A weekend of mixed weather, with 15 Boats. A total of 30 members plus guests over the Bank holiday.

Windy and cool weather over most of the weekend, with a very wet Bank holiday Monday, meant that we spent a lot of time under cover inside our boats – closer to the wine storage of course!

The staff at the Yacht station, despite the sadness of Paul losing his wife, were brilliant, ensuring that we had the best moorings available on what was a very busy weekend.

I arrived on Sunday, which turned out to be one of the best days weatherwise, and after a minor “maintenance” job on my boat - the Domestic water pressure accumulator had rusted through and leaked, and had to be bypassed (thanks, Dave!) – myself, and my grandson Ben, got to work distributing the quiz sheets. Unfortunately, most of the boats were there for a Sunday wedding over at the Wherry Hotel, and most “crew” had already departed to attend that event – so we didn’t collect much on our first round. Still, we persevered, and collected more later, and again on the Monday morning. Arriving back at our boat, a large crowd of club members and visitors had gathered around and were enjoying wine and beers prior to the scheduled BBQ start at 4pm. Centre of the festivities was our commodore, Bob, who had recently been discharged from hospital and Norma had brought him along to enjoy the afternoon sun and chat to us. It was lovely to see him getting better, and we all listened spellbound as he gave us the gruesome details of his operations and his stay at James Paget! Bob couldn’t stay long – he was still pretty weak – and he and Norma left as the BBQ’s fired up and we carried on drinking and chatting until early evening. It was another great club get-together.

Kath had been re-booked to perform another solo-singing evening in the Boulevard on the Sunday evening, and we all went along to support her. Kath was on great form, and we enjoyed singing and dancing along to her music. Highlight of the evening was John joining in on a couple of numbers, especially in the cockney voiced “Come Outside”!

Bank Holiday Monday was a very wet  Gala Day. It was the first time that we had all planned to pay at the gate and enjoy the amusements all day, including for once hoping to get closer to the Powerboat racing and the late fireworks – fat chance in the wind & rain! It was so bad that entrance fee was halved for the whole day, and the fireworks were cancelled. Still, we did all have a mooch about during some of the drier spells and later in the day many of us managed to cram on to “Lady Grace” for another session of drinks and nibbles, whilst the Powerboat racing went on in the awful conditions, with little or no spectators. Hardy lot are those particular boaters!

Quiz report

I didn’t arrive at the Yacht station until just before midday on the Sunday, and so was late  in distributing the usual Quiz sheets. I didn’t find enough time this year to devise two new quizzes, and so I re-used two of Paul’s old quizzes – going back as far as my records exist, 2003, (even then one member remembered one quiz well – and pointed out an old error. Remarkable!). Themes this year were "R U a Rocker?" and "R U a TV Addict?" - and the prizes were bottles of wine kindly donated by Ray and Margaret of“Stornaway”, from stock originally destined for the annual raffle (which had been cancelled). The main charity collection around the Yacht Station was this year in aid of the “Louise Hamilton Centre” at James Paget, in memory of Paul’s wife Carol, and it was decided to add our collection to it. We collected a much appreciated total of £60, a good effort considering the late start

Thanks to all those who took part and donated so well.  "Crown Jewel" won top prize in the Rocker quiz, followed closely by “Pizzazz, and booby prize went to visiting boat “Half-a-Ransom”.

“Blithe” won first prize in the TV Addict quiz, with “Crown Jewel” coming in second place, with “Tantalus IV” bringing up the rear and taking the booby prize bottle of wine.

Congratulations to all of them.

Ken  11/09/2014

Treasurers Note: We sent a cheque for £30.00 from the Club to add to the donations in aid of “Louise Hamilton Centre”.