As usual, the Annual Dinner and Prize Giving took place at the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club.  After an excellent meal, the Commodore gave his speech, which was perhaps rather longer than most of the sweepstake contenders expected.  He began by highlighting that 2015 is the club’s 30^th anniversary year and wondered who had been present at the inaugural meeting - several in the room had been.  Since then, he said, there had been hundreds of races and thousands of entries.

The anniversary would be marked, he went on to say, by a 3 day themed party - a Gatsby weekend.  He ran through some of the plans and mentioned that the organising sub-committee were selflessly searching for the best music for the event.  What we were celebrating was a very special little club based on friendship and co-operation.  He commented on how it was amazing that everyone pitched in to run races, organise meals etc. and that he had made many friends over the years, some sadly no longer with us.

On a personal note, the Commodore mentioned the birthday party he had had the previous June and thanked everyone who had given him various forms of alcohol.  He hoped he would have recovered by his next special birthday in 10 years time.   He finished by thanking Harriet for her support, saying that she is never short of advice, before going on to tell a couple of jokes.

The speech was followed by the prizegiving, with Julia winning the Rigs and Rigging themed photographic competition and Pandora III winning most of the sailing trophies.  Margaret read a short, but well received speech from the owners of Puck when accepting the Hiawatha Prize on their behalf and the hamper was won by Daisy.

As always, the party went on well into the night....