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  Annual Dinner & Prize-giving, 2013

72 members and guests gathered, as usual, at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club for the annual dinner and prize-giving. After an enjoyable meal, the Commodore, Jean Vaughan, rose to thank the hosting club and members of the YSC for their work to make a successful evening. She then spoke as follows:

I do feel it is an honour and a privilege to be made Commodore of such a great club as the Yare Sailing Club. I do sometimes wonder why we do such things – in my case, I think it must be in the genes. My Dad was Commodore of Midland Sailing Club in Birmingham. My late husband, Bill, was Commodore of WOBYC in the 70s. I served on this committee when Chris Dowsett was Commodore and then in recent times I spent three years as Madam Vice to Tel’s Vice Commodore. I hope I can do justice to the post.

The other “why” I was wondering was Why do we go sailing at all? I did a bit of research into this and found that remains of boats have been found dating as early as the Mesolithic Period.

I imagine that a Stone Age man was sitting on the bank of a wide flowing river. He wants to get to the other side to join another tribe who seem to be enjoying themselves at the Trog and Dinosaur. He and his pal Trevor discuss the ways they might cross.

“We could sit on a log,” says Trevor.
“Nah, we’d get all wet – I want to get wet on the inside.”
“How about tying some logs together – that’d float”
“We need a method of propulsion”
“Big stick – we could call it a quant”
“River’s too deep in the middle,” says Colin.
“Always the defeatist, you,” grumbles Trevor.
“Look at that big leaf being blown by the wind – we could make a sail”
“How we gonna hold it up?”
“Another big stick with some of them viney things for shrouds – and some bark sewn together – I’ll get Marjorie on to it”

And so the sailing cruiser was born – with a few refinements, our gallant heroes set off. It didn’t point very well.... I’ve known the odd sailing cruiser sailed like a bunch of old logs tied together!

You’ll be pleased to hear they eventually made it to the Trog and Dinosaur and after a few beers made friends with the other tribe, who were very impressed with their efforts and decided to have a go themselves.

“What do we call these wondrous craft?” asked Joe, the village elder.
“We thought boats, oh worthy one - B.O.A.T.S.”
“You’ll soon know what that means” said Colin.
“Break Out Another Thousand,” said Trevor.
Marjorie was not impressed.
“Typical,” snorted Trevor, “a woman will never lie down in a boat she can’t stand up in!!”

Many of these craft were created along the stretch of river – and where you get more than one boat, you inevitably get a race! And so the Yare Sailing Club was born – a lot sooner than we all thought. Races were held, trophies given and won by the victorious and raffles were held – which is just what we are going to do now.

Ladies and gentlemen, will you please join me in a toast to the Yare Sailing Club – the best little sailing club in the world.

The prize giving was indeed then held, presenting club trophies that had been won throughout 2012. The Hiawatha Prize for the 15% and over yachts was won by Pandora III, with Anne taking both the Wherry Trophy for the overall club championship and the Luna Barometer. The Gordon Winterton Memorial photographic competition was won by his granddaughter, Sarah and Kevin Rhead was the lucky recipient of the hamper in the raffle.

last edited on:  04/02/2013 at 21:08   by: The Editor