Well hello, February!
Where did January go?
We are now into the second month of national lockdown, and hoping that spring will not be far away. Planning continues for a 2021 Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta (hopefully), and the committee have continued with Zoom meetings, and even held our Annual Public Meeting via the app! Whilst we are not a public company, it is traditional for the Regatta to hold an APM annually, called by Dartmouth Town Council. This is to share our accounts and to confirm our committee members and dates for the next Regatta; it is also usually a fantastic opportunity for members of the public to hear what we have done, what we plan to do, and even to join us as a volunteer!
This year was different; however we still had some members of the public attending, as well as two adorable puppies, and our Mayor, Graham Webb, did a great job presiding over the meeting, via video call!
To give you a flavour, below is a statement from our Chairman, Ed Botterill, which he read out during the meeting:
“Good Evening, and welcome to you all, Mr Mayor, Mr President, Honorary Stewards (Richard and Wendy – it is lovely to see you both this evening), fellow Committee Members, Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the press and in particular those of who are visiting our Annual Public Meeting for the first time. This evening I would normally have the honour, as your Chairman, of reporting on the 176th, 2020 Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta and outlining some of our plans for the 177th.
However, I find myself, as we have all found ourselves, in a most unusual, strange, unpleasant and uncomfortable position over the past year. And now report to you being the Chairman who has had to cancel Regatta for the 11th time in its history and for the first time in most of our memories, and it would be in poor taste of me to extol the virtues of how well your Committee is currently doing. So what I will do is emphasise a few points from our Hon Treasurer’s final report in post and outline what we have been doing and touch on plans for our town Regatta this summer.
You will have listened with interest to Lesley Turner’s report, and I must thank her for a genuinely terrific tenure – she has transformed how we do business and brought in new ways of working that I hope that you will all agree, place us in a good position moving forwards for many years. We now look forward to working alongside Jenny Pichowski in the future. Indeed, we have been fortunate to attract Govt assistance during the Pandemic period and will be discussing at our Feb Cttee mtg how we will, in turn, do our part to also assist some local charities and organisations at this difficult time.
So far this year, we as your Regatta Committee have been busy. Busy meeting remotely – as we do this evening (through contact details on our sparkling and shiny new website – thank you Lisa, Laura and Sami for all of the hard work), and in person when the situation allows. We have reaffirmed our strong relationship with the Royal Navy and BRNC, and I thank Brigadier Jock, Captain Roger and Chris for their support throughout the year and in great detail over Regatta week.
We continue to work in detail with SHDC, and follow very closely the ongoing work to make our South Embankment the vibrant outdoor space that we saw last summer.
Our relationship with DTC, Mr Mayor, Graham, is second to none – hand in glove to be honest, and your support is unwavering, generous and uniquely flexible. Your office team are a credit to you and our Councillors on the Regatta Committee invaluable, and we look forward to welcoming DTC as a Major Sponsor in 2021.
I must also mention Anthony Mangnall who has been deeply interested and extremely keen to assist – taking our cause, and concerns as far as Westminster, indeed he spoke to Nigel Huddlestone MP, Minister for Sport, Tourism and Heritage on our behalf several days ago. I look forward to seeing him soon – if only to confirm his ‘Grand Draw’ ticket selling timings this summer!
We have been busy as a Committee already in advance of Regatta 2021, with agreements in place already for:
– Stalls
– Fireworks
– Security
– Electricians
– Sponsors
– The office of the Lord Lieutenant of Devon
– Close work and mutual opportunities with the Music Festival this year
– Ever closer ties with DHNA
– And very close to agreements on waste and traffic management.
I mention waste management, and I must not only congratulate Jon Lagdon on his perseverance, but I must also bring to your attention quite a remarkable piece of work. Our Vice-Chairman, Carleen Martin has worked tremendously hard with her Green Team to earn us a provisional Platinum Accreditation (of which there are only 3 worldwide) with ‘Sailors for the Seas’ Clean Regatta’s program – This is a huge accolade for Dartmouth Regatta as we will receive International recognition as a world-leading sustainable event. Really brilliant work – thank you and well done Carleen!
Finally, I must stress that whilst we as a Regatta are in a decent position to move forwards with a financially secure, and environmentally sustainable event, we must and will be implementing all Govt and Industry Covid guidelines in place in the summer, and all extant guidelines will be followed and enforced at the time of our event. This may mean that some events will need to be changed, made smaller, have entrance restrictions in place or even sadly cancelled. We take our responsibilities seriously – and are tremendously conscious of the positions of our supporters, facilitators, businesses, and sponsors through the district and particularly in the town that we all love – and we must also support them in turn.
I will leave you, hopefully, secure in the knowledge that we are getting all of our moving parts in place for the 176th Regatta for an Opening Ceremony in 2 days and I would ask you all to now cross your fingers and agree to have your vaccination the moment the opportunity arises! Keep safe, we wish you all well and will see you in person just as soon as we can.”
So to summarise we will continue to plan, whilst keeping a very close on eye on what we will be allowed to do. After all, Regatta is for our town and community first and foremost, so safety is paramount, as well as understanding that we all need something to celebrate, look forward to and take part in.
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