Elite yacht club takes aim at long-term member over debt claims
Queensland’s most prestigious sailing club has shot down what it calls “spurious” allegations made by a long-term member who criticised the use of COVID relief funds, with the Commodore telling him he could leave if he wasn’t happy at Tuesday’s AGM.
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AN OUTSPOKEN member who claimed Queensland’s most prestigious yacht club has misused COVID-19 rental relief has been told he can leave if he isn’t happy in an explosive annual general meeting on Tuesday night.
Mike Freebairn, who has accused the elite Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron of withholding taxpayer dollars to pay off massive debt, was mentioned by club boss Commodore Barry Cuneo in his final address of the evening.
“It just beggars belief how people wish to stay in a place they are not happy, especially when membership is not compulsory,” Mr Cuneo said.
“This is not the place to come and have an argument; open the door and let them leave”.
Mr Cuneo earlier singled out Mr Freebairn by name, saying his contacting The Courier-Mail amounted to “a terrible situation” of “trying to rip us to pieces”.
“If we really want to go there … 99.99 per cent of members realise it’s not what the club gives to me, it’s what I give to the club.”
The stoush between Mr Freebairn, who joined the club in 1983, and management revolves around the “seabed lease” waiver granted by the State Government to marina tenants for six months from April, due to the fallout from COVID-19.
Only 20 of the 594 boats in the RQYS Manly marina are commercial – and therefore technically qualify for the government rental reprieve – but Mr Freebairn, a boat broker, wants the subsidy to be split among all berth holders to “share the load”.
He says boat owners, who support tradies including electricians, mechanics and shipwrights, are doing it tough and should not have to pay full lease fees, of at least $2400 every six months, to “prop up” the club’s 4000-plus members.
The RQYS, which recorded an annual loss of $248,000 for the year ending April 30, has denied it is using government funds to pay down debt.
On Monday, RQYS general manager Shawn Ket told The Courier-Mail, which broke the story, the government relief was “a saving to the club” but “if we were to pass on relief in its entirety it would cost us money to administer and that would not have a positive impact on our club”.
In a strongly worded email to members ahead of the general meeting, Mr Cuneo described Mr Freebairn’s claims as “spurious” and “harmful to the squadron”.
In the letter, Mr Cuneo said individual hardship due to COVID-19 was “considered on a case-by-case basis”.
“RQYS has offered various forms of hardship support to significant numbers of members, businesses, and tenants during this crisis, including Mr Freebairn, who has to date, refused to provide the pertinent documentation to support his claim,” Mr Cuneo said.
Mr Freebairn, a boat broker, shot back telling The Courier-Mail he had offered to send the squadron a letter from his accountant confirming financial hardship (including being on JobKeeper) but considered it “an invasion of privacy” to disclose specific income details.
“My interests lie with the yacht squadron, I am a passionate member of more than 35 years and I am entitled to raise my concerns about how the club is run,” Mr Freebairn said.
READ THE LETTER
Subject: Commodore’s Message to Members re: recent media coverage
You may have seen or heard allegations made in the media by current Club member Mr. Michael Freebairn, alleging that RQYS has been “secretly withholding government COVID-19 rental relief … to pay off its hefty financial debt”. This allegation is completely misleading and entirely false.
The allegation goes on to make disparaging mention that our volunteers have assisted the Club during the COVID-19 Crisis. On the contrary, a dedicated band of Volunteers immediately came to the fore without prompting, to assist our Club at a time when they were needed most. We are proud and grateful for the tremendous effort our volunteers have always made, and even more so during this the COVID crisis, in support of your Club and our Sport.
The facts are:
1. The COVID-19 crisis led to a government imposed shut down of our Sport and Hospitality functions and has already, and is predicted to further negatively impact RQYS revenue.
2. The RQYS Board has taken the decision that any relief received from Government such as JobKeeper, payroll tax or rent relief should, wherever possible, be applied to the sustainability of the Club and to our NFP purpose, that being to ensure that our Sport can emerge quickly and strongly.
3. Various forms of relief have been and will be used for this NFP purpose and have not been used to pay down debt.
4. RQYS Ltd, the Not for Profit entity, holds no debt. Other RQYS controlled Entities hold only one area of material debt, that being for our Motel. Since construction, the RQYS Motel debt has progressively been reduced from some $3m to its current level of $1.5m. TMR rent relief has not been used for debt reduction purposes and as such, the allegations made by Mr. Freebairn in the media are not only false, mischievous and misleading, but spurious and harmful to the Squadron.
5. Member, business, and tenant hardship is considered on a case-by-case basis. RQYS of course requires substantiation of hardship claims. RQYS has offered various forms of hardship support to significant numbers of members, businesses, and tenants during this crisis, including Mr. Freebairn, who has to date, refused to provide the pertinent documentation to support his claim.
6. The vast majority of loyal members has strongly supported our Club by paying subscriptions early or on time, and by volunteering. The General Committee has observed that members in all but a few isolated cases such as this one relating to Mr. Freebairn, are genuinely interested in what they can do for their Club, not what these isolated individuals might expect to take from our Club.
7. Many of the permanent and casual staff who, of necessity, were so unfortunately stood down at the commencement of the COVID crisis are returning to work, some in different roles.
8. The General Committee takes the view that financial decisions will be prioritised on the Club remaining in a strong position to enable us to continue to progress our Not for Profit purpose, that being, the delivery and support of our Sport for members. We have a responsibility to do so based on 135 years of delivering on this very purpose and we’ve already started strongly with Queensland’s first large Regatta since shut down, “Youth Week”, successfully run with over 100 sailors and their families and also of course by running Queensland’s first offshore event, the Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race on 31 July.
Your Commodore
Captain Barry Cuneo
21/07/2020