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April Fools Day Regatta

Published 09:07 on 2 Apr 2024

Race Officer, James Stevenson, had a cunning plan for those that dared attend the April Fools Day Regatta at Coombe Cellars. The briefing was challenging enough without the sailing thrown in. Several marks around the River Teign were labelled with letters. James explained that each letter scored points between 1 and 5 with the aim of accumulating as many points as possible. BUT to score points you first had to work out a one-word answer to 10 questions. THEN once the race started you had to round each of the lettered marks to sail your words. Two beady eyed spotters kept tally of who was sailing around each mark and check they sailed the correct word. Got all that? No? Well we did forewarn everyone that it might fry the brain!

Marks of the course showing the letters and points scored for each word containing said letter

The scrabble style questions

Just five potential fools ventured out, 2 Solo sailors and 3 K1s. As the time counted down to the start all bar one were on the water. Grant had a halyard failure and couldn't raise the mainsail. Maybe he didn't want to be crowned April Fool That left 4 sailors scattering around the river marks as they unscrambled their word answers. Sailing varied between a complete flat calm to 20knot gusts when howling rainstorms (brainstorms?) came through. Some, like Louise, sailed off down the river looking for unnamed marks. Others retired after frying their brain too much, Paul. So at the end just two boats (sailed by Andrew Commander and Ray Potter) had spelt out and sailed four of the nine potential word answers correctly and it was up to Race Officer, James, to tot up the points for the overall winner. After much deliberation James decided that Rays misspelt word made him the 2024 April Fool. Many congratulations Ray. Wear your April Fools jester crown with pride - its yours for the next 4 years as it will not be until 2028 we are next able to hold an April Fools Regatta on a sailing day.

Our 2024 April Fool Ray Potter

James Stevenson presents Ray Potter with his April Fool crown

Thanks James - a really creative sailing event that all enjoyed. Maybe we need to keep quite about your cunning plans in future so that more members come along to enjoy the fun!

Photo Credits: Heather Davies, Garnett Showell, Mike Commander

All sailing and prize-giving photos available at Flickr by clicking here