Dressing for Dinner

dancrane

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There's a gap in the market for Musto's - cummerbunds with a built in helicopter rescue hook. :)

Can it be adapted for trapezing? I've often thought the wetsuit is letting standards drop, rather.
If I still fit in the evening trousers I bought in 1994 to go with Grandfather's mohair dinner-jacket, I shall look...very singular, standing on the gunwale.
 

Seven Spades

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One yacht club to this day says that Gentlemen must wear a jacket in the resturant and in evening cravats are not a not acceptable.

Personally I love dressing up and we have had several black tie and long dress New Years eves at home. Never on the boat though but now you have me thinking....
 

Frogmogman

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This thread has stirred a memory in me.

I went up to Burnham on Crouch to do Burnham week in, I guess, 1985. It was in the aftermath of Peter de Savary's America's cup challenge, and the Royal Burnham still had the dial set to maximum pomposity. They even had some bloke blowing a bugle when they pulled the flag down in the evening.

We were denied entry even into the lobby of the club one evening to view the results of that day's racing as we weren't wearing jackets. Shirts and ties, yes; jackets no. It didn't end well; two of our crew used their mountaineering skills to find their own way into the clubhouse. They were local lads from West Mersea as it happens, who were both then banned from the Royal Burnham for life.
 

[159032]

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One yacht club to this day says that Gentlemen must wear a jacket in the resturant and in evening cravats are not a not acceptable.

Personally I love dressing up and we have had several black tie and long dress New Years eves at home. Never on the boat though but now you have me thinking....

It is the 21st century, not the 20th.
 

Bajansailor

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Shirts and ties, yes; jackets no. It didn't end well; two of our crew used their mountaineering skills to find their own way into the clubhouse. They were local lads from West Mersea as it happens, who were both then banned from the Royal Burnham for life.

What heroes! That is definitely worthy of inclusion in a CV under 'personal accomplishments' :)
 

Laminar Flow

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I do think there has been a great and terrible decline in nautical dress code.

Many years ago and in another life, I worked in the fashion industry; you would never know that from the way I dress today. In due course my employer sent me and my assistant to Hamburg to supervise a fashion shoot. To even pretend any competency in this line of work, you have to at least dress the part.
On our way back to our hotel that afternoon, we stopped at the Alster lake where we had a drink on the outdoor deck of a cafe and watched the sailing dinghies scuttle back and forth in the fresh breeze. As it turned out my companion had never been on a boat, never mind a sailing boat.
A beer or so later, we walked over to the boat rental booth. The guy raised an eyebrow when he took in our business outfits, leaned out of his window to inspect our fancy dress shoes and slacks. Then he grinned and pointed down the dock "Number fifteen, the blue one." In exchange we handed him our briefcases. The people in the adjoining cafe looked at us curiously as we walked down the dock. The boats where tied nose up to the ponton and into the wind with their jibs up, flapping, like a flock of geese. The blue one was a 4.85, basic setup, with hiking straps and rather a lot of canvas for the gusty conditions.
"Follow my lead", I told my companion. "Step in the middle, sit in the middle, until we're under way. This is your line," I said, pointing out the jib sheets, you let it go and pull it in when I say."
We made it safely onboard and soon's we had the main up, the thing shot off like a scalded cat. The Alster is only a couple of hundred meters wide and we joined the other boats racing back and forth. The heavy fall gusts had us hiking out all the way; my jib sheet attendant's fluttering dress tie making a fine a wind vane. The wetsuited crews on the other boats did some amused double takes, pointed and waved. When our rental time was up, we managed a reasonably creditable shot up into our berth under sail and under the scrutiny of the entire dockside cafe and our rental man leaning out of his window. Casually as could be, we stepped off onto the dock as if we dressed for this sort of thing every Tuesday afternoon, smoothed our fancy jackets down over our only slightly soggy tails, straightened our windblown ties and collected our briefcases from the rental booth.
"I was near sure, I'd be fishing you two out of the Alster when you first showed up", he confessed, just slightly disappointed.
Best photo shoot ever.
 

johnalison

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I do think there has been a great and terrible decline in nautical dress code.

Many years ago and in another life, I worked in the fashion industry; you would never know that from the way I dress today. In due course my employer sent me and my assistant to Hamburg to supervise a fashion shoot. To even pretend any competency in this line of work, you have to at least dress the part.
On our way back to our hotel that afternoon, we stopped at the Alster lake where we had a drink on the outdoor deck of a cafe and watched the sailing dinghies scuttle back and forth in the fresh breeze. As it turned out my companion had never been on a boat, never mind a sailing boat.
A beer or so later, we walked over to the boat rental booth. The guy raised an eyebrow when he took in our business outfits, leaned out of his window to inspect our fancy dress shoes and slacks. Then he grinned and pointed down the dock "Number fifteen, the blue one." In exchange we handed him our briefcases. The people in the adjoining cafe looked at us curiously as we walked down the dock. The boats where tied nose up to the ponton and into the wind with their jibs up, flapping, like a flock of geese. The blue one was a 4.85, basic setup, with hiking straps and rather a lot of canvas for the gusty conditions.
"Follow my lead", I told my companion. "Step in the middle, sit in the middle, until we're under way. This is your line," I said, pointing out the jib sheets, you let it go and pull it in when I say."
We made it safely onboard and soon's we had the main up, the thing shot off like a scalded cat. The Alster is only a couple of hundred meters wide and we joined the other boats racing back and forth. The heavy fall gusts had us hiking out all the way; my jib sheet attendant's fluttering dress tie making a fine a wind vane. The wetsuited crews on the other boats did some amused double takes, pointed and waved. When our rental time was up, we managed a reasonably creditable shot up into our berth under sail and under the scrutiny of the entire dockside cafe and our rental man leaning out of his window. Casually as could be, we stepped off onto the dock as if we dressed for this sort of thing every Tuesday afternoon, smoothed our fancy jackets down over our only slightly soggy tails, straightened our windblown ties and collected our briefcases from the rental booth.
"I was near sure, I'd be fishing you two out of the Alster when you first showed up", he confessed, just slightly disappointed.
Best photo shoot ever.
I wish I had seen you. The fashion industry and active types are not always mutually exclusive. Somewhere on my shelves there is probably my copy of "Something Wholesale" by Eric Newby, he of the Last Grain Race. It is a hilarious account of his not very successful time working in the family business after the War.
 
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