Commodore's Comment

Kia Ora to all our members, family and friends,

Welcome to 2019, the Mana Cruising Club's 60th Anniversary year! Your committee hope you’ve enjoyed your holiday break safely and without incident, both on and off the water. 

For those who were away, it's been a busy time for your committee working on getting our kitchen refurbishment and mains power upgrade ready for our first club night that was held on 24th January. The finished result is just fantastic; it cost-effectively provides an ideal environment for our combined bar and restaurant staff to provide quality meals at a reasonable price with great service. Please take time to say hi to your Head of Kitchen operations Chris; fellow cook and keen fisherman Ruben; and our kitchen hand Lika. When it's not busy, pop your head into the kitchen and say hi to the team, see for yourself the new, clean and more efficient environment that allows us to improve our restaurant.

None of this could have been achieved without a significant amount of time by several club members during the Christmas period while we were all away, however two people were instrumental in ensuring this project met its deadline: our committee member Ted Nation who arranged all the trades and project managed the fit out; and member Tim Barrett, for project managing and carrying out the electrical upgrade, both working at a time when most of us were kicking back and relaxing. So a huge thanks from myself and the club for efforts guys, and let’s not forget all the tradesmen who worked through Christmas and early January.

In the bar, many will recognise the friendly faces of Connorly, Kirsten and Sam. Helena, the outstanding Louise and Conor also return to assist with our bar and front of house, and of course that dynamo Ryan, who many will recall was our primary locker draw volunteer, and now has a new role assisting with bar and restaurant table service. 

Please note that from 2019 all MCC bar and restaurant employees have new employment agreements with membership status (from 18 years old) relative to their status of employment. We are lucky to have such motivated staff focused on working with your committee in ensuring our fellow members enjoy your time at our club; like us they want to ensure you all come regularly. As our membership Code of Conduct applies to all members, please help us ensure that our staff are afforded the same respect as non-employee members. We have started the year with a great team culture and we need members to help support this as a great place to work and be part of.

Full restaurant service opened on Thursday 24th January and it was a great evening for members and staff; the meals were all popular with a wider range of fish dishes – who thought Crawkitty was a thing? A very popular dish! We had a big turnout and our staff were fantastic to witness firsthand their teamwork under this sort of pressure; I watched in awe of Ruben and Chris’s excellent work in cooking and plating meals and to see all of our team on duty that night striving to serve their fellow members with clear pride in what they were doing was a moment of realisation that all the hard work and worry your committee have endured these last few months was worth it. 

However, I also acknowledge our first night could have been much better – not a staff issue but due to a series of unexpected events that we had not anticipated. The catalyst being the disappointing resignation of our new Club Manager, resigning less than a week after commencing, leaving committee members to assist our staff with opening night restaurant and event preparation. 

Following this, our new meal docket printing system, with point of sale facility to order meals and drinks at both the restaurant and bar, with numbered meal dockets printed straight to the kitchen to ensure accuracy and timelines are met, let us down. First, one of the new tills failed during peak ordering time, and then the printer died. Without the foresight to have a manual backup, our busy staff couldn’t identify whose meals were whose with no timeline on who ordered first. The service delivery disruption and backlog pushed meals out to over an hour in some cases.

Finally, we ran of fresh fish, an unfortunate situation as while we had stocks, we had planned on serving fish fresh off Streaker that day and it was our fish of the day. Unfortunately, we lost track of Streaker’s progress with the afternoon's preparation, plus she was delayed and we didn’t have a plan B to help our staff.

While disappointing, committee members personally dealt with each case, refunding those tables affected. I apologise for failing these guests. Your committee and staff are resolved in ensuring we plan better, however the positive support on our first night from members, including nearly all of those who didn’t get their meals, is greatly appreciated and was passed onto our staff who deserved it. 

With the till and stock issues resolved, I entertained five guests from the Milford Cruising Club the following night, and our restaurant serviced 55 meals, only 20 less that the night before. The service was faultless and our guests claimed the salmon was the best they had been served, the pork belly and fish portions were both generous and tasty, and I finally got to try the Crawkitty. Our guests complimented our club's facilities and wished their own facility was to such a standard...coming from Auckland that’s mighty praise indeed!

Your hospitality team and I look forward to seeing everyone again on Thursday this week. Those that didn’t get the service you deserve please give us another chance and try your club again. This venue is yours and we want to see you here. As Thursday is a busy time, please note bookings would also helpful with large groups.

Yard Update Meeting: 

3rd February at 4pm we are having a General Meeting in the Wardroom to discuss the new yard changes including revised hard stand charges, improvements to the trailer boat access and parking and the future of the dinghy lockers along with the financial back ground for these decisions.

