On behalf of the Board of Governors, welcome to the 75th year of the Manchester Harbor Boat Club. As we celebrate the anniversary of the first Club meeting, October 7, 1948, let’s all remember, the purpose of our Club: "to foster fellowship, promote and stimulate interest in boating, and encourage the full enjoyment of Manchester Harbor.”

Our Club is in extremely good shape with a record high membership of 264 members last year and our 2023 summer event calendar is already full. Our first event is scheduled for Thursday March 2nd at the Manchester Community Center where our Harbormaster Bion Pike will provide us all with an update on the many projects and challenges facing our harbor.

Please plan to attend our Spring Dinner on April 6th for a presentation titled “Expedition Arctic: Lessons from the Top of the World”. Our presenter is local environmental attorney Michael Carvalho, an avid scuba diver and National Member of The Explorers Club and a Fellow with the Royal Geographic Society of London. Mike’s presentation will discuss scuba diving in iceberg filled fjords, with whales, walrus, polar bears, reindeer, and a myriad of sea birds highly adapted to the extreme Arctic environment.

As your Commodore, I can assure you that our Board has worked hard to plan events that appeal to our entire membership base. On May 4 we welcome Nate Berkowitz to discuss this year’s MBTS fishing tournament and provide an update and presentation on fishing our local waters. And for our next generation of Manchester boaters, we invited the Sea Scouts Ship 5 to attend our Dock Party on June 17th.

We will continue to support the Crocker Race Skippers meeting and provide an amazing raffle during August and of course we’ll make our Lobster Bake a little more special for our 75th. I’m very excited about our speaker for our fall Annual Meeting and I’m sure you will be as well. Details will follow!

The Board of Governors would love to hear from you on how we can make each event a little more special and how we can “encourage the full enjoyment of the advantages of Manchester Harbor.” Please reach out to me or anyone of our Board of Governors with your ideas and feedback. We want to hear from you!

All my best,

Mark Struss

MHBC Commodore