The Annual General Meeting was held at 1800 on 25th April at the Britannia Yacht Club. This was the second year for the meeting being held in the early evening and the time of 1800 met with the general approval of those present.
The following officers were elected for the 1985/1986 Squadron year:
| Commander | Stuart K. McNeely, S |
| Lieut. Commander and Executive Officer |
K. Joan Feltham, AP |
| First Lieut. and Secretary | Laurie Hunter, AP |
| First Lieut. and Treasurer | R. Bruce Ware |
| First Lieutenants | Arthur Beckett, JN Norman R. Grover Doris Jelly, AP John T. Woolsey, AP |
| Auditor | John Cutler |
Howard Peck, AP, was appointed Lieutenant Commander and Training Officer. First Lieutenant Arthur Beckett, JN, was appointed Deputy Training Officer.
Peter Sterne, AP, the Secretary during 1984/1985 will continue to handle the work associated with records of members and the Squadron Roster. He was appointed to the new position of Membership Secretary. The newly appointed Squadron Lieutenants for the year 1985/1986 were Dorothy McClelland, S and Nelson A. Hardy, S.
Lieutenant Dorothy McClelland was appointed Editor of the Running Fix and Lieutenant Nelson A. Hardy was appointed Assistant Editor.
The Treasurer reported a satisfactory year. In view of an increase in the Rideau District assessment the incoming executive for 1985/1986 may have to consider an increase in membership dues.
The Training Officer reported some decrease in the number of students compared with the previous year. The number who drop out of the regular Boating Courses continues to be a problem. The number of students who completed the seven week Accelerated Boating Course during February to April, 1985 was very encouraging. This was the joint Britannia/Ottawa Squadron Course. Fifty-one students enroled for this course, forty-eight wrote the examination and forty-two passed the examination.
As requested by the outgoing Commander the Executive Officer, Secretary, Activities Officer, P.R.O. and MAREP Officer/Historian submitted written reports on their work to the Annual General Meeting. These reports were filed with the historical records of the Squadron together with the customary formal reports from the Commander, Treasurer and Training Officer for the past Squadron year.
The Annual Squadron Dinner and Graduation Ceremonies were held at the Britannia Yacht Club on 23rd May. It was a beautiful early summer evening and one hundred and eighteen members and guests enjoyed before dinner drinks in the upstairs lounge or on the veranda.
The guests of honour at the dinner were Vice Commander John Richards, N, and Mrs. Richards, District Commander Ralph C. Smith, JN, and Mrs. Smith, Commander James Drummond, S, of the Ottawa Power Squadron and Mrs. Drummond, and Commodore Alan Jacques of the Britannia Yacht Club.
At the time of the Annual Dinner the strength of the Squadron was 323 full members, 34 lady associates and one junior member for a total of 358. This decrease in membership from 1984 of seventeen full members and two lady associates was due primarily to transfers from Britannia to the new Outaouais Squadron.
Past Commander Ralph C. Smith, JN, was elected Commander of the Rideau District for 1985/86. He was the first member of the Britannia Power Squadron to become the Commander of the District.
Past Commander William J. Newlands, N, was appointed the District Training Officer for the Rideau District for 1985/86.
During years past several members of the Britannia Squadron served as officers at the District and National levels.
Paul LaDelpha was a District Lieutenant during the two years, 1970 to 1972, when he was Commander of the Britannia Squadron. For the next two years he was District Training Officer. Then for three years he was elected a Rear Commander and Chairman of the National Committee on the Junior Navigator course and examinations.
Ralph Smith was both a District Lieutenant and Squadron Commander during his second year as Commander of the Britannia Squadron in 1975. During subsequent years, as a member of the Rideau District Executive, he was Assistant Training Officer, Training Officer, Executive Officer and Administration Officer. Then as noted above, he was elected District Commander in 1985.
In 1976 Lloyd Thayler, a Squadron Lieutenant in the Britannia Squadron, was appointed a Staff Commander and member of the National Committee for Junior Navigator Courses.
Ellen Devine, AP, Squadron Commander of the Britannia Squadron from 1976 to 1978 was appointed a Staff Commander in 1982 and Chairman of the National Talent Committee. She also served as a member of the National Advisory Committee for Future Conferences. At the same time she served for two years as the Rideau District Public Relations Officer. She was also actively involved with the 1991 National Conference held in Ottawa.
Daryl Collard, N, the Training Officer of the Britannia Squadron for 1976-1978 was elected a District Lieutenant in 1978. He became Training Officer for the Rideau District for the years 1982 to 1984 and then served as District Administration Officer until posted to Washington in September, 1985.
During the month of June, 1985 the three local Squadrons, that is Britannia, Ottawa and Outaouais, agreed formally on a common schedule of fees for all of their 1985/1986 courses.
