It was with all the forethought and preparation that goes into the average Donald Trump tweet that your race team turned up at the start without any flags! Since there were no SI’s to speak of for this event, this unfortunate oversight only added to what was supposed to be the casual flavour of the evening where all of the Race Officer’s foibles had to be communicated to the fleet by means of verbal communication. We had previously broadcast our intention to have a line start instead of a Gate-boat start but, nevertheless, one or two competitors did have some trouble recognising where the start line was. As the start line was also the finish line, this was a shame for at least one competitor, as you will see from the results!

So that you can make sense of the table that follows, you should remember that the aim was to sail a good number of races (we managed 5), and to have two of those races to count, in line with the number of races you would normally sail on a Monday night. Where we had ties, discards were taken into account. Clearly, given this format, those who turned up early in a fleet of twelve will have been given an advantage over those that raced later on when the fleet numbers had grown to 30. Whilst this goes against the country’s Protestant work ethic, I, like Phillip Larkin, can live with giving people an incentive to relieve themselves of the ‘toad work’, if only for a little while!

33 sailors took part during the evening which came as a bit of a surprise to the race team who had thought we’d have a jolly time with 15 or so helms. Equally surprising was the mood of those taking part. It became clear, right from the beginning that people had decided to take the whole thing very seriously. The racing was highly competitive, so much so that had we remembered to bring flags with us we might very well have needed to use a black one. As it was, some stern words and the odd judicious insult from your ex Commanding Officer seemed to do the trick. Needless to say, our southern hemisphere mates were to the fore in being naughty – I think it must be in their blood or something.

At the end of the evening we gave out a number of prizes provided by the race team whilst competitors enjoyed a free drink provided by class funds with permission of the Fleet Captain – Hooray for Mark! In case you’re interested, here is the list of prize winners:

     Ist and most impressive capsize: Rob Clarke
     Most unusual rest routine between races: Pam Woodall
     Best start of the evening: Eve Kennedy
     Wire to wire victory in race 5: Andy Taylor
     For going boldly: Col Nichols