Imperial Poona Yacht Club virtual Tiffin

Some of the Tiffin participants © Jeremy Atkins

Now 1st April has passed it is worth recording that on that day the Imperial Poona Yacht Club held what was possibly the first virtual annual dinner of any yacht club. While many less imperious sailing and yacht clubs have been forced to adopt virtual committee meetings in these troubled times, Poona went one step further to hold its All Fools' Tiffin with the assistance of Zoom.

Twenty-two sahibs from six countries and four continents attended, serving their own curries and beverages while regaling each other of tales on and off the water. During the party a cannon was fired a number of times on the shores of Oyster Bay, New York, while DJ Mark Covell provided the music from Hampshire. The earliest riser was Paddy Oliver from the club's Southern Hemisphere Imperial Thinkers who joined for an early curry breakfast in Melbourne and the last to bed was solo circumnavigator Dilip Donde who joined the dinner at 12 midnight Goan time and left at 2am.

As veteran yachting journalist John Chamier wrote in The Field in 1979: "The yachting world is divided into three factions: those who believe the Imperial Poona Yacht Club exists, those who may be termed the 'come-on-pull-the-other one' lot, and my wife".

It is therefore a great joy to be able to announce that on 1st April 2020 the Club's 75th anniversary history, 75 Years of Balls (ISBN 9780950917955), was published in its second edition and is available worldwide in both print and eBook form from all major book sellers.