Autumn Rally 2016 – Beaulieu River

The final Club Rally of the year has come around again; at least this year we have had a summer to speak of!

With the expectation of continued fine weather, the plan was set to celebrate the Last Night of the Proms with the Royal Southampton Yacht Club at their Gin’s Farm club house.

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and we were faced with a SW F6 and persistent rain on Saturday, with a forecast to dry out and warm up for Sunday.

Laura and Mark waited until the afternoon to set off from Gosport, hoping that the rain would at least tail off a bit. As they motored out of the Harbour, they were greeted with a strong wind on the nose and tide against, so rather than bash in to that for something more than 3 hours they decided to turn back and drive over to dinner later.

The evening started with drinks and nibbles on Graham and Lyn’s boat, and then moved up to the club house. The theme of the evening was patriotic, to fit in with the Last Night of the Proms. Special note has to go to Navy Blues for the huge Union Flags that she was flying, even if it did give Trevor a toga later on!

After an excellent dinner, the big screen was activated and the live broadcast fromthe Albert Hall was shown, much singing and flag waving then went on including us all standing and singing the National Anthem; with more enthusiasm than talent is some cases!

The night wound down we all headed back to the boats, with various parties going on under a clear sky and a wonderful star canopy showing that the weather front had moved through and so promising a pleasant sail home for the morning.

And so ends the on water events for another year. Dave and Anne have had another great year and have given us a selection of rallies around the area. Thanks to both for making the rallies so much fun. The fact that we have so many boats and crew come along to each one shows how popular they are and what a good spirit the Club has.

10th-11th September 2016