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2006
Friends of Orkney Boat Museum Newsletter
Spring 2006
PDF version of newsletter Chairman’s Letter
Although
the year is two months gone this is my first opportunity of wishing you
all a happy New Year. I always feel that March with its
promise of Spring is far more ‘new year’ than the dark
days of January and February, although the weather has been unusually
kind so far this year.
Since I wrote last things have progressed at a rather sedate pace but
we have not been idle.
We were represented at all three Mainland shows; at the East Mainland
and Dounby shows we shared the Heritage tent, thanks to Steve Callaghan
and his team from
OIC. At the CountyShow we had our own pitch and we borrowed a tent from Stromness
Shopping Week, again our thanks go to them. The tent, which also borrowed last
year, proved so useful that we decided to buy one of our own for use at the
shows and other events.
Overall the show visits were a success and we raised a total of £529. The
County Show was also the venue for the conclusion of our Prize Draw; As you may
recall Jim Wallace kindly drew the winning tickets.
We held another Quiz Night at the Linnfield Hotel during the winter
which raised £89.
Our thanks to the hotel and to Steve Callaghan for torturing our brains again.
In addition to a cash prize Andrew Appleby made and donated a cog as a perpetual
challenge trophy. [until someone drops it that is!] As the Linnfield has now
changed hands we may have a different venue and a slightly different format next
winter. The Board of the Museum have also been busy and there a number of developments
to report. An application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for assistance
with the preparation of a business plan and associated reports was unsuccessful
but the work is now going ahead using other funding.
Negotiations regarding the leases of the Hall of Clestrain and the
Museum site are ongoing. Contrary to rumours which you may have heard
things are progressing
albeit slowly. Lawyers for both parties are going through the documents with
their fine -tooth combs. What is the saying? ‘The mills of God grind
slow but they grind exceeding fine.’ Joking apart there is a great deal
at stake, both in property value and financial commitment so it is vital to
get things right.
The collection of boats which will form the core of the Museum displays is
being appraised.It was originally thought that this work would be done by
the National Register of Historic Ships but they have a lower size limit
of 40ft.
so the task will now be carried out by staff of the Aberdeen Maritime Museum.
All of these reports and plans are essential for any future applications
to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Museum project itself has progressed through a further part of
the OIC capital funding procedure and is now the number one priority
for strategic
reserve funding. It now has to go through the scoring procedure in the full
council. No cash on the table yet but a significant step along the road.
The inclusion of the Highlands and Islands in the latest tranche of ERDF
funding
is also hopeful as significant funds will be available to projects such as
The Boat Museum.
Board Chairman Hugh Halcro Johnson was in Canada during the summer
as part of the ongoing twinning agreement with Manitoba. He renewed some
old contacts,
in particular with the Earl of Orkney, and made many new ones. A number of
our fliers were distributed and were well received.
Hugh reports that contact were made with the Museums Service of Manitoba,
who now hold all the Hudson’s Bay Company archives, and that there is the
possibility of collaboration between them and the Museum; perhaps to the extent
of the establishment of an outpost of the Manitoba Museums at Clestrain when
the project comes to fruition.
Business before pleasure. The AGM has been arranged for April 4th.
The calling notice and details are included with this letter. I would
ask as many of you
as possible to attend, it is an essential part of the organisation of the
Friends. I shall be standing down as chairman at the meeting but I will
be happy to
remain on the committee if elected. Perhaps some of you would consider standing?
We rely on an active committee and this is your chance to take a part in
achieving the success of the Museum undertaking. In the short term I
can only promise
you the blood, sweat and tears of continuing fund raising but it is necessary
if we are to progress to the more interesting parts.
On a lighter note we are arranging an evening of Orkney music on 21st.
April and on 12th. May a Bingo Night.
I would like to end by thanking you all for your continuing support.Together
we can make the Orkney Boat Museum a reality and in doing so restore a lovely
old building and give prominence to John Rae who for so long has been disregarded.
Charitable Status
Just too late for the last newsletter came the welcome news that we
had been awarded charitable status. This was the result of months
of patient work
by secretary Jack Drever and treasurer Chris Macrae. Thank you both very
much for your efforts. This has a number of benefits for the Friends, of
which the main one affecting you is that it enables us to reclaim all the
tax paid on any donations which you make providing a valid Gift Aid declaration
is in place.
In return you have a couple of responsibilities:
1] You must notify us if you are no longer paying sufficient tax to
cover the amount which we are reclaiming.
2] You must inform us in writing of any change of address.
This concession is very valuable to us. Please help us to keep to the
rules by informing us promptly of any changes in your circumstances.
Friends Logo
The logo for the Friends has become well known around Orkney
since we adopted it last year. John Kemp’s in Albert Street, Kirkwall
have offered to put the logo onto any garment which they sell. This could
be a fleece, t-shirt , sweatshirt or waterproof or any of the other items
they sell. Show your support for our project and give it useful publicity
by wearing the logo and explaining it to anyone who will listen.
Friends
(Jack Drever, Secretary of the Friends of Orkney Boat Museum)
“Friendship makes prosperity more brilliant, and lightens
adversity by dividing and sharing it.”
