As the clock struck 12pm Thunderbird 1 blasted off and Stingray slipped her moorings; destination Rutland. Both were on a secret mission. Stingray to bring back some silverware, Thunderbird 1 to eat and drink as much as possible. They were set to rendezvous with the Pornstar aka John Ready with his mobile nightclub, the Lord of Paradise Island aka Mark Mawditt and our agents on the ground at Rutland, Paul Cundy and Pete Burrows.

After a smooth flight Thunderbird 1 arrived in the boat park to find Stingray already rigged and standing by for action.  After a lot of banter and boat tweaking our intrepid teams retired to freshen up for the evenings festivities. Team Stingray going to the luxury of a bed and breakfast which had an East and West wing and hot and cold running marmalade. Andy and Paul retired to put together a tent immediately spotting a flaw in their plan.

The evening was spent at the Wheatsheaf mostly drinking, eating and chatting about the great sailing that lay ahead. A few of us then retired to John’s trailer to check out his projection system in the trees!

After a hearty breakfast at the sailing club, further boat tweaking and fine tuning we all took to the water with medium winds forecast. Mark Mawditt proved that despite an off games note earlier in the season due to an injured hand he still has what it takes by winning the first race. The honours then went to the Pornstar who showed us all how to do it. This was closely followed by Team Stingray, The Lord of Paradise Island, Thunderbird 1 and the Rutland team.

The last night was spent in the clubhouse after a fantastic hog roast and a thought provoking nautical quiz. I always under the impression that the characters in Pugwash were Seaman Stains, Master Bates and Roger the Cabin Boy but apparently I must have spent a misguided childhood!

Sunday bought stronger winds and the day promised to bring some champagne sailing! The Pornstar again was the man to beat and was hotly pursued by the rest. Thunderbird 1 suffered a string of setbacks. The first resulted in a close inspection of the underside of the boat due to user error and the second resulted in the starboard rudder arm snapping! Oops!

Rutland was a great event with lots of twin wiring on day two to put a big smile on everyone’s face. The club was very welcoming and laid on a fantastic hog roast on Saturday evening! Congratulations to John Ready for first place in the Hurricane fleet and coming fourth overall. A big thanks to all involved and we are all looking forward to next year!

Many thanks to Typhoon for sponsoring the event and prizes of boots and gloves went to John Ready,  Jamie Bolingbroke,  Mark Mawditt and Andrew Dobbs respectively

Rutland

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