Copyright © Costa Blanca 41 Club 2018

Costa Blanca 41 Club

‘All

things

 International’

In 1992 with Ron Pryor as Club Chairman, Tony and Janet hosted an Octoberfest with 51 people attending. Worries about there being enough space for everybody to eat were quickly dispelled when the weather

improved, and they ‘all sat in the garden to consume warm German potato salad with red

cabbage and Nuremberg sausages followed by homemade apple pies and cheese, washed down with large quantities of beer and wine’.

‘In November, Dennis promised a gentle car rally followed by lunch. However, it proved to be quite a long trip through the Sierras and beyond the Jalon valley. Some ducked out, opened their envelope and made a quick dash to the Don Quixote

restaurant in Orba where a roaring fire and a good lunch put them at peace with the world.

VC Alex Morrison returned from his voyage to the Bahamas to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s historic Atlantic crossing, and take over as Club Chairman. He gave the Club ‘a wonderful summary of his journey in which he participated with 138 other boats from all nationalities. The pre-sail briefings were held in the same monastery as the original voyage, and before setting sail from Las Palmas, a new statue to Columbus was unveiled with the names of all the participating boats on the plinth’.

The boats were of varying size and speed. ‘At one point they were spread over 1,000 miles of the ocean in one direction and 260 miles in the other. On Alex’s boat the steering cable broke 200 miles off Puerto Rico, and when their desalination

In the spring of 1993, ‘the international membership of the club expanded with Hans and Edith Waller joining from Holland (Velsen Beverwyk 41 club), and Jac and Jill Boone joining from Hong Kong no.3 club. Founder member Fritz and wife Erna missed their normal June visit as they were touring the world making 41 Club visits.

David Cox, who had only recently been able to return to his office in the Baltic Exchange in the City of London after a year of repairs, had again had it blown up’.

Joe Barnfield was elected Chairman for 1993/94, with David Noakes as Secretary and Albert White as Treasurer. In an almost unprecedented event, there were more than one nomination for

Baltic Exchange ,London 1992

two of the places on the committee, and voting actually took place.

Joe ‘hoped to bring a little more friendly formality into the meetings. The banners had come out of the box, had been pressed and would be on show at each meeting. Treasurer Albert would welcome us to the meeting, collect the cash and ask us to choose our meal. (Don’t forget, if you have the omelette as starter you can’t have egg with your gammon!)

Two new offices were created, that of Almoner and Non-Resident Representative. The Almoner ‘would take over the sending of birthday cards, flowers and other welfare matters, including contact with sick or absent members. The Non-resident Representative will be kept up to date on any last minute changes and be the contact with the many overseas members’.

Three Costa Blanca members went to the Mallorca 41 Club Charter. ‘The plan was to just pop over the odd 100 miles late one afternoon, meet the chaps, attend the Charter Dinner and be back around midday the following day, at a very reasonable price. Not a bit of it. The cost was greater than going from the UK. We had to leave Javea at 7.30am to catch the only flight of the day, which arrived one hour after the tee-off time reserved at Santa Ponsa Club de Golf. We did not return until late the following day. We were a bit aggrieved later to find that for the same price this month, we could have had 7 days in a good Palma hotel’.

Mallorca 41 Club Charter Presentation Dinner

We really enjoyed the visit. The members met us at the airport, entertained us really well in their homes and showed us around the island. Our first lunch at a penthouse apartment set the scene. When the sun became too hot, the host pressed a switch under the bar and a blind came over to shield us from the sun. They are a strong boating club. They didn’t ask “do you own a boat?”, they asked “what type of boat do you have?”

Mallorca 41 Club’s Charter was presented by the National Secretary of Ex-Tablers Clubs, Geoff King. He advised that there were quiet discussions being held with international clubs on the continent to try and resolve the present impasse partly due to the UK opting out of 41 International, and French 41 Clubs allowing non ex-Tablers to join 41 Clubs and then subsequently appointing them as Presidents and Council Members.

He also said that we would be horrified at the squandering of International funds by members of the past International Council.

On our return to the Costa Blanca ‘we were sad to learn that Gibraltar 41

Club had just had their Charter Night and that we had not been invited. Apart

from the Algarve 41 Club, we are the closest neighbour club. We have

extended an invitation to the Mallorca Club to our Charter in March, so we

will do the same to Gibraltar’. After a number of years of meeting in the

White Horse Steak House on the front in Javea, the Club was give notice to

quit! A desperate search for a new ‘private room’ venue commenced.

The monthly social activities continued to be well supported, with a mixture of events such as a Car Treasure Hunt and a visit and picnic to a Safari Park, and BBQs, Ploughman and Fancy Dress lunches at members’ homes. The planned repeat Octoberfest became ‘a Septemberfest when we received an

invitation to a Mediterranean Cluster Meeting to be held over the weekend of 18th -21st October in Mallorca, with the National President and General Secretary, and members and wives from the Algarve and Gibraltar 41 Clubs’.

Footnote: Treasurer Albert White took it upon himself to write up the history of the      Club, and appealed for material in the shape of photos, videos etc. We are      fortunate to have Tony’s Newsletters, but we have so far been unable to      discover if there is such an existing history. We welcome any such material      members may still have, either historic or current, especially photographs,      programmes etc that can be copied.

                                                                                       ...to be continued...

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Note

This is the sixth of a series of articles on the history and development of the Costa Blanca 41 Club. It is being compiled from a large number of newsletters recovered from files held by Tony Ogden, who played a major part in the development of the Club and later in the development of the group of clubs now known as the ‘Iberian Cluster’. All the text above in italics  is directly quoted from newsletters published at the time.  

Ted Homewood/Bob Oxley

                                                                                                                    Ted Homewood/Bob Oxley

                                                                                                                    Ted Homewood/Bob Oxley

                                                                                                                    Ted Homewood/Bob Oxley

                                                                                                                   Ted Homewood/Bob Oxley

Ted Homewood

Chairman 2005-06

Bob Oxley

Chairman  2011-12

Alex Morrison on the right with his crew

plant broke, they were grateful for the rain so that they could shower on deck. On arrival in San Salvador, each boat planted the tree that they had been given, in a commemoration park’. Alex’s trip was featured in the 41 Club Magazine.