Yet again, the weather wasn’t up to much: we had three seasons in one day on Sunday, but unfortunately none of them was summer. And it was very windy. And wet.

However, undeterred, seven hardy skippers took their yachts out for the race on Saturday afternoon, although all but one of them reefed and this certainly proved to be prudent. The OOD took pity on them and set a straight course up to Hardley Mill and back, omitting the loop which had originally been proposed, which did mean it was a fairly rapid race with the three faster boats only taking about 40 minutes to complete the course.

The second start were not far behind though, and many correctly predicted that Lucky Breeze had won the Harriet of Reedham Trophy, which she did by over 4 minutes on corrected time. Doubtless being the only yacht that didn’t need to reef helped.

After a bit of rest and relaxation, about 30 members enjoyed a meal in the pub before retiring to gird their loins for the following day. As forecast, it rained very heavily in the early morning, but dried up for the briefing, at which the Commodore assured everyone the weather would get better later...

So, the morning race set off, with the same seven yachts as Saturday, still all with reefs in, although some had fewer than before and (perhaps) lived to regret it. It hailed. There was thunder and lightning. And it rained. Hard. But on the plus side, it only took about an hour to sail to Beauchamp and no-one went exploring the reedbeds. Freedom did find the shallow bay just below Hassingham, but impressively managed to extricate themselves without assistance.

Lucky Breeze won again, but only by two and a half minutes this time.

After attempts to dry out in the pub and the consumption of chips by some, it was off back to Reedham for the third and last race of the series. It was noted that some who had shaken out reefs put them back in! This race was against the tide, but it is doubtful that anyone noticed, with the trip back barely taking longer than the one upriver on the tide in the morning.

Lucky Breeze failed to make it a hat trick, managing only a third place – perhaps unsurprisingly as the wind dropped out a little, giving the advantage back to the bigger boats with more sail area. Henrietta won, sneaking up from behind to take second overall in the regatta with her first and third, just pipping May who had two second places. David Walker, of course, took the Open Trophy with his two firsts.

The sunshine finally appeared for the prizegiving (the weather getting better, as promised!) and the new style Raffola. This seemed to work well and will be repeated (with a small refinement) at the next regatta.

Results on the Results tab above