The Demise of the Maatsuyker Canoe Club

A bit of a brief history first. I personally started the Tasmanian Sea Canoeing Club, intending it to be a club of people who wanted to go sea canoeing.  Unfortunately, over the years the club filled up with people who did not want to do that. I was told that some people just joined for the social part of it, some joined just to learn a bit about fibreglassing – but to actually go sea canoeing, OH NO. The club was basically made up of people in the south of Tasmania.

 The final nail in the coffin was when people in the north of Tasmania wanted to join the club and a meeting was held in the north of the state for these people to join – people like Jeff Jennings and John Wilde. Tony Gaiswinkler drove up from Hobart with a lot of his cohorts to stop those people joining and made the statement “This is a southern club and if you want to join a club you will have to form one yourselves.” Interesting statement as it was called the Tasmanian Sea Canoeing Club.

 Why did Tony take this attitude – I can only surmise. If you thought you were someone important in sea canoeing and then had people like Jeff Jennings and John Wilde in the club, as well as Laurie Ford and Cecily Butorac, you would actually become a bit of a back number because these people were the cream of sea canoeing in the state at the time.

 So Cecily and I resigned from the club and we formed a new club in 1984 – The Maatsuyker Canoe Club, and this club was the premier sea canoeing club in Australia till about 1999.

 This was the constitution we adopted. The parts in red were not part of the original 1984 constitution, but added later.

 CONSTITUTION

1.     NAME:          The name of the club shall be the ‘MAATSUYKER CANOE CLUB’.

2.     OBJECTS:     (a) To encourage all facets of blue water touring and develop specialised techniques and equipment.

(b) To affiliate with such other bodies, associations, or organisations as may from time to time be appropriate.

3.   STANDARDS:

(a) To encourage and maintain high standards in canoes and canoeing.

(b) To promote safe boating practices as they apply to sea canoeing.

(c) To assist members in obtaining and exchanging skills and knowledge in all facets of sea canoeing, to the stage where they would be considered safe to lead trips to Maatsuyker Island.

4.  ACTIVITIES:   

(a) The club shall run trips on the sea, at least one every two (2) months.

(b) Trips will be held in each of the three parts of the state at least every twelve (12) months.

(c) For this purpose the state will be divided by lines radiating from Miena to Low Rocky Point, Green’s Beach, and Schouten Island.

(d) The club shall conduct training programmes from time to time.

 5. MEMBERSHIP:

(a) Club membership shall be open to any person who is proposed by a member of the club in writing at a club meeting and fulfils the conditions laid down in the rules.

(b) New members will sign the club register, indicating they have read the constitution and rules, and understand that the Maatsuyker Canoe Club is a specialised Sea Canoeing Club.

(c) Members must take part in three (3) multiple day club sea trips a year to retain their membership. After five (5) years continuous membership this condition of membership will be waived.

(d) If a person turns up for a scheduled trip and it is cancelled because of bad weather this can be counted as one of the three trips necessary for membership.

(e) If a person fails to attend three (3) trips in a year, continuation of membership for that person will be discussed at the next Annual General Meeting.
(f) If a non-active member misses attending two consecutive AGM trips, their membership will lapse.

6. MANAGEMENT:

(a) The day to day affairs of the club shall be conducted by the executive committee who shall be responsible to the general meeting.

(b) The executive committee shall consist of such office bearers as laid down in the rules; and all office bearers shall be elected at the AGM.

(c) Any casual vacancy shall be filled at a special meeting.

 7. MEETINGS:   

(b) The AGM shall be held in March each year (except every 10th year - see (c). Annual membership subscriptions shall be payable at the conclusion of the AGM.

(c) Every tenth year (1994, 2004, 2014, 2024 etc) the AGM shall be held on Maatsuyker Island, as part of the ‘Christmas’ trip.

(d) Special meetings shall be called by the Secretary, on his/her own; or on receiving a petition from at least five members, to consider specific matters. The meeting shall be called within fourteen (14) days of receiving the petition, and all members will be notified by mail at least seven (7) days prior to the meeting, informing them of the time, place, and agenda. Only life members, and financial members at the time of calling the meeting, shall be entitled to vote at the meeting.

CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT

(a) The constutution shall be amended at a general meeting on the vote of at least two thirds of active members. Active members are members who have done three trips in the preceding twelve months.

(b) Members shall have at least four (4) weeks writen notice of motion(s) to amend this constitution.
 

9. WINDING UP:  

(a) The affairs of the club shall be wound up at a special meeting by the resolution of a majority of the financial membership, including life members.

(b) In the event of the club being wound up, the executive committee shall dispose of the clubs property and assets by distribution among members at the time of winding up.

10. DEFINITION:

(a) For the purpose of this constitution BLUE water shall be deemed to be salt-water - not including estuaries and enclosed bays.

(b) Sea trips shall be conducted on blue water.

RULES

3.Office bearers shall consist of             

(a) Mould manager(s)

(b) Newsletter Editor

(c) Assistant Editor

(d) Training officer

 4.  Any or all of the positions in 2 and 3 may be combined.

5.  Alterations to the rules shall be made only by two thirds of a general meeting, and members shall have at least fourteen (14) days notice in writing of such motion(s).

