Herne Bay Sailing Club

Ladies day 2009 had all the great ingredients:

great weather

great support by the men

and of course plenty of Pimms!

Breakfast was served at nine o’clock by the immaculately dressed butlers and ladies day got under way.  The weather was excellent, the ladies were happy, five and a half gallons of Pimms were drunk and nobody drowned.   You can’t ask for better than that.  Dai was a little concerned about the wind strength but decided to go for it.  Yet again for another year we counted them all out and counted them all back in again with few who had capsized.

The ‘Ladies’ were gagging for it (Pimms that is) and drank so much that, due to a slight cock-up on the catering front, Dave Hogben was actually serving it neat at one stage until some one (but not all!) complained that theirs looked like brown ale and tasted like cough medicine.

They were all delightful, being served their lunch and then allowed to chill out on the sun deck for an hour or so giving the wind chance to drop (the 20 mph gusts on the water that is).  After lunch they were given the opportunity to remain relaxing on the sun deck, swim in the sea, have safety boat rides in the choppy waves, continue to sail their Picos, or for those who like to take ‘a walk on the wild side” a blast in a laser 2000 or a for the clinically insane a blast in the 59er (with optional lobster fishing for Jane Lee).

Jules Beaumont took the opportunity to practice her Pico technique and this put her in very good stead for the ‘Ladies Race’ the following day, which she won by a country mile.

At the end of the day there were no complaints to the Officer in Charge of Sailing, so the boats were all put to bed by Dai and his team, and Rob May took over with one of the best Quiz shows we’ve had at the club.   He was a real ‘Dandy’ and it is just as well that he is spoken for by the lovely Jayne as he had them eating out of his capable hands.  Just the supper to come and the end to a perfect day saw everyone present tucking into a delicious meal cooked by Steve Lee and the boys.

A personal thank you to all the guys who worked so hard to make this a success, and to the ladies for allowing all us guys to sail on “Gentleman’s day” (that is the rest of the year!) and, of course, doing your bit to make HBSC the friendly and happening place that it is. Thanks everyone!

David Hogben and David Griffiths