A fantastic weekend, courtesy of BMYC and Tingdene marina at Brundall – with the latter finding space for 7 of our boats, some staying for 2 or 3 days.  The turnout for the annual opening season dinner dance was the best for many years, at 53 members and guests.

It was a lovely evening, beginning with me distributing the annual freebies to those who I knew not to be attending the AGM – due to Keith Allison having a big birthday bash on the Sunday. I gave out our 2014 Yearbook (yes – again I managed to get it published on time, before the AGM), and Robin had brought the NSBA Green books.

The BMYC clubhouse was very well laid out, 3 lines of dining tables meant that all could sit with their friends in a close, convivial atmosphere, with the adjacent bar doing a thriving trade. Bob loudly called us to our tables just after 7.30pm, the beginning of a brilliant night.

Richard (BMYC commodore) and his partner Jan (BMYC secretary), together with trainee chef Chloe, had done a grand job. The food was superb and the beers and table wines complimented it well. Just as the meal ended, Nula was invited to draw the “lucky” ticket,– a nice bottle of Cava being claimed by......well, me actually. Funny that – I had only remembered to buy the bottle earlier that day, and picked out a good one that even I would enjoy drinking. And yes – Nula did indeed shake ‘em up before the draw! Bob then presented a club burgee to Richard, to take its place amongst the other burgees dotted about the clubhouse, and gave Jan a beautiful basket of flowers on behalf of OBMBC.

“Shipwreck" ( Bim and John ) then kicked off the music, playing some good dance numbers. Jen and Dawn went about selling the raffle tickets for the “Pot-of-Gold”, and this time I had brought 3 or 4 ticket books to the Event, so we were back to the usual format of “a-pound-a-strip” and, boy, did we sell some – raising a total of £122. We put half into club funds and the remainder £61 was distributed to the 3 winning draw tickets – new member Anna 3rd £10; Terry 2nd £20

( I had only 5 minutes beforehand but managed to squeeze £15 membership fee from him, so he got that back twofold, the lucky s.d!) and Audrey 1st with £30. (we don’t know what happened to the odd £1 coin – hopefully it ended up in the staff collection?). The draw took place as the band took their first break, giving us also a chance to run a table collection for the Staff  - collecting over £60 for the busy waitresses and kitchen staff. Thanks to all you generous members for that effort, well done! As the evening progressed, lots of us were up dancing and the dance floor stayed busy until the band finished just after 12 midnight. A few of us stayed behind to after 1 am – then back to the boats to sleep it off before the mid-morning start of the AGM.

A total of 32 members made it to the meeting on the Sunday morning, the meeting kicking off just after 11.10am, allowing time for some gorgeous bacon baps and hot coffee ( many thanks again to Richard and Jan). The remainder of the Yearbooks and Green books were distributed to the members in attendance, along with copies of the AGM agenda and previous minutes. It was another good meeting and I’ll issue the new minutes when I find some more time? All the Club officers and committee will continue this year, although Robin, and I, did do our best to offer up our posts before the start of next season - but there were no takers – yet?

We also introduced a new club trophy, the Challenge Plate – courtesy of Graham Davies. This will be awarded to the member(s) deemed to have conquered a “challenging” situation during the season.

We also agreed to keep the Events calendar exactly as per the yearbook, with the September Quiz Nite venue confirmed for the “Garden room” at the Dukes Head pub at Somerleyton. The AGM was all over by 12.30pm, so it was more drinks at the Club bar whilst saying our goodbyes. Everyone seem to agree that 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  (May 2014)