What a weekend...

Gosh, where to start? It’s been a great weekend, but tiring, with late nights in good company.

Wet weather meant that we postponed erecting the gazebos and putting up the bunting until Friday, but with many hands available, things then went up with a swing. In the evening, we had the international potluck meal – everyone brought a dish and some form of accompaniment, and we had a mix of sweet and sour, Thai green curry, pasta, chicken and cardamom curry and salads and rice, naan breads and baked potatoes.

Next morning, we staggered up in good time. We had a bit of an emergency with sanity Again’s toilet, but a frantic 90 minutes work by Peter and myself saw it sorted out just as the first people arrived for the Open Day.

As always, that passed in a bit of a blur, with loads of people to show through the boat, loads of compliments, and the chance for brief meetings with old friends like Tim Tyler and Luisa Bryceland.

Lizzie Birks was kept busy running her canteen, maintaining a steady supply of teas and coffees, sandwiches for lunch, and an amazing range of cakes and flapjack. Although the event officially finished at four, we didn’t see the last of the visitors away until five. Peter was able to announce that he’d taken deposit cheques for two build slots, and was hopeful of a third. This means that he has only maybe one slot left for 2011, and is now taking bookings for 2012, so if you are thinking of having a Braidbar boat built sometime in the next couple of years, don’t delay!

The evening saw a continuation of the fun, with a mega barbecue, and then the quiz once everyone was pleasantly relaxed. I think that this went better than ever this year, with a nail biting final only decided by the outcome of the anagrams round.

We had a late start on Sunday, the weather having finally broken altogether. People congregated in the bungalow for coffees and reminiscences, and to view a video made of the goings on the day before.

At half eleven, some of us went down to the Anson Engine Museum, where we had a guided tour of the new layout, which is a great improvement on the old one. The whole thing now tells the story of heat engines from steam through to the latest W12 Bentley engine as fitted to the Continental, and we saw several of the beasts in operation. Meantime, the scale model of the area round Poynton in 1900 is virtually finished, and looks just amazing.

After a lunch based on the remains of the food, we took down the bunting and banners, and removed the sides from the gazebos; it looks like they’ll have to be dried off indoors, as we are still being rained on as I write this.

This morning has seen an energetic attack by the boatyard staff on our snagging list. In a bit, I’ll do a review post on the Building Sanity Again blog, describing the snagging we’ve had done and giving our thoughts about Sanity Again after six months living on her.