Regional Committee

Principal Officers

Regional Secretary - Tony Cross

Tony Cross  - a retired businessman who lives on the riverside at Mistley. A members of Haven Ports Yacht club where he has been club secretary in the past ,he is recently retired as chairman of the Haven Series. He started his sailing career in a clinker dinghy on the north Norfolk coast and later joined Brancaster Staithe SC , rising to the rank of commodore. In those days he sailed a Parker lifting keel yacht, ideal for the drying creeks and harbours. today he sails a Jenneau Sunfast 35 out of Suffolk Yacht Harbour and still occasionally crews in races for his son Tim.

Chairman - Chris Edwards

(Eastern Region Planning and Environmental Coordinator)

Chris was elected chairman of the Eastern Regional Committee in 2006, having represented BACSPA since he became its chairman in 2000. He also chairs the RYA Planning and Environmental Committee.

After a career in the Royal Navy from which he retired as a Weapons Engineer Commander, he spent eight years writing computer software and then joined the Design Council as head of personnel; finally retiring in 2005.

Chris has been a member of Tollesbury Cruising Club since 1995, has served as a flag officer and in 1999/2000 Commodore of the Club.

Having learnt to sail in Fireflys in the early fifties he’s now the permanent crew and navigator on the Westerly Oceanquest Calidris sailing out of the Blackwater, regularly cruising in the North Sea and Channel.

Chris Edwards
Chairman (ex-officio Member RYA Council)
9 Woodrolfe Park
Tollesbury
Maldon
Essex
CM9 8TB

Tel 01621 868834 Fax 01621862615

Vice Chairman - Fiona Wylie

Fiona is Regional vice-Chairman and represents the National Schools Sailing Association (NSSA) on the committee. Having been a classroom teacher, she now works as a home tutor with children excluded from school for health or behavioural reasons.

Fiona was an active team racer when at Oxford; captaining the ladies’ university sailing team for two years. With umpteen ocean races under her belt, including 17 Fastnets (she holds the record for a woman), and a host of North Sea races, Channel races, a double-handed Round Britain Race with Mary Falk and a fully crewed one on Clarionet. Fiona’s now more involved with race management with RORC, East Coast regattas and the recent Sail for Gold 2008 regatta at Weymouth.

A member of RORC (she was rear commodore from ’82 to ’84), Pin Mill SC and the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC), Fiona has twice sat on the RYA governing council, first as a personal members’ representative and then as official RYA East delegate. For several years she was Sailability organiser for the region.

Fiona Wylie
Vice Chairman RYA Eastern Region
13 Woodlands
Chelmondiston
Ipswich
IP9 1DT

Tel 01473 780965 Mob 07860 691905

Treasurer - Peter Woods

Peter Woods has been on the Committee for eight years as a representative of BACSPA and has served as Regional Treasurer for four years. He retired from banking in 1996 after 34 years and now has a part time job with Essex Ambulance Service. He’s married with three married daughters and four grandchildren.

Peter’s been sailing for 54 years having started in Fleetwind dinghies at Maldon and after progressing through a number of sailing cruisers now owns a Hallberg Rassy 342 that he sailed with his wife back from Sweden in 2006 and then went round Britain in 2007. Peter also helps to raise funds for the RNLI and has been Treasurer of the Maldon branch for over 30 years. He’s been a member of Maldon Little Ship Club for 54 years and is also a member of Bradwell Cruising Club.

Peter Woods
Treasurer RYA Eastern Region
1 Wellington Road
Maldon
Essex
CO5 9TU

Tel 01621 853015

Regional Communicator - Garth Cooper

Garth has been RYA East communicator since early 2001, is a member of the regional training panel and gets involved in most sub-committees.

He’s a governor of the Woolverstone Project, a member of the Excelsior Trust and of E.A.S.T., and also helps to run the family farm in Norfolk

A full time marine writer and author, he is East Coast correspondent and gear tester for Sailing Today and technical editor of Anglia Afloat. He’s co-author of East Coast Pilot and Where Land Meets Sea and writes for Imray, the chart publishers.

A member of Haven Ports Yacht Club he sails a 34ft Holman designed classic.

Garth Cooper
Regional Communicator RYA Eastern Region
Home Farm
Whinburgh
Dereham
Norfolk
NR19 1QR

Tel 01362 699195 Mob 07836 530970