All French language training literature held by the Britannia Squadron was handed over to the new l'Escadrille de l'Outaouais.
The Squadron Rendezvous on Saturday, 14th September was a huge success. It was a beautiful sparkling early autumn day with clear skies and favourable winds. With yachts sailing from various locations on Lac Deschenes the Commander used VHF to coordinate the fleet. Eleven yachts rafted together off Pinhey's Point at lunch time and five more anchored close to them during the afternoon.
For the Rendezvous the Training Officer devised a knowledge testing questionnaire which proved to be good fun. The analysis of results showed that the most knowledgeable of the thirty participants was Assistant Training Officer Arthur Beckett with Evelyn Noonan a close second place.
There was an encouraging increase over the previous year in the number of September registrations for both the Boating Course and for Advanced Piloting. The number of registrations was 119 for Boating and 34 for Advanced Piloting. A total of 43 members of the Squadron registered for other courses.
The National Annual General Meeting of Canadian Power Squadrons was held in Vancouver during October. At this meeting John D. Richards, N, of the Ottawa Power Squadron was elected to the position of Chief Commander. He is the first member from the Rideau District to hold this position.
This was the year at the National Annual General Meeting when the decision was taken to change the name of Canadian Power Squadrons to Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons.
The last autumn social event for the Britannia Power Squadron was a Wine and Cheese Party from 2000 to 2200 on 2nd November at the Britannia Yacht Club. Sixty-five members and guests enjoyed a pleasant and friendly evening. Vice-Commodore Ian Andersen of the Yacht Club and Mrs. Andersen were guests of the Squadron for this event.
At the meeting of the Bridge on 6th January the Commander announced that Robert W. Stedman, S, had volunteered to become the Squadron Youth Program Co-ordinator. He will be a member of the Bridge with the rank of Squadron Lieutenant.
At the same meeting Nelson W. Petersen, S, was appointed to the position of Squadron Safety Officer with the rank of Squadron Lieutenant.
The first social event of the winter season was on the evening of the 20th January when one hundred members and guests crowded into the lower lounge of the Britannia Yacht Club for a slide show presented by Bernie and Gwynneth Reid. This popular couple spent two years cruising the Bahamas and islands of the Caribbean as far south as Martinique. Gwynneth Reid is a member of the Britannia Power Squadron. Not only the formal presentation but also the comments and answers to questions from the audience made for a delightful evening for all those who dream of sailing among the islands.
For refreshments the Yacht Club Bar was open for drinks and coffee.
This year members of both Britannia and the new Outaouais Squadron assisted the Ottawa Power Squadron with manning the CPS Information Booth at the Ottawa Sportsman's Show during the second week of February. More than one hundred visitors to the Show expressed an interest in taking the Boating Course, either the accelerated course starting on 24th February or the regular course in September.
The Film Night, which has become a regular winter event, was held on 20th February at the National Research Council Auditorium on Sussex Drive. Members of the Ottawa Power Squadron were guests of the Britannia Squadron for this event. There was a total audience of about one hundred and twenty persons. Coffee and donuts were served during an intermission.
The first of the films screened was a USPS training film "Adverse Conditions". It dealt with the handling of vessels in heavy seas. The film included some spectacular and frightening scenes of a forty foot sailboat and a Coast Guard rescue launch broached in breaking seas off an Australian coast.
During a ten minute break between films Vice Commander Wm. F. Taylor, the National Administrative Officer of CPS, spoke on Bill 75 to amend the Canada Shipping Act. This bill, if passed in its present form, will place massive restrictions on the operators of pleasure boats. Commander Taylor asked everyone present to write to the Prime Minister or their member of Parliament to object to the proposed amendments in their present form.
The second film was a fifteen minute spot on the Tall Ships at Quebec City in 1984. It was an interesting French language film with the emphasis on individual ships and members of their crews.
The last film was the 1980 OSTAR single handed Trans-Atlantic race from Plymouth, England to Newport, U.S.A. This was the first year in which the American boats dominated the race over their British and French rivals. The film featured scenes on the yachts at sea taken from fixed cameras with comments of the lone sailors.
On the evening of 24th March, Mr. James Anderson of the Canadian Coast Guard spoke to thirty members of the Squadron in the lower lounge of the Britannia Yacht Club. Mr. Anderson outlined the role of the Coast Guard in search and rescue, the organization of the Coast Guard Auxiliary with 820 volunteer owners and vessels across Canada and accident prevention activities. He then showed two interesting films on the theme of accident prevention. The titles were "Coming Back Alive" and "So You Are Going to Buy a Boat". There was a pleasant question and answer period after the screening of the films.
Year 23 – 1986 / 1987
Year 21 - 1984 / 1985