Bourne End Challenge Cup (singlehanded)
1st Jonathan Bickford (3616 Top Dolly UTSC)
2nd Dave Chisholm (888 Desperado Waldringfield SC)
3rd Richard Bickford (3620 Mountfinch IV UTSC)
Measurer’s Cup
1st Tom Hebbert and Jo Bailey (3607 Pimms O’Clock Royal Thames)
2nd Lucy Boreham and Rachel Crebbin (3739 Willow Dell Quay)
3rd Barney Smith and Alannah Witherby (3023 Forewood Thinking Hamble SC)
Upper Thames Firefly Challenge
1st Mark Tait and Sally Wakefield (498 Dido Burfield SC)
2nd Tom Hebbert and Jo Bailey (3607 Pimms O’Clock Royal Thames)
3rd Will Mason and Amy Morris (2282 Border Reiver)
4th Tony Thresher and Mike Radford (3895 Inauda West Oxfordshire SC)
Dark and Stormies, a cocktail of dark rum and ginger beer, may be the national drink of Bermuda, but the spirit of the Caribbean was a little closer to home this weekend and took on a new twist at the Firefly open meeting at Upper Thames Sailing Club.
After sailing on Saturday, the evening kicked off with Pimms on the riverside watching the late summer sun go down and moved on to Dark and Stormies after supper.
The Firefly sailors were not to be deterred when Upper Thames’ stock of dark rum ran dry. When Firefly class captain Johnny Bickford delved into the bar stocks and returned with white rum, which he mixed with ginger beer, the Light and Shifty was created to much jubilation.
Perhaps the sunshine the fleet had enjoyed sailing on Saturday had helped inspire the sailors.
“It all got a bit Caribbean-tastic,” said one who supped on the new Firefly sailor’s drink of choice.
There was some evidence of sore heads the next day. But the headaches weren’t just due to the festivities of the night before.
It was typical day’s sailing at Upper Thames with light and shifty conditions all the way.
“It felt like a double whammy,” quipped a second sailor.