Prize Giving and Laying Up Dinner 31 Oct 2011

The only worry at the Laying Up Dinner is whether you will be one of the people given responsibility for cutting up a Steak and Kidney Pudding. With 105 people elbow to elbow at six long tables there were puddings everywhere on Saturday night plus a cheerful buzz in the Dining Room and a dazzling display of silverware.

Some of the silver cups on show were presented to this year’s winners by Peter Marchant, Rear Commodore Sailing, and the Commodore’s wife Philippa Munro. The Cruiser, RCOD and Dragon fleets had all the trophy winners present and they kept the champagne flowing. Simon Griffin, receiving a Squib cup, took the opportunity of thanking the people in the Club who provide us with good racing through the year.

The Commodore, Stuart Munro, kept his speech brief to make space for the special guests of the evening, ex-Otters now champion 18ft Skiff sailors, Jamie and Stewart Mears. Together with Tristan Hutt, the third team member from Maylandsea Bay Yacht Club, they have mastered these amazing boats which literally fly above the water in the right conditions.

Jamie and Stewart had brought the many trophies they had won during the year with them and on Saturday they received another one, a handsome silver cup, recently presented to the RCYC by Poul-Ricard Hoj Jensen, for their outstanding achievement in taking what sounded like a clean sweep of the UK and European Events and coming second in the Worlds. That last big prize, the Worlds, is in their sights for next year if they get sponsorship.

It was a gala evening, definitely one to be remembered, witness the fact that members took advantage of the extra hour to keep the party going well into Sunday!