Once again the River Crouch was blessed with the wonderful sight of gaffers sailing past Burnham on their way to Fambridge, for the annual Crouch Rally. The weather forecaster’s predictions of north easterly gales for the end of the weekend naturally put a lot of people off, but boats began to arrive Friday. Julie & Keith aboard Maryll arrived Friday afternoon, mooring on the end of the Royal Burnham pontoon, then early evening the beautiful Charm sailed past non-stop to Fambridge.
 Saturday dawned bright and sunny with a good breeze so we loaded wine and other bits and pieces on Aussie II for the rally, set the jib and, in company with Mick King aboard Ella Rose, it was a leisurely sail up the river; at Cliff Reach the bottle came out and a toast was drunk to Fred. And so on to Fambridge, where Don and Pauline Garman had local boat Mary Ritchie tied up to the pontoon. As the afternoon progressed, so more boats appeared; Transcur, Plum, Deirdre, William, and what a sight they made with a good N/Easterly breeze and a fair tide under them. So we had nine Gaffers and Ian with his very comfortable Spray design Breeze, complete with ships cat. After the usual chit chat on different boats and a few glasses of sloe gin, courtesy of the good ship Maryll, it was up to the North Fambridge Yacht Club for our fish and chips, which Don and Pauline very kindly drove to Woodham to pick up. Music was provided by Persephone coming all the way from West Mersea just to entertain us. (When I saw David coming in with black cases I thought they were staying the night but it turned out to be speakers, music stands etc. all very professional). George and Brenda Jago joined us, even though Brenda is on crutches following a knee operation. Always good to see them at the event they started 23 years ago. Sunday dawned cloudy and damp but after breakfast, superbly cooked for us all by Pauline & Jodi, things started to improve. The race was down river to Fairway 15, back to Cliff Buoy, down to 15 again and then home, with a start time of 1300hrs. As the morning progressed so the wind started to fade away and what with a flood tide, it was decided to move the start line beyond the moorings with Ian’s Breeze very kindly acting as committee boat. Don with Mary Ritchie made a good start closely followed by Charm, but with good sailing and local knowledge managed to hold the lead to the finish followed by Charm, Transcur, Plum, Maryll, William, Deirdre and Ella Rose. The evening was a barbecue with bring your own food, which is all very well if you don’t leave it in the fridge at home (yours truly did). Puds were supplied as usual by Pauline and music by skipper and crew from Ella Rose. All too soon goodnights were being said, guitars being put away then the barrel beer ran out; at least there was some wine left. The weekend came to a close but, oh dear, Monday dawned with a force 8N/Easterly, the river looking like the Wallet on a bad day and people lending fenders to boats that looked as if they were fed up with the water and wanted to sit on the pontoon. Then there was an almighty crack and the bowsprit on William got caught under the pontoon and snapped in half. All this at 5.30 in the morning. Even the boats from Burnham didn’t venture down river, but like the visitors from further afield, decided to delay departure for a day or so.  I do hope all those who took part enjoyed the weekend even with the inconvenience of leaving boats and arranging lifts etc., but without the following folk none of this would have happened like it did so - A Big Thank You to; Fambridge Yacht Haven for their continued support and free berthing on their pontoon. Don’t forget they offer a range of services and have a very good shipwright used to working on traditional boats TEL NO: 01621 740370 Don Garman for organising the barrel of beer although I did hear that Pauline had to go and pick it up. (Good for the muscles). Pauline and Jodi for providing breakfasts. Fantastic! Flag offices and members of North Fambridge Yacht Club for allowing us the use of their Clubhouse also their race officer for starting and finishing our race. Ian for acting as committee boat. Lastly, I know I keep saying this, but it doesn’t matter how much organising is done, without you the participants nothing would have happened. Thank You. Trevor Rawlinson |