable roles at the heart of the Association. Please think whether you might have some time to devote to the MOA in one of these roles or other aspects of running our business and get in touch with any of the Association Officers if you would like to discuss what they entail.

Finally, we very much welcomed the response to the Compass questionnaire last year. Compass is a superb publication envied by other yachting associations. To keep it like this Ruth, our Editor, needs copy. A high percentage of respondents indicated that they would be prepared to write an article for the magazine. Please make good on this. I know it can be daunting to write something for publication, but the editorial team can help, but only if they
have something to work with. You all have experiences on your Moodys, good, bad, exciting, frightening, enlightening. Share them with the rest of us so we can learn, marvel and enjoy what you have done.

In the words of J.K. Rowling, who can spin a yarn or two – “There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place.”

Roger Coppock
Commodore