For the first time in several years, every full member attended. President Derek Hall welomed them and two guests, Romano Crolla, guest of Henri van der Stighelen, and Gordon Burgess's son Craig.
Members approved the Board's recommendation that a £100 grant be made to 17 year-old Helensburgh man Tavish Hicks, who has been selected by the charity Project Trust to undertake eight months volunteer teaching in a South African school. Before going he has to raise £6,250 for flights, living costs, insurance and training.
The speaker was member Henri van der Stighelen, who reported on renovating the 550-ton Maid of the Loch paddle steamer at Balloch.The vessel was built at the A and J Inglis yard at on the Clyde, where his father was chief engineering officer, then taken in parts to Balloch where she was rebuilt and launched in 1953 — the largest inland waterway vessel in the UK.
When he was a toddler, his father took him to visit the Maid, and since then she had been one of his passions.,
The Maid sailed for 28 years, but after 1981 she was not used and her condition deteriorated. In 1996 a number of volunteers from every walk of life formed the Loch Lomond Steamship Company, of which Henri is a director, to try to renovate her. With the aid of major grants and large donations, major progress has been made on board and at Balloch pier and the nearby slipway.
It is reckoned a further £6.2 million is needed if the ship is to return to use in 2023. It is hoped that she become Loch Lomond's major attraction, a focus for the community, and a centre of excellence for steam engineering. Reay Mackay proposed the vote of thanks.
The weekly raffle for a whisky miniature was drawn by treasurer Lesley Kennedy, who drew out her own name.