Club News
February Lunch: Chairman, Tony Farrell, welcomed 21 members and our guest speaker Ian Worley. The Raffle raised £25. Chairman’s Charity (The Ryan Neuro Therapy Centre) collection raised £42. Luncheon cost rose to £34.
News of Members:
Andrew Frazer & Lesley relocated to Barnham – best regards.
Martyn Pyle not mobile – transfer to Companion Membership.
Bill Ainsworth shoulder problems. Hoping to join us in March.
Vincent Fosdike operation postponed due to flu.
Roger Gourd has swollen legs – has difficulty walking.
Dave Garner sadly passed away on 21st February having deteriorated since he had a bad fall two years ago. Our condolences to his wife Deanna and family.
Outings: Wilson’s Music Hall 8th March (full). More in pipeline
Lunch changes by 10.30am the prior Tuesday to chris@moniz.co.uk T: 020 8660 6063. (2 missed deadline last month). Also Member News to Chris. Please email vincent@fosdike.com with articles for the Newsletter.
AGM today (after lunch): Election of Committee and Examiner for 2025. Please see Annual Report 2024 for reports from officers and nominations for new committee.
Speaker today: Chairman’s Charity Guest Speaker
3rd April 2025: Peter Stammers
‘How did World War Two end in Europe?’
February Guest Speaker: Ian Worley
‘The Whitbread Round the World Race 1977/78’
Ian, who had sailed since the age of 7, saw an advert, applied and was accepted for the third race in 1977/78. The crew got to know one another during training – 17 including 2 French, 2 Dutch, 1 Italian, aboard Great Britain II. The worst thing about the training was spectator boats getting in the way. Chay Blyth’s was the first Race in 1971/2.
Ian’s talk was full of amusing anecdotes and included short videos some of which had been filmed for Grandstand. There was a rota – 4 watches –for cooking/washing up (salt water) and clearing away. The yacht was packed with equipment, especially navigation, as every second counts in the race. There were 32 sails including 10 spinnakers stored away. Ian put flying fish on the menu when one landed on deck.
Through the Doldrums it was very hot – kept going with little wind for 12 days – then finally the South Atlantic and third boat into Cape Town. Repairs took four weeks – rests at the ports of call were scheduled to allow such repairs.
Next leg into the Southern Ocean – gale force winds roaring – floors flooding – 3 crew on the wheel – looking out for icebergs. The Spinnaker torn to pieces – repaired with sewing machine on board. Round Australia, north to New Zealand, a sail in the water – rope broke – wrapped itself around a crewmember squeezing out the life and bursting blood vessels behind his eyes – Ian had a short knife and cut the rope – a full recovery was made. Round Cape Reinga, then on to Aukland 22 hours behind Condor, but the best of welcomes. Visited by NZ PM and dolphins (video).
Nearing Cape Horn – hit by huge storm breaking over the decks – turned to ice. But GBII took the lead by 300 miles. Near Patagonia, lightning struck and burned out all navigation instruments – had to sail by sun and moon for four or five days into Rio – Condo only 34 minutes behind. Three weeks in Rio – new equipment flown in – C a r n i v a l.
Final leg to Portsmouth. Back to mortgages, road tax, wives. Just missed the record. GBII came second to a Swiss entrant but won line honours for third navigation of the world. Thank you Ian for telling us your incredible adventure. Navigation by sextant before the age of GPS.
Admin Rules O.K. – by Vincent Fosdike
I pull in to the all talking “have a nice day” car park at the hospital, which has an attendant letting people out as the machine does not recognise the paid exit tickets that stressed patients must present to escape. The attendant is struggling to find the asset number of the barrier without which the help line is helpless. Still never mind it will be a while before I need to go and by then they may have found the emergency over-ride code which might open all gates on the system.
