PSAC ANNUAL REPORT for 2004

 

 

Committee

 

The committee remained relatively stable during 2004 with only two changes.  Firstly, Dave Outhwaite took over from Steve Holyoak as Training Officer in February after the Kapalai trip so that Steve could focus on his role as Project Leader of the Environmental Project.  Secondly, as from 13 13th December, Mark Tuttle took over as the Diving Officer from John Elder who had held this position for two and a half years.  The Diving Officer is a key person on the committee and is primarily responsible for all diving related matters and in particular diving safety in the club.

 

In 2005 we will be looking to recruit some new blood to the committee with Steve planning to move on from Brunei about mid year, and a couple of other committee members also considering moves.

 

 

Diving

 

It’s been a great year that has seen 1184 dives (16% improvement over 2003); the fourth highest total in the club’s history (only 1991, 1993 and 1994 were better).  In total, 66 dives were advertised, four were cancelled due to boat malaise, eight were cancelled and two aborted due to bad weather, making 52 (33%) dive trips in all. 711 dives (18%) were made from Kuala Belait, and 473 on expeditions (14%). 

 

Platform diving really is the mainstay of the club constituting over 60% of all dives out of Kuala Belait. About 20% of dives are on local reefs, 10% on wrecks and 10% low visibility experience and training dives.  We hope that diving on the platforms continues for the years to come allowing further study of their biodiversity.

 

The club matured five new dive marshals, that allowed the boat to be operated on both weekend days. This meant that during September, the experienced divers were able to access the deeper wrecks without compromising the dives for the rest of the club.  One trip was made to the wreck of the ‘Petani Mistral’, one to the ‘Pacific Boxer’ and five to the wreck of the ‘Toho Maru’. (Evidence has come to light that this wreck may actually be that of the ‘Yuho Maru’).

 

Mixed gas diving has been introduced into the club, together with the appropriate skills development.  All users and blenders are qualified, however, the club must consider carefully the future of this development. We were very fortunate, that during the year, a highly experienced mixed gas diver, Mark Tuttle, was transferred into Brunei.

 

Very good relations have been built up with all the neighbouring clubs.  Piasau divers join us for technical diving, and offer some excellent reef diving out of Miri.  The Garrison often joins us on our dives in their own boat, and the Bandar club offers access to their own world-class wrecks.

 

I would like to quote John Elder in summarising this section: “I feel that the club is on a roll. We achieved our goal of maturing a solid team of instructors and marshals to run the club’s diving, and I hope that Mark Tuttle, the incoming Diving Officer and the Committee, will build upon this success in the future.”

 

 

Expeditions 

 

Club trips were made to Kapalai-Sipadan in February and August, and to Mataking, Sabah in November.  23 members and their families went to Kapalai in February (19th to 25th) and 11 on the August trip. The trip to Mataking Island (east Sabah) was a great success with several divers achieving personal milestones. The club notched up 148 dives on this trip.

 

 

 

Boat 

 

A major blow to the club was the complete failure of one of the Naga Laut’s engines on 11th April 2004 when the con rod broke, destroying the motor.  This put a stop to most of the diving in the early part of the year, other than those times when we could use the Garrison boat.  We are extremely grateful to the Garrison for lending us their boat to see us through this difficult period.

 

As a result of the failure, the purchase of two new motors was brought forward from 2005 to 2004.  After an in depth analysis, Suzuki 200Hp four-stroke motors were selected as the best option. The total cost for these being BN$43,800.  The boat was up and running again on 10th July, just in time for the Scubazoo visit to video the ‘Life Beneath the Platforms’.

 

The committee we would like to thank the KBBC for its support in this. Without help, especially from the 470’s, the dive club would not have been able to purchase these new motors. Also, of course, many thanks are due to Al Findlay who put in an enormous effort to select and make sure that the motors were installed on schedule.

 

Since installation, the motors have performed fantastically. Starting is a pleasure, they really are much quieter, emissions are definitely much lower, there is no need for 2-stroke oil and the fuel consumption is definitely down by about 25%.

 

During the year, water contamination in the underground fuel tank was a great concern to the Dive Club and for much of the second half of the year, fuel was collected from the service station.  However, during November, WOG engineering cleaned out the tank and made some modifications to the suction and the fuel delivery pipes, which should now have solved the problem.

 

Security was also an issue with some tampering with the boat’s moorings.  She has now been moored closer to the clubhouse where she is in more light and is more visible.  Hopefully this will resolve this issue. The possibility of using security cameras at the jetty (and elsewhere) that could be monitored at the security hut was considered by the KBBC committee but it was decided to see if the change in mooring solved the problem.

