As usual, the Chichester Hotel, between Wickford and Rayleigh, did us proud. The meal offered a choice of starters, main courses for both carnivores and vegetarians, puddings ranged from apple pie and custard, to cheese cakes and many more besides. Although some suggested the Tuna steak was a little dry, it not enough to spoil an otherwise very enjoyable meal.
Why was Bob not there? we can reveal the truth - you know Bob, tall guy with a bit of a beard, he was not able to be there as he claimed a bad back and man flue. The truth I can reveal is that he had a hissy fit when he released that the laying up supper would clash with Strictly Come Dancing and having not recovered from the shock of old snake hips, John Sergeant, pulling out of the show, Bob felt he would be too weak to pull himself away from Rachel Stevens and her perfect 10s.
Derek Dodd stood in as Commodore for the night and read a pre-prepared speech from Bob. Each time he took on the guise of being Bob he stood on a box, this was to try and fool us into thinking that it was in fact the old dance floor devil himself as they have similar facial hair but Bobs is just further skywards than that sported by Derek. Anyway he did a great job as stand in and we thank him for it. We all hope that Bob recovers soon and will be able to drag himself to the village hall for a medicinal game of snooker.
Another huge thank you must go to Jennifer for her work as social sec yet again this year, she managed to whip up 50 people to come to the laying up supper where we welcomed guests from both South Woodham and Up River clubs.
The prize giving
In previous years the prize giving has gone on for well over an hour and been a concern of the committee that those attending may fell that is too long. This year Anita kept it going along at a cracking pace and if felt much quicker. Brian Darby did the honors by handing out the silverware and it was by no means a procession of the same person over and over again collecting all the trophies. It is good to see the trophies going to lots of different people, it means the level of sailing is high across the board, not just one or two shining starts. It was also pleasing to see the age range of the winners stretching from under six to over sixty.
The big prizes of the night went to Rie Caton as overall winner for the crews trophy. Alexander Johnston was overall points winner (he started in more than 30 of 37 races), Alexander also won the Cadet trophy (the tomb stone) and Robyn Hadley was "absolutely gobsmacked" to be the first winner of the much coveted consolation series trophy. Here we have a group shot of prize winners form 2008.
The evening finally broke up some time around eleven and we woke up the next day to a light dusting of snow.