Breakfast Paddle

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By Catherine Dacey

The Breakfast paddle will now be an out door bacon roll paddle with tea, coffee and hot mulled fruit juice.

We will be at the side of the club house serving from about 11.15.

Please come along after your paddle.

Let us know if you are coming so we have enough supplies.

See you Sunday 19th.

Catherine and Keith

New Build Design Update

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By Mark Corti

Greetings Maidstone Canoe Club Members. Many of you may have heard of the 'new boat store' referencing the former dive club building directly behind our club house. The MCC has recently acquired this property for expansion and have been busy putting together plans for its future to make our club larger and more accessible. I am proud to share with you today the proposed design of that building and the MCC Committee's vision of its use. 

There are two places to currently view the drawings. First is on the peg board next to the kitchen in the Club House, but the second and more accessible will be on the website under the news story “New Build Design Update.”

The last time the membership was briefed about the project was during our AGM in March of 2021. Since then we have been hard at work making sure all details, use cases and modern club needs have been added. We have hired an architect to help use get it right and assembled a new build committee to get it done. This design is the culmination of many months of discussion amongst the committee, informal conversations with the membership and feedback from our professionals who are helping deliver it.

Some of the feature include in the design are:

• New boat storage space (roughly equivalent to the both the current Club Boat Store and the Back Boat shed combined!)

• More and purpose-built space for paddles, BA's and other kit 

• An accessible shower and toilet for members who require more assistance

• A new changing facility with space for 20 members including modern cubical showers, one quick access for safety shower and a toilet for convenience

• A multi-functional space for courses, kit, other other uses as needed

I hope you are as excited as I am and we looking forward to hearing your thoughts. For the next 21 days we are collecting any feedback you might have. At the end of that period we will liaise with the architect to finalise the drawing and move to building control. 

Thank you all for your patience and feedback over 2021 and look forward to more progress in 2022. Please feel free to contact either myself or the committee at [email protected]

Jacob Baisley

MCC Vice-Chairperson

Winter 2021 - The Newsletter

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By Mark Corti

The Winter 2021 Newsletter is here, filled with - you guessed it - news!  There should be a copy in your email inbox already, but if not you can read it here!

Racing at Cambridge

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By Catherine Ayling

6 racers that train at Maidstone Canoe Club entered and participated in the Essex Winter Series race at Cambridge this Sunday, 5th Dec. We had a great day racing on the river cam where the distances varied from just over 5 miles to just over 7 miles depending on which 'class' of race we were entered into. This is a series of races which keeps racing going over the winter and is often enjoyed by Maidstone racing paddlers. The first in the series was on 7th Nov in Bishop Stortford. Catherine is paddling with a lady from Bishop Stortford and so far they have come 11th/21 and 12th/24 however they are in the lead for the Ladies K2 crew having been the first ladies crew in eah race. Tom and Steve are doing a great job in their K2 race too having only just started to race together - this was their 2nd Race. Leanne is winning her category, K1 ladies and Aaron has placed in the top 4 on both of his so far. Bryn has had a couple of mishaps and we are routing for him for the next race which will be in January and the great thing about Bryn is that he is always so keen and takes everything in his stride. He is racing in the mens K1 Vets.

Water Quality in River Medway

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By Geoffb Licence

Are you concerned about the water quality in our local River? Anglers, Rowers, SUPs, Canoes and Kayaks use our river like never before.   As a club we have a record number of members. Given the poularity of Water Sports you may be surprised to learn that it is legal for Southern Water and Boat Owners to dump raw sewage iinto the Medway. The Environment Bill was passed by the Commons recently with an amendment to urge water companies to stop polluting our beaches sea and rivers. The House of Lords amendment was changed by the commons to still keep it legal to dump seage into our waterways and sea when the Victorian sewage system cannot cope. This happens in periods of heavy rainfall and where pumping stations are out of action.  The Bill is now in Committee Stage. Perhaps more alarming is the fact that unlike the Thames it is legal for boat owners to dump their sewage into the river. There are pumping out stations provded by the Environment Agency but there is no legal requrement to use them. This poses a serious public health problem for river users. If you feel strongly about this, support the Briish Canoeing Clear Access Clear Waters campaign by writing (e-mail is OK) to your MP. Ask him or her to table an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons so that it can be debated. it should be noted that if your MP is a minister they cannot table an EDM. All MPs can however draw this problem to the relevent Government Minister. Send a copy of your reply to British Canoeing and the club. Together we can help to clean up our lovely River Medway, making it a safer place for all users.

Possibly maybe

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By Mark Corti

Perhaps you've been out paddling.  Maybe some coaching.  An Intro to WW course.  A trip to the estuary, or further afield.  Perhaps you saw some interesting wildlife, or somebody comically fell in.  Concievably, you even took a photograph.  

Or possibly you're planning something for the future.  A talk, a big trip.  A progress report on an ongoing project.

We'll never know.

Unless ... you write an article for the newsletter!  Deadline is November 20th - there are currently a lot of blank pages looking very empty ...

Where's Wally?

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By Catherine Dacey

The date has Changed to MONDAY 22 November

More specifically, how can we spot the fabulous wildlife around our coastlines?  Where can we go to see the whales, dolphins and sharks in UK waters?  They're closer than you think!  Club member James Copeland is the local rep for Seawatch Foundation, and will be telling you all this and more at the Club on Monday 22nd November - see you there!

Down

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By Mark Corti

Apologies for the recent downtime on the website. Our server had hardware problems and our hosting company was working through the night to get all their clients back up and running.