Just 7 Club boats but lots of members/guests travelled straight to the hotel, some stopping there overnight.  

57 attendees, (plus little Holly, our resident dancer and raffle-ticket picker for the night!)    

   

A cool, wet weekend, with some windy conditions meant a few of us left our boats behind and either stayed at the hotel overnight, or drove each way on the Saturday evening. Even I gave way this year and booked a late hotel room - but no regrets as that was warm and comfortable, within just a few metres of the Dance venue. Those who came by boat were all early at the venue, thanks to Bob's organising of the taxis, and were at the bar drinking before the majority of guests arrived. We had one less table this year, to give us extra dancing room, and that proved a popular move in what is a fairly crowded atmosphere.

 

The food was excellent once more and the service quick and efficient, allowing the band to start as usual just after 9pm. The "Breeze" gave it all they had until the first interval just after 10pm - when we had the first prize draw. Linda (off "Lady Jolyn") was the winner of the "Lucky ticket" prize - a nice bottle of Cava! In fact, she was very lucky, because I spun the drum so fast that her ticket flew out halfway across the room - before we had started the formal "draw". We decided that we'll leave it at that!

 

Club trophies were then presented - team "Iron Maiden" ( Pip; Colin; Fay; and John) won the "Paul Hodgson" trophy for the Fun-day games; the "Broken Oar" was presented to the boat "Splashed Out" (Tony & Sue) for Tony's efforts to burn his boat interior during his first trip out in it! - and then came my surprise, Commodore Bob presented his personal cup to ME, for the organisational work I had done for the club this year. I was well happy - many thanks to Bob and to all members! Jen and Dawn were then busily selling the "Pot of Gold" raffle tickets as the band started up again and we all took to the floor for some fast-moving Rock n' Blues. Dawn's little 3yr. old niece Holly was always the first up - in fact she didn't leave the floor for most of the evening. Helped by her Auntie, she even did the raffle draw at the next interval - with Linda winning again (£10), then my Jen winning 2nd.prize (£30) ( I'm sure I bought that ticket??), and the big prize (£50) went to our vice-commodore's wife, Jane. The raffle was a big success - we had collected over £140, and the balance went as tips to the hard-working staff - who had also a large wedding to contend with in the adjoining function room!

The band started again for their final set and the dance-floor filled once more - carrying on until after midnight. The taxis then arrived to take the boaters back to the Yacht station and us hotel guests mooched around until nearly 1am - seeing all off the premises and clearing up our club debris.

 

Another great night-out – so again we’ve provisionally booked the Parkhill Hotel for next year. ( although we do plan to enquire of the Wherry before we confirm?) ( note our planned date of 26th.October 2013 may be subject to change - just heard that Brundall club will hold their 2013 End-season event in Lowestoft on the same night - thus filling up the Yacht station?)