JOHN MORGAN

A Club Life Member, Trustee, Vice President, Past Commodore and negotiator.

John Morgan joined Llangorse Sailing Club in 1957. He bought his first boat in 1959. It was a 17'6 Tornado (a marine ply, mono-hull) from a club member. It was the actual dinghy that had been part of the London 1951 South Bank Exhibition. John sailed that for several years before changing to a Fireball (sail No.1278). This was the boat exhibited on the Chippendale stand at the 1966 London Boat Show. Much to the horror of Jack Chippendale, John took his DIY trailer, constructed from the rear end of a Mini and a bit of 6x6 timber as the drawbar, into the show to collect it.

John was part of the team that was responsible for purchasing the site and was a member of the group that took part in the protracted negotiations with The Llangorse Lake Conservation and Management Company on behalf of the club. John was the person that the newly formed company initially wrote to in October 1986 telling him that they had taken over the management of the lake and that as our use was unauthorised we must stop sailing forthwith and could only resume doing so by members obtaining a licence from the company. An agreement was eventually signed in March 1989. Much of the research into the background and uses of the lake used in the discussions and legal arguments was undertaken by Brian Cornelius.

Since then John has subsequently been involved with the discussions with various public and conservation bodies about restricting the activities on the lake. Those discussions have resulted in an understanding, if not encompassing everyone's desires, which is a good workable compromise. That agreement is referred to elsewhere in this newsletter.

John has always put a great effort into encouraging youngsters to sail and countless juniors learnt to sail (and swim) while crewing in his Fireball. Many moved on to become crews for top end of the fleet members or became top class helms. John bought a keelboat (then a bigger one) and gave a lot of the junior members some wonderful times sailing in the Channel and trips to the Channel Isles and France. In the latter years John gave up his Fireball for windsurfing and has still been seen out on it a few times in the last couple of years.

Right from the start, John has been one of the mainstays at Cadet Week. Encouraging and patiently cajoling the youngsters to have a go. To see him with a

group of very young juniors in the Oppies around him, often up to his neck in the water, is a great sight; especially when he takes them, despite disapproving looks from some senior members, on an expedition down the lake convoy fashion. I am quite sure that to many of the children, he is the epitome of a cross between Toad of Toad Hall and the Coot Club.

For those who have no idea of what the club site used to look like can have no idea what John has done for the club. Apart from a small area, it was mostly a reed bed with access to the lake down the Llynfi. Little of the site above the normal lake level. The late Geoff Taylor brought a Hymac excavator onto the site and dug the creeks, mainly with the intention of getting enough spoil to increase to amount of useable area by raising the ground level. John subsequently scrounged soil from all over the place to cap the grey pudding like slop that was dredged up from the lakebed.

Fortunately it was at the time that the Brecon bypass was being built and became a source of very good material. The only trouble was that there was no road across the common and there was a problem with the mess that the transport was making. We were told to stop. The result was that it was agreed with the council that the club would build a rough road across the common and when the project was completed the council would take it over, surface it and maintain it.

John, often on his own, shored up the sides of the new creeks with stakes, sheets of corrugated iron or anything else that John thought appropriate that he could lay his hands on. He constructed and repaired walkways and built the jetties. Those who knew what he did at the club during that period can only marvel at what he achieved. For days on end he plodded around the muddy creeks and the lake, usually on his own, in his wet suit like some aquatic super-being.

Before the clubhouse could be built, the area on which it was to be erected had to be raised above flood level. A dragline was brought in and under John's supervision the area that was in between the arms of the two creeks was dredged to find the material, thus forming the lagoon. By the time the building was erected the area around it was an unbelievable mess. Dennis Fletcher, (Colin's father) told John in no uncertain manner " you have finished the club". John's retort "no we haven't, you just wait until the daffodils are blooming around the building next spring". John's trip to the Far East was his inspiration for the safety boat shed that he built.

That all seems a long time ago now, but for many years John has just gone on and on doing what needed to be done around the site to maintain and improve what we now have. That we have such a site is due to John's diligence and hard work, hard work that has saved the club a fortune.

Well done and thanks John.