Harbour Friends is a friendly social group, which is predominantly for residents of Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne.

The group was formed in the first months of 2005, after Beverley Adams moved to the harbour and was finding it difficult to meet people and make new friends. Bev took the initiative to place an advert in the local Waterlines newsletter, asking if anyone else was in the same position.

Soon after that 12 people had responded and a decision was taken to form a social group, with membership available to all Sovereign Harbour residents to be known as Harbour Friends. The objective of the group was to promote and foster friendship amongst harbour residents and to organise social events and trips for the enjoyment of its members.

Initial meetings were held at the homes of the founder members, but as the membership numbers grew, Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club was approached to ask if the group could hold a regular Sunday evening get together in the Yacht Club, which at the time was just a collection of portacabins. Thankfully, the Yacht Club agreed and the group has been making steady progress and attracting new members ever since.

When the Yacht Club later moved in to its current purpose-built building, Harbour Friends moved with it and continues to this day to enjoy the use of the new bar and function room.

In 2010, Harbour Friends changed its weekly meet up from a Sunday evening to the current Wednesday evening. This was a great success with a greater number of members attending on the new Wednesday evening meeting and membership of the club increasing at a faster rate than before.

The average number of members over the last few years has been between 100 and 150, with a comfortable average attendance of around 20 to 30 on most Wednesday evenings and many more when special events are on.

Events
Our volunteer committee meet regularly to discuss and plan forthcoming events, with the emphasis being to make such events as diverse as possible, so that there is always something that will appeal and be fun for those that choose to take part.

Birthday & AGM
Each year in February the club holds its Birthday Celebration and in March/April its Annual General Meeting, at which time members are invited to have their say in the way the club is being run and managed, as well as being able to approve the clubs accounts and vote in the committee for the forthcoming year.

Group Constitution
Since 2009, the group has had a formal constitution which has been agreed by its members. This states that the group should always be primarily for residents of Sovereign Harbour and non-profit making. Having a formal constitution ensures that the group remains democratic and is run and managed effectively for the benefit of all members.

Due to several requests by existing members for membership to be made available to people living off harbour, the original 2009 constitution was amended in 2012 (as agreed by special meeting of members). The revised constitution now allows for a limited number of ‘associate’ memberships to be made available, to FULL members friends and or relatives that live off harbour.