Ladies Day 2017

14 ladies were treated fabulously by the men and young men of Herne Bay Sailing Club during Ladies Day on Saturday 17th June.

The ladies enjoyed coffee and croissants first thing while the men served, washed up and Doug, Glenn and team rigged a couple of Laser 2000's, a Vision, a 420 and 3 Qubas and ran up the safety boats. The ladies were on the water just in time to have a bit of a sail towards the harbour before the wind ran away. Fortunately the tide was such that we drifted gently back towards the slipway until it was shallow enough (for some) to hop out and tow the boats home. Thank you Alison for towing our 420! It was fantastic to see some ladies who sail infrequently (very in Shelina's case!) out on the water and even at the helm.

Martin had carried out extensive research to find the best Pimms recipe and the ladies enjoyed ice cold Pimms with fruit all served in style by their appropriately-dressed waiter with their buffet lunch put together by Mark and helpers. The consumption of Pimms did not quite reach the levels of previous years and one bottle remains unopened for next year. Lunch was completed with icecream after cadet Gregg made a special trip to the shops.  

With the sea breeze not due to arrive until later, we decided not to go for another drift in dinghys. With at least half of the group fully-qualified powerboat drivers, some ladies decided to go for a spin in Viking and Avon. After a brief discussion as to whether the insurance covered taking boats out to the windfarm (we decided probably not), we headed out for a close up of the old pier instead.

It is amazing that the building on it still stands, especially when half of it is held up by what looked like a single piece of 4 by 2. We also admired the ability of the King's School sailors who had arrived along with a sea breeze and were not just sailing their 420s rudderless but doing so around the pier head without crashing into it.  The ladies spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the deck or beach and enjoying the occasional dip or kayak before afternoon tea and home.

Georgina P. summed up the day in her facebook post perfectly: "Another lovely relaxing ladies day! HUGE thanks to all the guys (and gals) that worked so hard to make this a really enjoyable day, from the gallery, bar, boat rigging, slipway, safety boats and advice. I'm not gonna mention you all by name - you know who you are!" . I'd like to add a special thanks to the cadets who helped out all day and put their newly-acquired PB2 skills to great use.

On behalf of the ladies - thank you!  





 



Photographs courtesy of Ian Moore, Bridget Bree and Chris Weal.