Royal Southern Yacht Club Crew Ball

If there's one way to brighten up the cold March days in the UK, when racing on the Solent requires more woolly underwear than a trip round Cape Horn and sunglasses are but a distant memory, it's a really good crew party. Located at the centre of the Solent yachting scene - considered one of the world centres for yacht racing - the Royal Southern Yacht Club thought so too, as Sailing Secretary Katie Ashworth put her mind to organizing a crew ball to welcome the coming season...

Many crew, both young and young-at-heart, agreed with her it seems, with all 300 tickets sold; the guests swapping thermals for ball gowns and black tie, and hot chocolate for a taste of the tropics with Pusser's helping to get the party going at the Royal Southern's superb club building overlooking the River Hamble.

While the original idea for the Southern Crew Ball (which, inevitably, has become known as the Screwball) came to Katie in November last year, Pusser's came on board relatively late in the day - "I received confirmation from Charles Tobias as I was shopping in London a month before the ball," says Katie. "As I browsed through the rails of 'black tie' dresses in Selfridges I chatted to Charles as he explained the intricacies of mixing Painkillers and the importance of sprinkling fresh nutmeg on the top of each one before serving..."

When the night of Saturday 6 March finally arrived, the Club was dressed overall with spinnakers hanging from the ceilings and Splice the Mainbrace flags hanging from the walls. The Ladies Committee had arranged the flowers, and the flowers were arranged on the tables. Painkillers and Grog greeted the guests with a Happy Hour at the start of the evening, dinner and dancing to a live band and disco greeted the guests for the rest of the evening, and no doubt a few Paracetamol greeted many the morning after - but then, you only get out of these things what you put in...

To see more of the action, visit the Royal Southern's website at www.royal-southern.co.uk