Dragon End of Season 2013 19 Nov 2013
The Dragon fleet celebrated the official end of season with a weekend of light wind sailing and the Prize Giving Dinner. Saturday’s light wind resulted in a short postponement before a fleet of eight boats headed out onto the water to do the first race of the Peter Matthew Trophy – a short town course in light and variable wind. After 1½ circuits and plenty of position changes, Nigel Cole in Tsunami won the day by a few seconds from Martin Makey in Ganador.
Saturday night saw the fleet back in the club in Black Tie for the end of season dinner. The four course meal was superb, with one comment overheard of “It’s the best meal I’ve ever had in the club and I’ve been a member since the 1960s.”
The dinner was also the occasion for the award of all the trophies for the season’s racing, plus the usual special prizes. Lukas Mallisa was a popular winner of the Crew Prize, Mary and Martin Makey were awarded the Class Captain’s award for their hard work in organising the Dragon Worlds in Weymouth, and then the it was onto the highlight of the evening, The Clanger.
Team Logie, made up for the evening of Sir Richard Rycroft, Trudi and Dan Churchward and Alistair Wilson appeared as Crusty, Spills, Trash and Not So Very Young, in a rendition of “Dragon Fleet Madness.” Various misdemeanours of the season were mentioned, but the trophy was eventually awarded to the Page Boys for a mooring approach a few weeks back that left Graham hanging on the mooring buoy as the boat sailed away…
All that was left to do was to say a very big “Thank you”, to the departing class captains, Mark and Mandy Wade, for their hard work over the past three years. They will be a very tough act to follow.
Sunday morning was another light wind day for the final race of the Peter Matthew Trophy. After some discussion, a short course was agreed with the comment that the fleet had better be back before the tide turned as no-one had passports at the ready for an impromptu visit to Belgium! Although the fleet was fairly spread out, the positions on the water combined with Saturday’s results had over half the fleet on the same points at one stage. The race was won by Rob Campbell in Beauty and the Beast, but as Nigel Cole in Tsunami again managed to wriggle past Martin Makey in Ganador, Tsunami won the weekend. As Tsunami was owned by Peter Matthew before Nigel bought her, Nigel was very pleased to finally get his name on the trophy after eleven years of trying.
This is not quite the end of the season, however, as just to be contrary, some of the fleet may continue racing for another weekend, weather permitting.