For the first few decades of our history we published a full register of boats and owners,  including names and addresses,  in the annual Handbook;   certainly most if not all of this information was still there in 1988,  for which year I happen to have a Handbook still in my possession.

More recently the feeling has been that we are no longer allowed to publish this information because of data protection legislation.

But surely it should not be beyond the wit of man to devise a system by which the information could be published (in the Members Only area of the website) in the case of those members who were happy for publication to their fellow members,  while also giving all members the opportunity to individually opt out.   Perhaps even partially opt out,  i.e. individually decide just how much to publish (perhaps sail number and boat name,  query owner,  query club,  query address,  query phone number,  query email address).    And with an online system there should be the technical capability to update it at any stage,  as a member’s circumstances (and indeed wishes) change.

But that means that some <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>volunteer</span> has to be found who is willing to do the work.     Any offers?

Oliver

Oops:  I had forgotten that although this website does recognise some text enhancements it does not recognise underlining,  and the result is a gobbledegook of formatting commands that interfere with the text.

Last line should have read “But that means that some volunteer has to be found who is willing to do the work. Any offers?”

Oliver

I have no knowledge of why that is no longer on the new site,  but I would hazard a guess that all these things take time and labour to migrate them properly from the old site to the new one,  and the work is done by volunteers who also have other responsibilities within the Association,  as well as having home lives and responsibilities for their jobs and their families.   Not to mention having some time to sail their own boats.

However that web page did have three limitations (three at least):

• A great many boats were not listed,  because their owners did not list them,  so it was at best a very incomplete record
• A number of boats,  predominantly those in Sri Lanka,  were entered with purely local sail numbers not only gave the impression that they were very early vintage boats (from about 1951) when they were actually fairly new boats,  but which duplicated existing genuine sail numbers of genuine vintage boats  –  and sometimes precluded the genuine holders of those numbers from registering their boats.  This is not just conjecture;   to my certain knowledge it did on occasion cause genuine confusion,  and it did on occasion prevent owners of very early boats (with sail numbers in either single or double digits) registering them.
• The information was incomplete;  it did not provide a means by which one could contact a fellow member (via the boat).

On the plus side,  the opportunity for a photo and for a history of the boat was excellent.

Oliver

We haven’t moved the boat register because of some of the reasons Oliver mentioned, however the main reason is that the old register was not accurate. It relied on the user to keep it updated which meant it was out-of-date and never that accurate. I for example was listed as the owner on least 2 boats, when I didn’t own them. I just forgot to remove my records. A better long term plan is to somehow link this with the association records, which is then managed by the association. However, this raises a few issues which need to ironed out including a consideration of data protection and if consent is needed, how do we then get consent, e.g. mailshot etc… I am not an expert in data protection so I assume advice would be needed. Perhaps someone could advise?

“Who is best to contact currently then in relation to boat identification or history?”

Julie Courteney,  at the Association Office,  in the first instance.    If the boat is currently registered with us Julie should have the file;  if not currently registered but has been in the past she can then pass on the enquiry to the Archivist,  who can check the older files.

Oliver