Princess Anne Spotted!

Princess Anne Spotting!

Can you find HRH in the photo above?

There we were, just lounging on the RYA benches in the lecture space at the London Boat Show, soaking up all the wisdom on diesel engine maintenance when… the lecturer’s eyes bugged out, his voice went hoarse, his words trailed off dry as dust…

Why? 

Because Princess Anne, that well-known sailing aficianado, was strolling past our booth, hotly pursued and surrounded by her security scrum.

Instantly I required the Can Opener to stand guard over my lounging spot so that none of the wily diesel hangers-on would nab my place (and to take over photography duties).

Then I sprang into action (cue Mission Impossible music) and began scaling the canopy over the RYA lecture area. With absolute precision I lined up my quarry, then sprang-pounced from the canopy corner, and swan-dived directly into Princess Anne’s paper Primark shopping bags… 

(CO: You did not! Largely because I knew exactly what might whiz through your demented brain and instantly pinned you in a half-Neilson between my knees…

CC: O yeah? Explain the ‘Mission Impossible’ music then!

CO: …That, I cannot explain…)  

 

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Gulliver G

At the Boat Show again… 

We returned to the Boat Show yesterday for another round of joy and jubilant perusing and learning…

And what did we find in the marina but… Clare Francis‘ boat that she sailed across the Atlantic in the 1973 Observer Royal Western Single-handed Transatlantic Yacht Race!!

Could we contain our excitement? No, we could not!

It’s a Nicholson 32, still in great shape and with some new improvements added (we are sure the solar panels on the deck were not there when Clare was on her 1973 voyage!). 

We can’t believe how small it seems. And we love it. 

We puttered straight over to the Nicholson 32 Owners’ Assocation at the Show and loaded up on more information there. They sure were a nice bunch. 

The Nic 32 shoots straight to the top of our ‘favourite yacht designs to consider’ list!

–Captain Cat 

 (transcribed by the Can Opener)

Après-Boat Show Cocktail Party

We went to an ‘Après-Boat Show’ cocktail party at the Red Tabby Yacht Club last night!

Why do they hold this each year? Because it seems like a fine idea. And it is. 

There’s not much better than wallowing in all things marine till you’re so tired yer gonna drop… and then popping over to the boat club the next day to celebrate the start of a new sailing season with like-minded folk.

Pussy Galore was there, surrounded by every unattached cat in the place. What they see in her, I’ll never know. Naturally, I ignored her. 

Then I discreetly organised an on-the-spot bawdy song chorus in the bar with the remaining late evening stragglers. My good buddy, the retired rock-ocracy scion who goes by the moniker ‘Prince (and some name beginning with an A)’, made a fine and able assistant. We both agreed the ‘stop-that-screeching’ comments from the lobby were entirely unnecessary.

If that doesn’t get her attention, nothing will. Not that I wanted to, you understand.

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

The Red Tabby Yacht Club
Next: Wine For Sail!

Previously: Christmas Lunch at the Red Tabby