City boys' lairy week

The lads go on holiday at Cowes Week

A core crew of professional business boys from London have come to Cowes Week for the last five years for a mammoth lads get together.

Each year they pick up a Sigma 38 for the week that then becomes their charge for the waters and their lair for the ladies. Also known as the Fat Gits - Eddie, Nick, James, Hugo and Chris would like to remain fairly anonymous for reasons to be revealed.

Flying Formula was this year's chosen vessel and the crew picked her up in Ocean Village, Southampton. During the delivery over to Cowes the pacts and rules of the week were discussed and forged over a Mount Gay rum christening for the coming seven days.

Each member of the party are only allowed two pairs of underpants, one pair of shorts, a tooth brush, crew shirt to be obtained and a boiler suit? Eating is cheating. No bed before breakfast. Girlfriends can only stay one night and participate in one sail. But ultimately it must always be mates before dates. And lastly a compulsory daily find for the day's racing has to be a random single female referred to as 'deck jewellry'.

If any rules are broken there are alcoholic penalties and any major breaches of the rules results in severe head cleaning duty at the end of the week.

A city earner size kitty is put together and frequently topped up by the hour. At least one lay day is required for an all day lunch at the Salty Seadog restaurant and the wine bill has to at least double the size of the food bill. Other lays day are implemented only when the weather isn't very nice or the courses set are too long or don't inspire them.

The racing is taken very seriously when they actually participate and the aim is to get around the course having as much fun as possible and as safely. Drinking is only enforced before the start.

There is always one member of the crew that has minimal knowledge of how to sail a boat and he becomes the brunt of the boy's humour. This year one poor chap was put in charge of the boom was Nick and his role was to keep it pushed out when downwind. He was lead to believe that this role was incredibly important and crucial. It was an unstable area onboard and could be very dangerous so he was made to wear a full-on offshore survival suit each day.

All this comradery leads to an exhausted bunch of over indulged larger bellied boys. They then look forward to the fireworks on the Friday as apart from being a spectacular distraction from their week of tomfoolery it marks the end of another testosterone milestone. Welcome is the weekend having two days to recover before back to the reality of their busy London lives. They are all tucked up in bed and probably had their mothers run baths for them first believing that they are all little angels!