It was about this time of year when George Best, being interviewed by Michael Parkinson, regaled us with an hilarious anecdote concerning the eating of multiple Christmas dinners as a result of too many girlfriends all at once! This yuletide, I ate more than one Christmas dinner (two sons, not too many girlfriends!) which means that this slender report will be the only slim quality about me!

Which of our sailors has enjoyed success to excess in this festive season? Given that we’ve only had three races in the Wednesday and Saturday series combined, together with a single trophy race, you’d be forgiven for thinking that that there wasn’t much opportunity to shine. Two wins out of four isn’t a bad effort though; well done to Richard Whitworth and his happy band of brothers!

December sees the end of the autumn series. The prize for winning the Saturday one goes to Richard Whitworth and whichever one of Jack, Ben, or Eddie did the lion’s share of crewing. 4 race wins out of seven races sailed is pretty dominant. Pete and Jo gave them all a good run for their money finishing just two points behind. The final podium place went to Roberta and John: a good enough reward for giving up your hockey game Roberta?

The Wednesday series belonged to Pete and Jo winning four out of the nine races sailed. The other five races were won by five different crews. They were: Richard W et.al., Geof et.al., Ian and Mike, Graham S and Ben and the winner of the last race of the series, Phil and Martin who sneaked past Crispin and Steve at the death! In second place were Roberta and John. Although they didn’t win a race their average score for the series is 2.8. That explains why I keep seeing them at the front end of the fleet!

Although the wind has been a bit unkind to us this month, we couldn’t really complain about the temperature. It’s felt more like spring when the sun has made an appearance, but sadly that hasn’t been too often. This all changed for the ‘Last Blast’ race which you will have gathered by reading Andrew’s informative and entertaining report. The wind played ball, the sun came out, but it was very unspring like! Congratulations to everyone who braved the wind chill, including the race team – this time made up from Fi’s family. For the record, the winners were Richard and Jack.

Circumstances (a crowded club house) prevented us from awarding the Sailors of the month’s beers for December. In a spirit of generosity, we decided to proceed with Saturday’s award even though we only sailed one race. The winners of this were Geof Gibbons and Pete Traves, some reward Pete for grabbling with the complexities of Geof’s boat in pretty spicy conditions. Wednesday’s award goes to someone who helms as often as crew availability allows. This time it was with Paul Tasker, and the winner is, of course, Mike Clapp.

With fewer races than normal, the task of picking the reporter of the month meant less reading but the quality of writing remained high making the decision of whose was best just as difficult as in previous months. I know this is a task that some find harder than others, which is why it’s so encouraging to see how crafted many of the reports are. This month’s winner is particularly praiseworthy, but she will generously claim that she’s had a lot of help. The winner of December’s reporter of the month is Roberta Hartley.

It's a shame that we haven’t been able to give out these awards in person, but luckily, there is a very good opportunity so to do on the near horizon: the annual dinner and prize giving: Saturday February 7^th!

Disappointingly, there is no call for presenting the Rasputin Cup this month!

Well, that’s it from me. If you wanted to win a race in 2025, you’ve missed your chance, but Easter’s not that far away. Enjoy your prep. for the 2026 season, and I’ll see you at the dinner!