The summer evening race programme is almost upon us, the river has been incredibly low for the time of year, yet as soon as the environmental drought was declared, East Devon incurred a deluge and the river was once more in spate. Hopefully these un-seasonal fluctuations will settle down once we start this season’s river racing.
The River Race Dinner slipped further to starboard than is normally acceptable, there was almost a danger of it clashing with Easter, however all went well in the end.
Well almost, there were a few un-programmed events that added to the evening in ways not normally appreciated. Suffice to say that fresh air has a wonderful recuperative effect and that calls for a prize for best distraction at next years dinner will be considered in due course. There has also been a suggestion of a prize for the best excuse in not attending the dinner – an outright winner this year would have been awarded to the individual conducting a HSE audit on the shores of the Caspian the following morning!
Moving on, besides the racing programme, Fowey Classics is once again in the line up for ‘foreign’ events and hopefully an excursion eastwards to the Solent area will be slotted in somewhere, maybe to coincide with another class of seven boats – the Js ?
Finally Classic Boat’s Vanessa Bird is about to launch her new book entitled Classic Classes, amongst the famous she has found room to feature the AODs in what looks to be a very promising publication – no doubt there will be a few orders forthcoming from this corner of Devon.
Next year sees an event worthy of celebration in the AOD calendar, fortunately it avoids clashing with other such jubilees this year. For in 2013 the AODs will be able to celebrate 60 years of existence. In 1953 Whimbrel, the first AOD was launched, it is felt that this event should be marked in some way or other – perhaps a Diamond Jubilee Regatta – or even the world championships; watch this page!