The Hamble has some 3500 boat moorings added to which the river is busy with Saturday morning boaters coming and going so it’s a challenging course.
The theme for this year’s regatta was Venetian Carnival and the Elephant Boatyard had been transformed into a scene from the Grand Canal.
Complete with Bridge of Sighs on the main pontoon.
As usual the afternoon water festival was complete with a dinghy parade; this former mirror dingy had been transformed into a stylish Riva Sports boat.
Clearly the only way for Venetian Carnival party guests to make a spectacular entrance would be to arrive by gondola, although perhaps one of the masked lady guests went slightly too far with the false beard!
Inevitably with the competitive nature of such events, some spontaneous water fights broke out during the dinghy parade and ended with the sinking of the well over laden boat, “The Venetian Blind”.
A favourite of the afternoon rowing and fun races is the dinghy egg and spoon race here one of the competitors concentrates on balancing her egg and spoon while standing in an inflatable which is rowed around the course, surely the most challenging race of the day.
Our thanks as always go to the Regatta Committee, the Elephant Boatyard and all those individuals and companies who support the regatta.
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Looks great fun - and a *lot* of work by someone (e.g that bridge of sighs)
ReplyDeleteThat Venetian blind sail idea looks as though it could actually work. Perfect control of the power by just opening and closing the slats, and easy to furl with a tug on the line.
ReplyDeleteThe whole regatta looks a lot of fun - and well produced.
By the way, that's a replica of the Rialto Bridge. The Bridge of Sighs is something different.