We make it to reception who check my I.D. and we walk through a vast waiting area with no patients waiting at all. Our sub waiting area has two patients waiting and two doctors inside interview cubicles. My blood pressure is taken and a bit high so the CNA (clinical nurse assistant) says “how about another go”? It is higher so I am allowed to choose which to submit and she recommends the lower one which is sent through to the cubicle. We were bang on time. Other patients come and go before me, probably more trivial complaints than mine, and the clock moves on. I engage idle daydream mode which fastens on some beautifully stencilled small 8 digit numbers in red on the top of a pair wooden doors opposite my chair. They are labelled asset numbers! I don’t know if the frame is the asset or the door or if they come as an inseparable unit but it appears important to the two workman who join us gazing at them in awed silence. Apparently they are doing a safety audit vis a vis fire certificates.
As it happens I believe that recent changes in the regulations state that fire door hinges in groups of three must no longer be equally spaced as before. They must have two closer together at the upper edge. These are the old layout and they must plan their work to upgrade the layout if that is needed. Thank providence for the mobile phone. They contact the supervisor for instructions. He is clearly a man of the minute as he calmly demands the asset number. Fifteen minutes latter he calls back to say the numbers belong to doors and their frames on the next floor and they should go and look at them. This is done and a pair of identical door sets bearing the same numbers is found there! These asset numbers should be unique and sacred. Have we paid for only one set and are they both fire certificated? Well strangely there is a difference; the pairs are left and right handed!
Any minute now I may be called in to hear my heart results but I really want to know if a “major incident” is about to be declared in the purchasing and maintenance department. Will senior management be required to convene a meeting under health and safety regulations and do a memo to accounts? What if all the whole door series is numbered wrongly throughout the building. The entire annual inspection and upgrade plan will be negated. How many man hours will this take to resolve? Extra admin staff will be needed at some cost.
My name is called and it seems I must miss episode two. My consultation is much simpler with just a few high tech digits to be considered and some minor life and death issues to be quickly disposed of with a friendly handshake and best wishes all round.
Back where the real action is a phone call has been made to the legal section as to whether the hinge issue is mandatory or advisory. The foreman is on site with a departmental head waiting for news. Just as I am leaving hoping to be able to exit the car park the managers phone reports that the hinges can remain evenly spaced pending the next door replacement (legal section I think). This only leaves the problem of the asset number error to be resolved.
This is much more complex than my cardiac irregularity which may well solve itself permanently at the exit gate if it won’t let me out.
The extra staff to sort out the admin will of course cost much more and will go to next months committee and that may result in an enquiry, even a press release involving careful wording which takes time and money. No wonder consultants suffer stress just hearing about it all. The area might even have to be shut for some further risk assessment. Better get ready to push back some appointments!
Happy new year
A.I. – by Vincent Fosdike
How would you define A.I.? Probably you would think in terms of Robotics either in physical terms with perhaps a charming mechanised creature serving you in a restaurant or even a Japanese style care attendant in a rest home that is capable of conversation! Both exist not to mention self driving
cars and more sinisterly military applications such as pilotless drones or attack aircraft.
The concepts are advanced and already in service with cabs operating in some American states. Don’t think I would take a ride in one just yet particularly if it should turn out that they can be hacked!
At deeper level it can be used to impersonate real people on line or on the phone. So convincing is the technology that we can probably all be fooled beyond the now common scams that plague us all already, which is not true A.I. There is now a company suggesting that it can create an apparent facsimile of a deceased loved one with whom we can hold realistic conversations of a complex and sophisticated nature. It is suggested that this would be comforting for the bereaved . The character of the departed will have previously been analysed from records available on line or paper records left behind. Thought patterns are not simply replicated but generated and evolved so that conversations or false memories will arise to enhance the illusion of a real person who is indistinguishable from the dear departed! All that is needed is to supply basic data which will then self generate a parallel personality. Universities already face a real academic challenge from students using the technology to research, analyse and then generate apparent essays in the style of the student who has to do no more that set the program in motion. Of course it can replicate a few common errors to camouflage its existence. Tutors complain that this can already be almost impossible to spot making evaluation of a students work close to worthless.
So where do we go from here with high tech companies spending unimaginable amounts to dominate the market and merging with the political systems who crave the power it will give?
Detection seems virtually impossible at high levels.
Well don’t ask me I only write this stuff or do I?