Regatta 2016 Story

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The weekend 18-19 June was our annual regatta; the weather was kind and the turn-out good with some of our new members coming out to enjoy the days as well. Unusually there were more sailors (11 boats) Saturday than Sunday.

The river did its best to take the crews to Hampton Court. The wind enjoyed the game puffing and dieing so as to give us sailors hope, then dashing the hope by stopping when we were in the strongest current. In general on Saturday it was 5 boat lengths forward and 10 back so some juggling was necessary to actually facilitate a finish. At the end of Sunday most of the fleet were towed back.

After the Sunday Strawberry Cream Tea the prizes were distributed with Mike Baker winning the Regatta Trophy for the first time, new member Mark Davey took the novice helm prize, Alice Lea retaining her ladies trophy with Brenda Lavery less than a second behind. Well done to all prize winners!

The Sunday afternoon Commodore's Novalty event involved some of our new members in both the helm and crew positions with everyone apparently enjoying themselves. Thanks for coming guys, now keep it up!

Here it is appropriate to remind potential crews that Sunday races usually start at 11:30, 14:00 (a Training and Fun event) and 15:30. For these races, boats need rigging and someone must do the job, so if you want to sail call Richard Cannon (01932 786636) to book and get down early to help with the rigging.

Likewise boats need de-rigging, landing and storage so please don’t leave the work to others at the end of the day. Remember no one is paid for the work done at AQSC so please share the load and keep the club spirit alive.

Between and after races a phalanx of non-sailing club members, mostly but not entirely ladies, planned, purchased, cooked and prepared delicious lunches, sumptuous afternoon feasts and a fantastic Plowman’s supper. Quietly in the background the bar was stocked the fridges filled and the bar manned so no thirst went unquenched.

Having done the preparation work, much of the same group cleared away and washed up as well. As is normal, the social work begins well before race day, continues through the day and often finishes afterwards. The phalanx usually outnumbers the sailors and has a bigger job.

If one counts the numbers, we have more members eating and socialising than sailing so perhaps Aquarius is a Social Club that sails occasionally, not a sailing club that socialises. Whatever your answer, sailing would not be as much fun without the apron army.