With the prospect of reasonable weather for this year's competition weekend, members' boats started to arrive at the club's site at Whiteley Green on Friday 29th April 2005. A small marquee was erected to protect members from the nightly chill that often occurs at this time of the year and also to provide a seating area for the entertainment over the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon we were treated to one of Bert's guided walks and the evening's entertainment was provided by John Suggitt on saxophone accompanied by a colleague on keyboard.

Unfortunately, the weather turned nasty on Saturday night with strong winds and rain which eventually led to the partial destruction of our marquee as shown in the slide below.

This event is termed Competition Weekend precisely because that is what it entails , a competition in which members are free to participate. The competition started with a quiz on Sunday morning followed by boat handling events in the afternoon.

The afternoon events consisted of turning the boat in the winding hole whilst one person from the  boat retrieves a life-belt from the water which then must be thrown, as accurately as possible, towards a mooring pin positioned on the bank. Boats must then moor-up at a designated position with marks awarded for accuracy and technique. The final part of the competition entails steering the boat through a gauge suspended from the bridge at Whiteley Green and the aim is to get through the bridge without touching the gauge - not as easy as it sounds.

Accumulative marks from the morning's quiz together with marks from the boat handling events determined the winners and on Sunday evening everybody took part in a general knowledge quiz.