No, is the short answer. Just when Neil Gerrard had put together an extensive funding application for a new, £15,000 RIB and outboard, Paul had a phone call.
Out of the blue, This morning (Sunday 13th December) I received a phone call from Russell Pursey
from Elphin. Did the sailing club want a RIB?
The tale that follows sounds too good to be true - but it is good and it is
true..
Minch Active Divers was formed 10 or so years ago - As part of their set
up, they raised funds and received awards to purchase a RIB. It is a 5m
Humber with a central console, powered by 60hp Suzuki outboard - It has a
road trailer. It has 100 hours on the clock.
The club folded about 6 years ago and as a condition of the funders, the RIB
was passed on the Assynt foundation who were deemed a suitable recipient to use
it for local community benefit. As it turns out it was hardly used in its
first year and for the last five has been sitting unused and unwanted. The
foundation wanted to sell it on, instead Russell has brought it back to his
croft and would now like to gift it to the sailing club.
Adrian and I immediately went up to have a look at it. Apart
from soft tubes [since pumped and hard] , and a little rust on the trailer jockey wheel and winch, it
looks in first rate condition. To say yes was a no brainer, so we did;
however we will formalise the 'deal' with an exchange of letters.
Russell thought of us as the club would use the RIB for 'community benefit'
within the local area and moreover know how to use it properly and look
after it. By handing it to us, it would become an LBSC asset; however as a
keen supporter of the Marine Mammal rescue unit, he asked that we would be
sympathetic in making the RIB available should there be a local emergency.
They really are not looking for any cash, though they did say that they were
raising funds for a cardiac defibrillator for Elphin, so Adrian and I thought
a donation from club funds would be appropriate - I think a couple of hundred quid would be a right
gesture.