Norfolk Punt Club Autumn Newsletter 2012

‘Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit’ Brooks Atkinson, Author

We have a club with a view over beautiful Barton Broad, a place to see the racing and meet our friends. October 2012 who needs land? The Season’s end.. ‘the season’

 THE SEASONS END..

 ANNUAL DINNER

 WINTER BERTHS

 BARTON REGATTA

 OLYMPIC SAILING The sailing season at the Punt Club has come to an end once more. Boats  AGM are taken home and lovingly wrapped up for the winter, gear stored ready for the following year, and so it is with the pontoons. Soon we will tow these in  LAYING UP SUPPER to be sheltered from the worst of the winter storms in BTAC moorings.  ATHENE CUP However this is not the end of our club events, things we can look forward to  PUNT CHAMPS over the winter include the AGM, Laying Up Supper, radio controlled sailing and the Annual Dinner in January.  RC LASER SAILING

Looking ahead to 2013, there will be all the usual events and opens, how-  TOWING IN ever in addition to this we also have the Royal Thames Team Racing day.  WORKING PARTIES The flags will be looking for 6 White boats for this event, and a strong club team to challenge the RTYC for the trophy they currently hold.  ...AND FINALLY

Annual Dinner — January 12, 2013 Winter Berths

A date not to be missed, we will be running our Annual Dinner and If you would like to keep Prize Giving at the Stower Grange Hotel in Drayton again. your boat on the bank at the club moorings over This is normally a well attended event and numbers are limited so get the winter, this is now your applications in early, preferably before Christmas. possible. It will cost 1/2 the summer mooring As well as a tasty menu, an enjoyable evening price. and excellent company, we have a new after Please contact dinner speaker and the 2012 season trophies Sawyer on berthmas- will be awarded. [email protected]

Look out for your invitation in the post soon!

I look forward to seeing you there.

Barton Regatta 2012

August saw the Barton Regatta weekend provide good racing, great enjoyment and excellent teas for yet another year. The weather mostly smiled, the competitors certainly did, and even the box were noted to be enjoying themselves! Once again this event ran smoothly because of the efforts of the duty teams; the rescue crews, starting and finish teams, entries and results, the crew and the OOD. I’m sure that the duty team would also like to pass on their appreciation to Keith and Pauline for cooking bacon butties each morning, a lovely start to each day! My thanks go out to all those who gave up their time to help out in any way.

Olympic Sailing

Back in August, a few of us were lucky enough to be able to go and see this years other sailing event down in Weymouth (I think there were some other sports happening around London too..) The atmosphere there was fantastic, the crowds were cheerful, the sun was out and the wind, well that didn’t appear ‘til the next day! However on day 2 we saw both 470 crews achieve their silver medals. Congratulations to the whole team.

Final Team GB sailing results: Ben Ainslie Gold Mens 470 Luke Patience & Stuart Bithell Silver Silver Womens 470 Hannah Mills & Saskia Clark Silver Star: Iain Percy & Andrew Simpson Silver Mens RS-X Nick Dempsey Silver Women RS-X Bryony Shaw 7th Laser Paul Goodison 7th Alison Young 5th Stevie Morrison & Ben Rhodes 5th Elliot 6m Lucy & Kate Macgregor & Annie Lush -

AGM & Laying Up Supper

We are having our AGM at Neatishead Village Hall on the 24 November. This is open to all members and is your opportunity to stand for committee, vote on club issues and have your say in how the club will run next year. To encourage more of you to attend, we are offering food afterwards!!

In previous years we have enjoyed a simple but much welcomed supper after the AGM. This year we are going to turn this into a Laying Up Supper similar to our Fitting Out Supper in March. There will be a kitchen team offering a main course, and a number of salads, pastas and desserts provided by some of those attending the supper. In March, 80+ people had a lovely evening and we hope to repeat this next month. Please reply using the attached form.

Athene Cup Punt Championships

The Athene Cup was run by the Punt Club There were a mix of traditional and this year, and many thanks to Tom Moore modern punts for the 2012 Champi- for running the event. It ran from Thurne onships. Saturday was a light and Mouth, and despite the Bure buoy being fluky wind from the SW, while Sun- helpfully moved, the competitors had a day was a fresher wind from the good race. NE. While results did vary through There were boats from Barton and Hick- the racing, the Championship Tro- ling, the Blackbird Trophy going to Pere- phy went once again to James grine and the Athene Cup to . Jarvey in Harnser, with Robin Sla- ter in Cavender 2nd and Will Radio Controlled Laser Sailing Daniels in Swallow 3rd. During the winter, to maintain our sailing skills, there will also be RC laser sailing at Barton Turf. Run by Val Khambatta, the sessions are 10-12am on these dates 10/10, 08/12, 05/01, 09/02 & 09/03

Towing In & Working Parties

If you are free on the morning of 27th October and feel like doing something different, help out with Tow In. If you have never been involved in this, please come along. It is quite a unique experience to stand on the pontoons as they are towed across the broad and fitted like a huge jigsaw into the BTAC moorings. And Finally.....up coming Please let Neville Khambatta know by email if you can events help [email protected]

27 October Towing in 24 November AGM/Laying Up Supper 12 January Annual Dinner

This is my last newsletter, and it has been an honour and a pleasure to head up the Punt Club this year. I am hugely grateful for the support given by During the winter months regular working parties take members, the committee and the flag officers, place to repair and improve the pontoons and moorings. thank you. If you enjoy working with a team of people with a big paint brush or hammer, mower or tree lopper, come and Hope to see many you at the AGM and the join us. There is usually tea and cake at some point too, Annual dinner. this is the Punt Club after all! Mark Elson—NPC Commodore 2012