As you are all aware the trip to Beale and the remainder of this year's boating has had to be cancelled due to problems with President's Boiler.

Although we have only found one cracked tube, as they are all the same age, logic dictates we need to change all of them.

Our future plans for President had included a requirement for the 5 yearly boiler NDT (testing that it doesn't blow up) to be completed at the end of 2008. As this also involved a removal of the boiler we have decided to bring forward this work. This has the advantage of removing any major work immediately before our Centenary activities in 2009.

The down side is that it is unplanned expense and as we are already looking at approx £15,000 for the Kildare work this year, we need to initiate some additional fund raising..

We've now got some estimates and it looks as though the total cost will be approx £8,000 for the boiler re-tube and NDT.

As part of the fund raising we have decided to start a 'Sponsor a Boiler Tube' activity at this weekend's National.

As the boiler contains 72 tubes, we will be inviting sponsorship of a whole tube at £50 or £10 a foot. We will maintain a 'sponsorship book' and will have a draw at the end of the season, for a yet to be decided prize. Probably based on making something from one of the tubes. Any ideas, I've not started the artwork yet.

We're also looking to see if we can perform some fund raising at Coventry and Parkhead, which we have had to cancel President's attendance.

So how can you help?

Obviously any financial contributions will be well received, we still have a stand at the National this weekend. We'll be on Stand V32,