Tuesday Club - December at the Lake

December is normally the start of a relatively quiet period in the busy schedule of the Tuesday Club, this is not only due to the shortening of the daylight hours, but also being very much dependent upon the weather on-the-day.

This year, the club members have been busy as usual doing all the maintenance jobs within the clubhouse, the grounds, and as many boat repairs that is possible to do ‘in-house’.  This voluntary work is on top of all that other vital work that is performed by the club’s elected officers and committee members, upon which the success of the club is measured in the eyes of the membership.

Christmas Lunch - 2010

During the week before the Christmas holiday, the Tuesday Club members enjoyed a lavish Christmas Lunch, which had been catered and cooked by fellow member David Edwards (Well Done that man!!).

Whilst enjoying the fine cuisine, entertainment had been laid on for us, courteously by the club committee engaging the use of external contractors to dredge the area around the jetties.  This was one job that ‘we’ the Tuesday Club could not do.  If only due to fact that we lacked possession of the necessary toolkit required.

Dredging the area around the Jetties

I expect that there will be a more formal write-up within a future issue of the club newsletter, but for now here’s a basic overview.

The contractors worked (and lived in a caravan) onsite for well over a week braving the freezing, wintery weather, enabling them to make the most of the working daylight hours, and providing overnight security for their equipment.

In the previous months and weeks before their arrival, various Tuesday Club members had been busy preparing the waste disposal site.  This was done by clearing the densely covering holly trees from the swampy/scrub land bordering the southern-western grassy region between the club-house, the car-park, and the upper reaches of the lagoon area bordered with reeds.

Some dangerously leaning trees along the roadway between the locked gateway and the car-park had also been felled. This was mainly for reasons of safety to club member’s cars and pedestrians using the roadway, particularly after stormy weather.  (Do you still remember the ‘Hurricane of ’87 ?,  and also the high winds a couple of years later!!! when thousands of ‘healthy’ trees had been uprooted or blown down all over the South of England).

This work proved beneficial for the arrival of the heavy plant that the contractors had brought with them, as the leaning trees would have blocked their access for the diggers and other high/wide equipment).  As it turned out, one or two of the upright trees still bear the scars where they were gashed by the passage of their equipment, either from the large digger, or by the large red compressor unit (the size of a very large van), which was used to blow the spoil down the pipe-way.

During their working day, they had to deal with at least 2” thick ice covering the lake.  One of the diggers was loaded onto a floating barge (comprising of four pontoon units) together with a macerator unit and a pumping unit, which was supplied with air from a massive red compressor unit (the size of very large commercial van), to pump and eject the liquidised dredged spoil via a floating pipeline onto a cleared area on land.

The pictures below (taken after Christmas), shows the equipment awaiting removal from our grounds, together with photos of the ‘muddy’ spoil area.

As the posted notice says on the area bordered by the red/white tape ... Please keep your children and animals away from the muddy spoil area until such time the ground dries out and hardens, which will probably be sometime in the summer (at the very earliest).

A 14 minute movie was taken (by a club member) of the dredging operation, but as yet, it is not available via the website.  However, it might be shown (for those interested) at a forth-coming club ‘monthly’ Dry Meeting.

An Appeal

If any other sailing club members are ever at a loss at ‘filling their spare time’ on any Tuesday, then please feel free to join our merry band, whenever you can.

We don’t expect you to have any specific DIY and/or landscaping skills.  All we need is a willing spirit and pair of hands to supplement our friendly team with any of the multitude of tasks that our group takes on.

Each person generally does the task(s) that they are happiest doing (sometimes working in groups), and between us, most (if not all) of the jobs just seem to get done during the year.

Our Tuesday session usually consists of preparing for the day’s task(s), breaking at 11am for tea/coffee (with friendly banter), followed by more work, lunch (sandwiches), then finishing the day’s task, before going home mid afternoon.

So, if you do fancy joining us, then we would be very pleased to meet you.