 

During the off-season towards the end of the year, Al Findlay and Martyn Rayner, re-wired the boat in a logical fashion. Before the new season, a bilge pump and engine isolator switches will be installed.

 

 

Environmental Project 

 

This project is now reaching the conclusion of this phase, with reporting in progress. During 2004, Prof. Steve Oakley (Tropical Research and Conservation Centre, Kuching) visited twice to provide technical supervision, particularly with the identification of small non-mobile species.  Survey work has resulted in a good understanding of the presence and distribution of a broad range of species. The use of clear survey forms with thumbnail photographs of various species has greatly aided data collection, and the extensive use of photographs for identification of the non-mobile species worked very well.

 

Various articles have been published, and stakeholders continuously engaged. Presentations were made at the Outpost Global conference at the Empire in May, and also at the Geophysical conference in Miri. Abstracts for two papers, a technical one and one to accompany the video, have been submitted for the SPE conference in September 2005 to be held in Kuala Lumpur.  An early version was shown by Mark Tuttle in the Hague at the end of September, with a ‘premier’ to the dive club members being held at the OGDC at the end of November.  The DVD is now complete with 10 copies received. The possibility of ordering a large number so that they can be sold is being investigated. A photograph of the life under the platforms was used as a background on the cover of the BSP annual report.

The filming for the video was carried out between 10 and 15 July.  Two Scubazoo employees, Matt Oldfield and Roger Munns were here during this period doing 27 dives and taking about 8 hours of video footage.  Fortunately the weather was kind and we were able to take the boat out seven times in six days.  This film will form a significant part of the record of the life beneath our platforms and we are sure will be very useful as promotional material in the future.

 

Lisa Miller’s Literature Search documentation was completed and provided excellent guidance for the technical paper. Project documentation is progressing well and should be completed by the end of February this year.

 

 

Finances 

Year-end review of PSAC account 3442

 

The year beginning balance was B$7,709.40.

The year-end balance is B$6,835.70.

 

2004 has been a busy year for PSAC with a total of B$32,621 income and B$33,494 in expenses.  This has meant a reduction of B$874 overall for the year.  However these figures do not take into account large sums of cash transactions that are detailed below. 

The graph shows simple income and expenditure for each month of the year.  Peaks in Feb/March relate to the club expedition to Kapalai, a peak in June relates to fuel charges and boat repair costs (about 50:50), a September income peak reflects an exceptionally busy dive month while the November expenses peak is accounted for by compressor replacement parts.

The totals of B$32,621 income and B$ 33,494 in expenses are broken into categories as shown in the table below with comparison to 2003:

It should be noted that the accounting method has changed slightly since 2003 so direct comparison in all areas is not possible. In 2003 the costs of the club Kapalai expedition was lumped into BSAC courses for income and Expeditions for expenditure (this was clearly in error).  In 2004 this cost has been broken up into component parts that include kit hire, cost of training, cost of expedition and BSAC membership, the latter for only six participants.  For 2004 this item appears to have made a loss of B$1,735.  What is not shown in the Panaga account figures is the B$2,092 that was received in cash payments.  So a profit of B$357 was actually made with a total of 22 people (instructors, divers, trainees and non-divers) attending.   

Most impressive is the increase in dive chits received for 2004 (B$9,902) over 2003 (B$9,729) considering the engines were out of action from the beginning of April to July.  This can in part be explained by a minor increase (B$5) in the cost of a dive introduced mid-year.  This cost increase was applied to the boat and fuel, not to equipment hire.

 

There is a decrease in fuel costs for 2004 (B$2,120.30) over 2003 (B$3,944.00).  This is slightly misleading and can be attributed to improved fuel efficiency of the new engines (in the order of 25%) and also an increased amount of charges to the Environmental account for fuel as activity ‘stepped up’ in 2004.  Additionally there was an increase in the number of guest divers to the club who paid in cash for dives. This money was used for the purchase of fuel while the club refrained from using fuel from the KBBC tank that was believed to be contaminated.

 

There was about a 20% increase in spending on boat and club equipment.  When taking into account B$1,900 worth of equipment purchased for the compressor in November the amount spent on equipment is marginally less than 2003.

 

Regarding BSAC membership and courses the accounting here changes from 2003 where BSAC training and membership had been combined.  For 2004 these have been separated.  B$4,962 was received in membership payments with costs of B$4,579.  The gains are from exchange rate differences to the UK pound and also the income includes several memberships that have not yet been debited from the account.  (Note that in 2003 it is estimated that a loss was made on the exchange rate).