Our two biggest member segments are moored craft and trailer boat, we share the same facilities, and both sectors are our largest financial contributors to the financial viability of our club. We need representation from both sectors to hear what is proposed, the financial justification why, what is planned, and for you to tell us what we are not doing well enough for you.

There will be an information report to collect as you enter, covering the meeting, along with the minutes of the previous meeting. There will also be a member register to sign as you enter as we will be holding vote to members on support for key elements of Option 5, stage 1.

I look forward to meeting and hearing from you what you think of our progress and changes. Feel free to email me on allan@manacc.co.nz your concerns or ideas, we need your feedback. 

Meanwhile, on behalf of your committee, thank you for supporting your club and we hope to keep improving so our organisation can continue to meet its members needs and flourish.

Regards,
Allan Davidson
Commodore


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Upcoming Events For Your Diary

Please put these dates in your diary, we would love to see your support for these club events!

New Year Party – February 2, 7 pm
Yard Update Meeting – February 3, 4 pm
Bath Tub Race – February 23, 3 pm
Fishing Competition – March 16, 7 am
Band & Barbecue (Goodbye Daylight Savings!) – April 6, 7 pm
Mothers Day Brunch – May 12, noon
Bingo Night – May 18, 7 pm
Mid-Winter Party – June 29, 7 pm


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From the Editor

 
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Committee Corner
 

You can contact the committee members via the email addresses below:

allan@manacc.co.nz  Commodore - for general ideas and feedback.
secretary@manacc.co.nz for general business and to ask questions to be put to the committee at meetings.
menno@warmup.co.nz (Menno)  for front of house queries and social events
office@manacc.co.nz (Cathy) for membership information and payments, general business.
yard@manacc.co.nz - (Colin) for all bookings for the travel lift and general queries about the yard area.

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Yard Update

January 2019
From the Yard

The Yard Objective

The yard team objective is to provide an efficient, competitively priced, set of yard services that are self-funding enabling ongoing maintenance, and investment in future improvements.

Yard Charges

After reviewing the yard revenues and operational costs it was evident that changes were needed because we are not meeting above objectives with productivity, efficiency, and systems issues.  We are also not adequately managing operational health and safety; plant and asset maintenance was mounting and we have insufficient funds for identify major infrastructure investment. 

Over the last three years our yard charges have not varied while our costs have increased, and our charges have become significantly lower than other regional yards.  Our daily hard stand charges for some vessel owners have been an incentive to leave their vessels out of the water, however goal is that Yard utilisation should be about active vessel maintenance and rapid vessel turn around.

The new charges for non-members are the mean of yards charges in our region. Members get a 30% discount.  This charging rational is simple and low cost to administer.  Suggestions to cost account and mark up may in principle be more correct but are time consuming and cost money we don’t have.  We are now competitively priced, and members still have a significant advantage.  

Booking System and Yard Management Process Changes

The only way to make a booking in future will be online via the Club's new website (courtesy of Mike Quale), there will be no paper forms. If you have an issue using an internet-based system you can go to the office and get help doing it there however you must be present as you must read and accept the T&Cs.  Going forward there will be no need to print, sign, or hand over T&Cs paper work as by reading and acknowledge via the website you are bound by these conditions as in many other businesses now days.  All bookings will be managed chronologically, first in first served unless you request or agree to a change or the right size cradle isn’t available.

We need to take advantage of technology to reduce our reliance on manual processes. In so doing we should be more transparent and utilise our resources more efficiently.  The new yard system management will be the responsibility of key committee members until we have a club manager able to perform this role.  Meanwhile we are in process to restructure the yard roles specialised travel lift operators and other contractors when needed, which provide more support and resources, while also reducing unreasonable working hours on employees.

Please support these changes and work within them and I welcome your feedback as these changes are to better align your yards performance with both your needs and the yard objectives. 

Kind Regards,
Scott Wilson
Rear Commodore Yard


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Name the Restaurant Competition!

Our new restaurant needs a name...and we want YOU to name it!

Got a good one? Put your idea in the suggestion box at the club, along with your details. The winning namer will be rewarded with a $25 bar tab.

Get brainstorming!


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Summer Series Sailing


 

We will also be trying to run some companion sails across the Cook  Strait, on a Saturday to Ship Cove and returning on the Sunday.

Feel free to contact John for further information. Email: john@manacc.co.nz
 
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Review of Blue Cod Fishing Regulations - from Fisheries NZ

***Click here for online survey***

Dear Fishers,

Have your say

Fisheries New Zealand is seeking your feedback on the following proposed changes:

a. require all fishers to have a minimum cod pot mesh size of 54mm
b. standardise the Minimum Legal Size (MLS) for recreational fishing at 33cm
c. require all recreational fishers to land blue cod in a measurable state
d. set a two-day accumulation limit for recreational fishing
e. change the recreational daily bag limits for some blue cod stocks, according to a ‘traffic light’ system.

