Another successful event over a decent weekend weather-wise – with 15 boats crowded into both sides of the visitor’s marina of the WRC.  The turnout for the annual opening season dinner dance was good at 37 – including a few who came by car, and, as usual, John and Fay in their motorhome.

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It was a lovely Saturday afternoon when most of us arrived, sunny with just a cool wind to freshen up the proceedings. Lots of to-ing and fro-ing between the boats to welcome everyone at the opening season meeting, with liberal amounts of beers and wine being drunk on board to celebrate the start of the 2013 season. I distributed the annual freebies – our 2013 Yearbook (yes – for once I managed to get it published on time, before the AGM!), and the NSBA Green book. This gave me the opportunity to spend some time on members’ boats, enjoying a few drinks (more than a few?)  and chatting about plans for the new season. All the boats looked pristine after their winter lay-ups. Tony and Sue (“Splashed-out”) decided to try to win the “Broken Oar” trophy again by delaying their arrival due to a "serious problem" of unable to start the engine in Reedham marina that morning. As the other boats left, Tony spent a panicky few hours checking all the battery connections and electrics before “phoning a friend” who suggested he take it out of gear (the lever looked OK in neutral but was ever so slightly in gear) – which immediately solved the problem! Perhaps he should have asked the “audience” before they all left? Still, it was an amusing story to retell as I began to enjoy even more beer on his boat.

 

Suitably merry, we all rushed to get ready for the evening’s entertainment – gathering in the bar area just after 7pm, enjoying another drink before Bob loudly called us to our tables.

Nigel and Tracy had done us proud again, the food was superb and the beers and table wines complimented it well. The “lucky” ticket was drawn before we started – a nice bottle of Cava being claimed by Chris of “Lioness”. Funny that – no. 37, the last ticket issued. And yes – we did shake ‘em up before the draw!!

 

“Shipwreck" ( Bim and John ) again kicked off the music as the meal ended, playing some good dance numbers plus their comical tune interludes. Jen and Dawn went about selling the raffle tickets for the “Pot-of-Gold”. There was a bit of a glitch here though – silly me had forgot to bring the club books of raffle tickets, so we had to make do with a few tickets that the pub had scraped up – and had to charge £2 a ticket so as not to run out before selling to all the tables? Still, we raised £36 in tips for the young waiters and waitresses, and the remainder £36 was distributed to the 3 winning tickets – Dawn 3rd; Sandra 2nd; and Mary 1st. That must have helped with their bar bill that night! As the evening progressed, more and more got up to dance and the dance floor stayed crowded until the band finished just after 12 midnight. Most then hung about, drinking up and chatting, to after 1 am – then back to the boats to sleep it off before the early morning start of the AGM.

 

A total of 32 members made it to the meeting on a bright Sunday morning, the meeting kicking off just after 10.30am, with a break at 11am for the bacon rolls and coffee. It was another good meeting and I’ll issue the minutes when I find some more time? The AGM was all over by midday, so it was back to the boats for our goodbyes. Most of the talk had been about the next time we are due at the WRC, in late June for Graham’s model boat record attempt and our Quiz night. We chatted a bit about the logistics of that event before making preparations to depart the river centre. The wind had strengthened a bit by then, but still enough sun about to make it a lovely return journey back to our marinas on Sunday afternoon.

It was another successful OBMBC event weekend, and we all hoped that the next event – at Beccles in May – would be just as well attended!

 

Ken  (April 2013)