Review: Spirit of Lancashire - Marine Festival -

29 Apr 03 - 04:52 AM (#942565)
Subject: Review: Spirit of Lancashire - Marine Festival -
From: clansfolk

Well what a month we have had. Things have been moving so fast that it has been hard to stay on top of it all. The easiest way for us to get all of the information out to you is by just listing it so here goes –

Boat Naming Ceremony –

On Saturday 19th April as part of the Lancaster Maritime Festival we had the boat naming ceremony. Many thanks to all of you who came along to witness the occasion and for those of you who didn't you missed a good bash! Geraldine Smith, MP for Morecambe, did honors and the boat was blessed by Roy Paul, Padre at the Mersey Mission for Seafarers. Everyone who came was treated to wine and food aboard the MV Brocklebank after the ceremony. Pamela Brown of the King George's Fund for Sailors arranged the use of the MV Brocklebank, usually based in the Albert Dock at Liverpool, for the team. The King George's Fund For Sailors is the teams chosen charity and as such we will be hoping to raise as much profile and money for them as possible. Special thanks must go to Pamela and also the crew of the Brocklebank for making the reception go as well as it did. A special surprise was also waiting when The Elderly Brothers started up an impromptu gig to get the revelers going.

Thanks must also go to all of the volunteers for the team, family and friends, who were up bright and early on Saturday morning making butties, setting up stands, manning the stand or simply just being general runabouts.

Sponsorship –

We have had a very welcome boost in the cash sponsorship front this month from Batley's Cash and Carry. They have sponsored enough cash for us to complete the payment on the boat and also purchase all of our specialist food for the crossing. Batley's, with stores in Preston, Manchester and Liverpool as well as numerous others covering the country, will receive a large space on the boat for their logo and we are discussing other areas in which we can work with their marketing department.

Also this month we have received a cheque for £3500 from Lancashire County Developments for our communications equipment. This was handed overt to us by Chair of the County Council Niki Penney on the occasion of the Boat Naming Ceremony and was a wonderful and welcome surprise. The team owes a lot to Niki who has been a major supporter of our challenge and has worked tirelessly in helping us get as far as we have. Indeed her enthusiasm was so infectious during her speech at the boat naming ceremony that she managed to encourage many members of the assembled crowd to part with their money to help us on our way.

We do still have a long way to go but the size of the hurdle diminishes with every small donation.

Fund Raising –

The Lancaster Maritime Festival went very well raising almost £500.00 in cash, not counting the £3500 sponsorship from Lancashire County Developments or the very kind offer from an interested individual to buy the team a pair of purpose built ocean rowing oars.

Most of the cash raised came from the sale of raffle tickets where the first prize of a holiday for four to see the race start sponsored by Grand Vacation Company was a big incentive. If you would like to purchase some raffle tickets or think you may be able to sell some to your family and friends please get in touch on the numbers below. Money was also raised from people wishing to put names on the boat and general donations.

The next big event is going to be the Summer Ball to be held on Friday 13th June at Harris Park, Preston. The black tie ball will be the social event of the year and cannot be missed out on. Not only will there be a menu endorsed by celebrity chef, James Martin, there will also be live music from The Elderly Brothers, a disco, an auction presided over by a red coated toastmaster with lots that money normally just can't buy. The tickets will be £30 each and there are tables of 8 (and two of 6). Anyone who would like a ticket or a table, please contact Adam or Paul on the numbers below ASAP. For information we are in the process of negotiating with OK Magazine for the photo rights and as such no disposable cameras will be allowed on the tables!!

Counting the money that we should get from the Raffle and the Ball we still need to raise about £15000-£20000 so if anyone has any good ideas or would like to help please feel free to contact either of us on the numbers below.

Training –

These past few weeks we have under taken and passed our VHF Radio Course. Once more York Cruiser Training Centre supplied us the course for free (we did a talk to them in February on our preparations) and once more the teaching was excellent. We now know the correct protocol for radio usage, for example you never say "Over and Out" (remember this for later!). We also managed to sell a few raffle tickets to our fellow students.

Armed now with our fully owned boat and our new knowledge of radio etiquette we ventured out to sea for the second time a few weekends back. You may remember from our previous newsletter the problems we encountered last time and having to be towed in by the Westminster Dredging ship, "Severn". This time we tentatively headed out from Glasson Sailing Club determined to row in our planned pattern of two hours on two hours off for a full 12 hours. Keen to use the new skills learnt on the radio Adam opted to inform the Coastguard of our planned passage for the day. It went really well right up to the end when, with a perceptible American accent, he finished with "Over and Out". (DOH!) The sun was shining the wind was gentle, and in the right direction and in all we had a great day. We even took part in some topless rowing – halfway to the full outfit required for the days when we take on the Atlantic!!

The land training has taken a bit of a knock while preparations for the boat naming ceremony and other profile raising initiatives have been taking place. However we are now back into the full swing of things and are getting ready for another 24-hour row in the lab at the University of Central Lancashire this coming weekend (Sat). This will be as part of an Open Day at the university so feel free to come along and see us acting as Lab rats for the day.

Website –

The Webster is still undergoing some changes but is already looking much better. This is thanks to Michael Morris of Business Serve who has taken time out of his increasingly busy schedule to help us with it.


That's all for now but thank you for all of your continued support.

Paul Nelson & Adam Murfitt
The Crew

Tel:        [phone]        or 0795 7592997
Email:        [e-mail] or [e-mail]        
Website:        www.spiritoflancashire.com

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