Note: In all cases, we are also consulting on retaining the status quo as an option (that is, there may be no change to these regulations).

The consultation will run from 29 January until 5pm on 26 March 2019.

Background to proposals

The proposed changes are one outcome of the National Blue Cod Strategy, a guiding document to manage blue cod in New Zealand released in late 2018. Other initiatives outlined in the strategy include:

• an integrated education and research programme
• reviews of the total allowable catch, total allowable commercial catch, and allowances for key blue cod stocks later this year.

The changes are designed to ensure that areas that have been depleted by localised overfishing are rebuilt. In the Challenger East Area (including Marlborough Sounds), most of these measures (including a daily bag limit of 2) have been in place since December 2015 to ensure the ongoing sustainable utilisation of the fishery.

Meetings will be held during the consultation

Fisheries New Zealand is available to meet with fishing clubs and other groups during the period of consultation to discuss the proposals and seek feedback. Email your request to FMSubmissions@mpi.govt.nz

For more information on the proposals please visit the consultation page.


***Click here for online survey***


Please pass this information on to anyone who may be interested.

Kind regards, 

Recreational Fisheries - Inshore Fisheries Management
Fisheries New Zealand – Tini a Tangaroa 
Pastoral House | PO Box 2526 | Wellington | New Zealand
Web: fisheries.govt.nz

Contact us about Recreational Fisheries recreationalfisheries@mpi.govt.nz


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Farmer Jan's Tried and Trusted Recipes

Jan says this one takes a bit more time to put together, but the effort is well worth it! The original recipe name is 'Sweet Winter Slaw' but I think this one's good for year round. 

Sweet Slaw
 

For the dressing:

• 100ml lime juice
• 1 lemon grass, chopped into small pieces
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• 4 tbsp light olive oil

For the salad:

• 150g macadamia nuts
• 10g butter
• 2 tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• 7 inner leaves Savoy cabbage (170g), shredded
• ½ red cabbage (270g), shredded
• 1 mango, peeled, stoned and cut into thin strips
• 1 papaya, peeled, deseeded and cut into strips
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and cut into thin slices
• 15g fresh mint leaves
• 20g fresh coriander leaves

To make the dressing, put all the ingredients except the olive oil into a small saucepan, and reduce for five to 10 minutes, until thick and syrupy. Remove from the heat. Once it has cooled down, strain into a bowl, stir in the oil and set aside.

Put the macadamias in a hot frying pan and dry-roast for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly coloured on all sides. Add the butter and, once it has melted, the sugar, salt and chilli. Use a wooden spoon to stir constantly, to keep the nuts coated in the sugar as it caramelises. Be careful because this will take only a minute or two and the nuts can burn very quickly. Turn out the nuts on to a sheet of greaseproof paper and, once cool, roughly chop them.

Put the shredded cabbage in a large mixing bowl, along with the rest of the salad ingredients. Add the cool dressing, toss and taste. Add salt if you need to, and serve immediately.

Recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi, chef-patron of Ottolenghi, London
 

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MCC 2019 Rugby Picks Comp (MCC-RPC)

The 2019 Super Rugby season kicks off on Friday 15 February.  

The games will be shown on the big screen on Friday, Saturday and the occasional Sunday nights so if you are keen on rugby, come along, have some fun and support the Club.   

If you want to add your name to the list - RSVP to Paula McLaughlin (logistics coordinator) - pmclaughlin@asianz.org.nz / 021 467958

Provide your name, email and phone number.

TO ENTER:

• RSVP
• Fee – $10 per person or couple
• Payment to Cathy in the office – place money in an envelope with your name on it
• Winner takes all !!!
• The weekend draw will be sent out via email
• Your weekend picks need to be sent to Paula by 4pm (latest) on Friday afternoon

THE RULES:

Pick your WINNERs each week - each win is worth 1 point

JOKER round (+12 and/or -12) - the Joker will be introduced every second week – place your JOKER (+12 and/or -12) on the winning team and if they win you get an extra point


THE TEAMS:

Australia Conference:

Brumbies, Rebels, Reds, Waratahs, Sunwolves

New Zealand Conference:

Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders, Hurricanes

South African Conference:

Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Stormers, Jaguars


Cheers,
Paula
(Rugby Picks Coordinator)


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Buy, Sell, Exchange

This space is for members to advertise "Buy, Sell and Exchange"  boating related items. No more than maximum of sixty words can be accepted. Please don't forget to include a picture and your contact details. Email your advert to editor@manacc.co.nz

Seabird 2.6m fibreglass rowing/sailing dinghy.
Very good condition includes oars and sail kit.
Can be viewed on D pier. $500 ono.
Contact Sara Johnson 021 087 93022 











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