 

Another item of note is BSAC training.  For 2004 considerable amounts of training took place at Ocean Diver, Sports Diver, Dive Leader and Instructor level.  This high level of activity is not accurately represented by the figure of B$2,991 of income and B$2,439 in expenditure for 2004.  A National Instructor visited in May during which time a wide variety of courses were conducted including:  Oxygen Administration, Instructor Foundation Course, Open Water Instructor, Advanced Instructor, Boat Handling, Diver Cox’n and Nitrox training.  17 individuals attended one or more of these courses.  B$2,403 was the total cost of the training courses, and an additional B$1,794 was required for flights and accommodation for the National Instructor.  B$3,010 of the total B$4,197 was paid for in cash by the participants with the remaining B$1,187 (28%) being funded by PSAC.

 

The only other point to note in the financial year was the generous backing of the KBBC committee in supplying B$43,430 for buying replacement engines for the dive boat in July.  Obviously PSAC could not have continued without a boat and it also enabled smooth operations when ScubaZoo arrived for the environmental project filming.  Thanks again to them, especially the 470s section.

 

 

Year-end review of Environmental account 3830

 

The year beginning balance was B$17,153.47.

The year-end balance is B$17,060.52.

 

2004 was an extremely busy year for the environmental project and included a one week film crew visit from Kota Kinabalu.

 

Income to the account came from BSP to the value of B$20,000 in June.  Additionally B$4,530 was received from the Jubilee Trust Grant in the UK due to the actions of Steve Holyoak.

 

Expenditure concentrated on the ScubaZoo filming project in July with final costs attributed to this at year-end of B$23,870.80.  Other expenditure from this account concentrated on fuel costs (B$441). 

 

The high end of year balance is purely temporary.  Contract paperwork has now been submitted in support of claims on behalf of the project supervisor Professor Steve Oakley totaling B$12,474.52.  This will mean the balance at the end of Jan 2005 will be closer to B$4,586.

 

Whilst it was expected that the Environmental project budget would be spent within two years there is considerable further work that can be carried out.  Although the scope has not yet been determined it is expected that these funds will be utilised in 2005.

 

 

Membership

At the end of the year, membership stood at about 60 divers. The number is not precise since the club does not require specific membership. Any Panaga Club member who is a certified diver of BSAC Club Diver / PADI Advanced Open Water or above may join our dive trips.

   

   

Equipment

2004 was a very quiet year on the equipment front.  Aside from the normally scheduled maintenance on the two compressors, the major effort was spent on patching up our rapidly deteriorating Buoyancy Compensators.  Hopefully, we will be able to purchase some new BCD's to alleviate the load on the existing 10 year old kit.  We also had 3 of our 6 regulators serviced, but it should be  noted that all six are due for major over-hauls in 2005.

 

In line with the new diving rules that everyone diving on the platforms must have a computer, the club purchased 3 Aladdin Pro models for rental.  We also purchased 4 new "top of the line" Suunto compasses.  This should alleviate the navigation problems that had been experienced by certain members of the club.  We had to replace 2 reels, which seem to have a habit of swimming away if not under constant surveillance!

 

All of the club's cylinders had a visual inspection performed in March, and were reassembled with new tank valve O-rings.  This inspection process, while tedious, is very important, as two damaged tank valves were identified and replaced prior to a potentially dangerous failure.  Thanks to Brunox for their professional (but expensive) work.

 

Training 

 

The amount of training carried out in 2004 was extremely high with Ocean Diver, Sports Diver and Dive leader courses being run as well as some specialist and instructor training.

 

During early February the theory element and pool training for a BSAC Ocean Diver course was run and, as in 2003, the participants went to Kapalai-Sipadan to complete the open water training. This was once again a successful way of completing the open water training.

 

During May, Sophie Rennie (BSAC National Instructor and SW England Regional Coach) visited and provided an intense period of specialist training.  After four consecutive days diving, we gained one new advanced instructor, four open water instructors and two assistant instructors. Boat handing and Nitrox qualifications were also awarded.

 

September and October saw the running of the theory sections of the Sports Diver and Dive Leader courses.  Seven divers completed the SD and of the six that started the Dive Leader course, three completed it, the balance having some additional lectures to finalise.

 

There are also three members who have registered for the Advanced Diver Course, which will run on an ad hoc basis next year.

 

 

Web Site

The web site www.panagadivers.com was extensively and regularly updated.

 

 

Plans for 2005

 

This year promises to be another busy one with continued focus on training and the Platform Environmental Project.

 

February will see the first two expeditions of the year with five members going off to dive in Chuuk over the Chinese New Year week, whilst another group does some training in Mataking.

 

In March the training course for new ocean divers will take place.

 

Although not yet scheduled, it is probable that, as in the past, a Sports Divers course will be held in the latter part of the year.

 

To ensure the future strength of the club it is vital that there are suitably qualified divers, in particular, that the potential Dive Leaders and Advanced Divers become involved in marshalling.