Cicero 44 B.C.
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.” Emerson
1841
Good stuff through the ages and true of the Friends of Orkney Boat
Museum today. Others write in the newsletter about progress with the
museum,
fund-raising, boats and Clestrain, so I thought I would write about us.
Who are we?
We are basically a group of people who want to see the
Hall of Clestrain restored and the Orkney Boat Museum built. There
are 310 of
us consisting
of 206 life members.
Until the museum is up and running, our main activity
is raising money and we have raised £36,000 so far, mainly by membership
subscriptions and general fund-raising (e.g. the celebrity auction, prize
draw and
raffles). We will continue to raise money in this way but to raise the
millions of pounds needed we will, in 2006, also be seeking large grants
and donations from charitable foundations and grant-awarding public bodies.
This will mainly be done by the Board of the Museum Trust but the Friends
will be trying to raise their share. What can individual Friends do?
One of the roles of the Friends is to demonstrate to those who might
provide money that there is public support for the project. The more
members of the Friends we have and the more money we raise through our
own efforts, the more we demonstrate public support. Hence, the more
likely we are to attract funding. If each Friend was to recruit one more
member during 2006, we would double the size of the organisation. One
Friend in Aberdeenshire has already recruited over 20 new Friends (he
and I have lost count of the exact number) so it should be possible for
each of us to recruit one more.
Most of the work to raise funds and publicise the project is carried
out by members of the committee. We enjoy doing it and can take pride
in what we have achieved but we could do a lot more if Friends who are
not on the committee were also involved. If you want to help with:
- running
fund-raising activities
- publicising the project
- recruiting new Friends
- rattling a collection can
- selling raffle tickets
- helping to man our stall at shows etc
- or indeed any other activity
which might support the Friends
Please talk to Jack Drever (telephone 01856 771889 or email jdreverboat@aol.com).
Everyone Has An Inkling by Andrew Appleby
We may not
all be professional salts, or passionate yachtsmen, but we all have a’boat story’ of
some sort to tell. This is one of mine.
In the Sixties, during my idle youth, I used to wear my time away on archaeological
digs. When the mid-section of the 1st. century A.D. Roman boat had been lifted
from the Thames mud at Blackfriars, the waterlogged timbers were housed in
the middle of the Royal Exchange. I was offered the job of waxing the timbers
with stuff that replaced the water within the beams. This was the simple bit. The most complete section contained the mast-step. When the stump of
the mast was removed a big bronze coin of Claudius or Nero was found
as a votive offering.
We were interested to see how the pressure of the mast had created an imprest
of the coin in the beam beneath.
Another task was fitting together the broken pieces of planking. This
was tedious but rewarding when suddenly a bit fitted and then a few more
splinters would
fall into place- like doing the sky in a jigsaw puzzle.
We also had the ‘fun’ of cleaning out the bilges of the vessel.
Well! This certainly had’nt been done for yonks, so we set to with long
spatulas and wee brushes. We found a few pieces of 2nd. Or early 3rd. century
beaker there but what was really memorable was the incredible STINK. This was
added to by the fact that the mast step of the craft lay exactly at the outfall
of the Fleet sewer. Yes! It may have eminated from the great and good of the
day but this did not impress us at the time. We merely gazed up at the glass
roof to get our nostrils above gas level six.
This act of venting our noses became a source of great amusement to
us. At lunchtime many city bankers would come to have a look at us working
away on
this nautical relic, till we were surrounded by ranks of bowler hats and
pinstripe suits. When we had summoned a sufficient crowd, Peter and I
would sniff and
then gaze up at that high glazed canopy. Higher and higher we peered---then
we looked at the bankers gazing into that higher space---- wondering.
We called them the penguins. DON’T FORGET
AGM
4th April in the Supper Room, Kirkwall Town Hall.7.30pm.
Mick Bain
will show two videos after the meeting. Tea and biscuits to sustain
you on the homeward journey.
MUSIC EVENING
21st April 7.30pm.
There will
be a raffle and Orkney ice cream in the interval. Tickets £6/£4
concessions.
BINGO NIGHT
12th May, Orphir community Hall. See press for details.
Hope to see you all at these events.
Contacts:
Mick Bain - Chairman
Karona
Garson Loan
Stromness
Orkney
KW16 3LE
01856 851339
Jack Drever – Secretary
Warbister
Dounby
Orkney
KW17 2JB
Email: jdreverboat@aol.com
How
to join the Friends of Orkney Boat Museum
Membership of the Friends of Orkney
Boat Museum costs £10 pa (£15 for a family) and gives
free entry to the museum when it is completed.
An application form is available to download
from this website in Adobe
Acrobat PDF format.
Completed forms should be sent to:
Jack Drever, Secretary, Friends of Orkney Boat Museum, Warbister, Dounby, Orkney, KW17 2JB, UK
If you wish a membership form to be posted to you, please telephone the Secretary of the Friends, Jack Drever, on 01856 771889 - (+44 1856 771889 from outside the UK) or email friends@orkneyboatmuseum.org.uk |
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