Laying Up Supper – Dec 2022

The end of the year always seems to creep up on people, and this year was no exception, bringing with it the annual Laying Up Supper. We returned to the Furze Bush Inn, having enjoyed our visit last year.

Initially, there was a distinct lack of nominations for the Uncle Albert award, which was very unusual for the Club.  Rather than skip awarding the prestigious trophy for the year, the decision was taken for the Committee to open a confessional to share their own ‘misdemeanours’.

We began with tales of marina departures while still connected to electric hook-up, and continued with attempts to explain why dinghies needed to be towed back to boats while in Alderney.

Breaking a finger did seem to be the obvious candidate for winning by our Commodore, but a very well told story of narrowly escaping an unplanned swim in Lymington Harbour put the Club Secretary high up the list.

There were actually some contenders beyond the committee, so on the night their entries were also shared.  While it had seemed initially that there was a reluctance to confess, on the night Titian were keen to elaborate on their two entries.  Their purchase of rather expensive burghee halyard (on the basis that dyneemo is light, and it was red), and unintentional feeding of seagulls with their fish supper, provided entertaining tales, which they insisted should be included in the final vote.

However, it was the elaborate tale of a missing boat part, essential for the boat in question to sail, that ultimately won the day, resulted in the ‘Princess and the Pea’ being the lucky recipient!

With the current Uncle Albert holder being out of the country, there was a change from the tradition of them telling the tales. Instead, people had the opportunity to share their own accounts, and allow members to hear the stories first-hand. There was some very elequent story-telling, despite the lack of preparation! The victor was eventually chosen by public voting, which in the end was almost unanimous vote.

As always, names are ommitted to protect the ‘guilty’!

7th December 2022