Calendar buoys

Senior Consulting Editor Jane Steer Jane@saikung.com

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This month’s contributors Graham Uden Carolynne Dear Iain Lafferty David Diskin Jane Ram Robby Nimmo Stephen Vines Cynthia Smillie Eric Kong Aaron Lai Kevin Yeung Alasdair Nicol

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Not all the talent will be on the water at this month’s 24hr Charity Dinghy Race at Hebe Haven Yacht Club. Keep a weather eye out for the new 2012-13 Nautibuoys Calendar, featuring 26 of the club’s male staff and members. In the nude.

We’re assured the members’ privates will remain that way with strategic placement of marine equipment – blocks and tackle, perhaps – and other suitably salty trappings.

The idea is based on the “Calendar Girls” story of the Yorkshire Women’s Institute that raised money for charity by producing a nude calendar, and was dreamed up by four lady sailors who wanted to do something “a bit different” to mark the race’s 10th anniversary. Photographer (and Sai Kung Magazine contributor) Jackie Peers was roped in to take the pictures, which are fun and only mildly risqué.

“We wanted to make sure you could put the calendar up in the kitchen and still eat breakfast with the family,” says co-organiser Fiona Price.

Stephanie Hestler was put in charge of recruiting the models for several photo shoots during the summer.

“A couple of people were a little apprehensive, but I had enough models for half a year within the first week,” she says. “We thought summer was a quieter time of year, but one of the funniest things was how many times we would set up in a nice quiet area, and people would appear from nowhere. Some of the looks we got from passers-by were priceless.”

Posing was a new and not always comfortable experience for the models. Mr March, vice commodore Mark Newman, recalls his photo session: “Once it started my mind went blank… as did my bum. I had to sit on a metal bar for 50 minutes.”

More than 300 shots were whittled down to a final 15 (the calendar runs October 2012 to December 2013) with minimal Photoshopping, according to Marie Jenkins and her touchup team of Brian Leung and Alex Mak of SGS Asia Pacific. Although the public won’t see the results until the calendar goes on sale at the 24hr Charity Dinghy Race on October 6-7, the 26 models had a sneak preview at a private pre-launch party. One model, a former commodore, was overheard to say: “I thought, as the oldest person in the calendar, I was looking pretty good – until I saw the muscles on Mr June.”