6.  Trip leaders shall be members who are deemed competent to safely lead trips to Maatsuyker Island. If there is any doubt about a members qualifications he/she shall be asked to lead a trip to Maatsuyker Island.

7.  Paddlers should book into trips at least by the preceding Thursday night, or the trip will be cancelled.

8.  The scheduled date for a club trip may be altered at the discretion of the leader provided 4 weeks notice is given to all members.

9.  Persons wishing to go on major club expeditions who are not members must attend at least one overnight trip prior to the expedition. This condition may be waived if the person is from interstate and if a member has first hand knowledge of that persons experience.

10. The AGM will be held between Launceston and Hobart, to make it easy for members to attend, and to encourage new paddlers.

11. All meetings will be held on islands (not including Tasmania) when ever practical.

12. Club policy is not to carry EPIRBs, flares, or other emergency equipment.

That is the end of the constitution and now I will explain why some of those rules etc were made as they were.

Why no emergency gear? We firmly believed in David Lewis's philosophy.

From David Lewis: “No one, in my opinion, should embark on the open ocean, the Antarctic, or any wilderness for that matter, not prepared to get out of trouble by his own efforts. By voluntarily challenging the elements he automatically assumes the responsibility for his own safety. He should not expect anyone to risk life and property on his behalf. The very idea of possible rescue is debilitating to the will; it should be replaced by self reliance.”

At the AGM we would plan all trips for the year, with leaders. We only planned a weekend trip every 2 months during the year, with a much longer adventurous “Xmas Trip”. We never did day trips.

 The reason for only one trip every 2 months is that we had other activities like skiing, family and children’s sport. Canoeing was not the B all of our lives.

So members had to do 3 of these weekend trips each year to retain membership.

 Obviously newer members would look ahead at the forecast for each trip and maybe choose not to go on the ones with a bit of weather. But eventually they might find there were only two trips left in the year and they had to attend both of them no matter what the weather. WE knew that this would end up with people paddling in windier rougher weather and would so improve their skills. We hoped that after 5 years they would see the obvious sense in this rule. And we did end up with some exceptionally good sea kayakers.

 Basically every member came on each of the 6 trips each year – to go paddling was why we were in the club. This entailed people driving for up to 5 hours Friday night to get to the starting point. Southerners would drive to the NW of the island for a trip to Hunter Island. N Westeners would drive to the east coast for a trip to Maria Island etc etc. Just about all club members paddled together every 2 months. We all knew each other very well. This was an exceedingly good rule that kept the club together for all those years.

 In 1999 I did not attend the AGM, but let members know that there were 2 members who had not paddled a single trip in 12 months and obviously their membership should be terminated. If they don’t want to paddle then why remain in the club? I said I would resign if they remained in the club.

 Their membership was not terminated and so I resigned. I did ask why theirs was not terminated and I was told “They are our friends.” I might add that I knew that neither of those two paddlers had any intention of remaining in the club and both resigned in the next 6 months. One of those paddlers would have lost face if they were kicked out of the club so conned the club into letting them stay a member – and then resigned.

 But the eventual downfall of the club came about because of a newish paddler – Matthew Watton. He proposed at the meeting that private trips should count towards the 3 trips a year members had to do. Unbelievably the members at that AGM voted to accept this.

 This meant that members in the south of the state could pick 3 nice weekends and go off and do trips and count them – without ever meeting members from other parts of the state. The club would no longer be a club but a lot of individuals in various parts of the state doing their own thing. Members in the NW of the state could do the same thing. No longer would the members ever meet up. None of the members would ever have to go out and paddle in conditions they didn’t like.

 The Xmas trip we always tried to pick something long and challenging if we could, usually a 2-week trip – like paddling across Bass Strait and back in 1987. In 2014 I met two members (only 2) who were doing the Xmas trip. They were paddling for just a few days in D'Entrecasteaux Channel – so sad to see. Whereas The Girl and I were just off to do a 9-day trip out to Flinders Island and back.

 So although Matthew Watton was the prime cause of the demise of the Maatsuyker Canoe Club, the members were just as guilty for agreeing to the change. That was a change to the constitution (Members must take part in three (3) multiple day club sea trips). Any change to the constitution must be advertised 4 weeks ahead of that meeting. (Members shall have at least four (4) weeks written notice of motion(s) to amend this constitution.). Had the members at that meeting not voted but said “we need 4 weeks notice”, in that 4 weeks they might have realized how ridiculous a change it would be.

 I very firmly believe that changing that trip requirement was the reason the club disintegrated. The club was no longer a club. All my work down the drain.

 I had done my best to promote serious sea kayaking, keeping in mind that the NSW club defined a sea kayak as “A sea kayak is a kayak designed, constructed and fitted out to be able to be paddled safely in a wide range of open sea conditions.” It must be obvious that a sea kayaker is a person that paddles a sea kayak in a wide variety of sea conditions.

 I personally drew up the logo and then paid a commercial artist to do a proper one. I personally paid to get a lot of these stickers printed. (The reason the club was named the Maatsuyker Club was because we thought that Maatsuyker Island was the sort of area that sea kayakers should be paddling in.)

I also paid to get some stickers printed for drinking glasses.

These stickers have been on this mug for 40 years.

 When I resigned from the club I was approached to give the stickers to the club – no mention of payment for them. I still have them.

Laurie Ford.

February 2024