Well what a fantastic dinner & prize giving night we had. A week ago we would have been struggling to get everybody there due to the hard frost and snowy conditions but this week everything turned out ok. Fortunately the cold weather had disappeared and we were back to our mild Cornish climate.

87 Club members and friends turned out to the Bosun’s dinner for a belated 2009 dinner. In fact we could have sold more tickets but 87 was the maximum we could have, and the tickets sold out in no time.

We are all used to seeing each other in casual sailing clothing throughout the year, so it made a very pleasant change to see everybody in their finery. The ladies looked magnificent, with new dresses and hairdos and it was apparent that all the stops had been pulled out. The men also were well presented, with the majority in dinner suits or very smart lounge suits. The Cadets were well represented; they too were dressed to the nines, a credit to their proud parents.

The evening followed its normal routine with a well presented 3 course dinner, which with 87 people dining, did take a little time to serve. This was followed by well stocked raffle leading to the highlight of the evening, the presentation of prizes for the 2009 sailing season, which took a little time to get through as the racing had been split into 2 fleets in 2009; a Tasar fleet and a handicap fleet. The prize table was well organised by Nigel & James with everything laid out in the correct sequence for the winners, who were all greeted by Catherine. Top prize of the evening, the coveted capsize trophy, being awarded to Brian Reeves, who had a series of capsizes one very blowy Sunday morning. Eventually it was the turn of the resident disco to burst into action and at sometime or other had everybody out on the dance floor, boogying the night away, and in no time at all it was time to get back into the taxi for home again.

Normally the dinner is held in November or December, but for a change we elected to wait until January to hold the event. This actually turned out to be a good choice as it gave everybody something to look forward to after the hectic Christmas schedule that we had all endured, and with only 70 odd days to go before the start of the 2010 sailing season helps the winter to move on faster than normal.

Credit for the successful evening must go down in part to the brilliant organisational skills of Maria who took on the role of organising the evening. She presented us all with the menus before Christmas, took orders and the monies, selected the tables, so we only had to turn up on the night to be watered and fed, and to enjoy ourselves.

I think I managed to get a picture or two of everybody who was at the dinner, but apologies to some who may be shown with their eyes closed. The pictures below are compressed, so anyone wanting the full blown 6M version then please contact me and I will email the more comprehensive version.