Endeavour Trust: October 2015

Welcome to the Winter 2015 Newsletter

This edition covers the Veterans' Cruise Weekend at Hampton Court, more tales from this summer's Dunkirk trip, the Southend Barge Match, the Leigh Society Open Day, the 2nd Leigh Maritime Festival and finally, but by no means least, the 2nd Leigh Regatta!

Phew!

Veterans Cruise Weekend At Hampton Court - Paul Gilson

There have been many highlights for Endeavour this year and I believe that this event may have been the best.

It was a long trip, leaving Leigh on the ebb for a punch against the tide all the way up river. Our journey was uncharted waters for Endeavour. She has never been above the Pool of London so a trip up another twenty miles was an experience. With the mast down we passed gracefully under many bridges. The scenery was fantastic and it felt like I was moving through history with iconic buildings at every turn. Wildlife abounds in the upper reaches, and into the fresh water above Teddington, ducks, geese and ring-necked parakeets were in our sights at every turn. After a journey of 11 hours 45 minutes we berthed with the other little ships above Hampton Court Bridge at the Thames Motor Yacht Club.

Operation Dynamo 2015 – Colin Sains

Tuesday 19^th May

It was with some trepidation that I arrived at Old Leigh Boat yard to meet my fellow crew members, Jeremy Squires, Finlay Marshall, Gareth Jones and skipper Paul Gilson and for the very first time step on to Endeavour along with far too much kit.

Paul had set my mind partly at rest by assuring me that my extreme lack of nautical experience would not prevent me joining the boat for the start of the journey to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of Operation Dynamo.

Again this year Endeavour, but this time skippered by ‘Brum’ sailed among the splendid Thames Sailing Barges competing in the Southend Barge Match. An excellent opportunity to view and take photographs was taken up by new members Dave and Sue Proctor who joined Brum, Peter, Anne and Michael on board. The chill breeze meant that those on board had to keep well wrapped up but it helped the barges achieve a brisk racing speed.

Email

We are grateful to those members who responded to the prodding in the last newsletter regarding your email details. However this is still only 10% of our membership, and whilst we know a few of you are not at all computer minded or connected, we still need a much larger response.

Please rest assured that we will never abuse such information, it is solely to save the horrendous cost of postage of newsletters, subscription chasers and other important paperwork. Please spare us one or two minutes to send the details to [Contact details removed as no longer current - please refer to Shop and Membership tab above.].

Sea Scouts and Pilgrims Aboard

We’re pleased to report that following on from the talk we gave to the 4th/6th Leigh Sea Scout cubs last year, and as part of our community and educational programme, we welcomed them on Endeavour at the end of July. As is clearly shown by the happy faces in the photograph opposite they thoroughly enjoyed the trip out and we hope to encourage more involvement from the local sea scouts. After all one of them may be the skipper of the future!

The Resolute. R.I.P.

It was back in 2001 when Mike King, Peter Wexham, John Porter and Michael Guy drove to Rochester to take a look at Resolute, one of the six Leigh Dunkirk little ships.

They had heard that Resolute was in a parlous condition and hoped that she could be brought back to Leigh and restored to former glory.

2015 AGM Papers

The thirteenth Annual General Meeting of the Endeavour Trust will be held on Friday 23rd October, 2015 at 7.30 pm in Room 5, Leigh Community Centre, 71-73 Elm Road, Leigh-on-Sea SS9 1SP.

Click here for the 2015 AGM papers (links to folder containing all the documents), or click on the individual item below.

The documents are: