The future of the Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta could finally be secure despite the Red Arrows tragedy which saw crowd number drop as the famous aerobatic team was forced to pull out.

An estimated 10,000 people lined the embankment as the town honoured 33-year-old Red Arrows Flt Lt Jon Egging, who died when his plane crashed during a display at Bournemouth, with a minute's silence.

Despite the absence of the crowd-pulling aerobatics team, the current economic climate and the sometime stormy weather, regatta chairman Hilary Bastone was predicting that this year's event will at least break even.

For the last two years the regatta has made a loss as it haemorrhaged just over £12,000 each year –losses that the event could not sustain, warned Mr Bastone.

But sponsorship, good planning and luck with the weather looks like putting the massive event – which costs £100,000 a year to stage – back on an even keel, if not in the black.

From page 25

'We are a long way from finding out what our financial outcome will be but we are quietly confident that the outcome will be pretty near breaking even. I am confident that if we don't break even we will be close to it,' he said.

And he warned: 'If we had carried on for another two years with the losses we were sustaining I think the regatta would have disappeared. Certainly we had less than £50,000 in the pot. Hopefully this has put us back on track.'

He said sponsorship, an increase in volunteers carrying out street collections and the hard work by committee members to boost regatta income had all helped.

'I think we were pleased with how it all went off. Obviously there were some disappointments but overall we're extremely happy with how things turned out.

'We think the crowds were down on previous years for two or three reasons. The economy is one of them and not having the Red Arrows would have reduced the crowd on Friday but we don't just judge it by the crowds but also by the events and the sailing rowing and swimming were exceptional.'

He added: 'We were pretty lucky with the weather compared to other parts of the area. You could see blue skies over Dartmouth and either side was grey and black. I looked up river occasionally and it was often black up there but great in Dartmouth.'

The Red Arrows team are still not carrying out displays while the Military Aviation Authority carries out an investigation into the crash in which Flt Lt Egging died.

But the RAF's 'Top Gun' pilots have been allowed back into the air in their Hawk aircraft to practice, a Red Arrows spokesman has confirmed.

On Thursday, two black-coloured Hawks from 100 Squadron based at RAF Leeming in Yorkshire made a tribute flight to Flt Lt Egging along the Dart where the pilot was due to have been with the rest of the arrows team the following day.

On Friday crowds of people turned up wearing red to honour the dead pilot following a week-long Facebook campaign launched by Dartmouth dental nurse Claire Coltrini who was left shocked by the tragic accident.

At 6pm – when the Red Arrows should have been starting their display – the whole of Dartmouth went eerily quiet as thousands of visitors took part in a minute's silence.

The event was heralded by a blast from the regatta guardship HMS Severn and for 60 seconds the town centre was still and silent except for the cry of seagulls.

The warship's horns then marked the end of the silence and the start of a display by a veteran Sea Fury and even more veteran Swordfish aircraft which powered their way over the Dart – brought in at the last minute to help fill the gap left by the Red Arrows.

Mr Bastone said about 10,000 people packed the embankment to taken part in the minute's silence.

'The number of people there who were wearing red was something quite incredible,' he added. 'There were even crowds of people up on hill where the would normally have watched the Red Arrows display from who had obviously come to show their respect.'

Almost all the planned regatta events went ahead although the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight fly-by was cancelled because the weather was too bad for them to take off at their Midlands base.

Also the barrel rolling was cancelled at the last minute because it was considered that it was too dangerous to go ahead because of the wet conditions.

'The decision had to be made but, of course, by the time it would have happened it had all dried up,' added Mr Bastone.

The park and ride operation ran into problem on Thursday first main day of regatta when dozens of passengers were left stranded at the Norton car park after a breakdown meant the bus due to start carrying people into town at 8am failed to show up.

A First spokesman said: 'We would like to offer our sincere apologies customers affected by the problems with the park and ride service in Dartmouth on Thursday morning. Unfortunately one of the three vehicles that operate on the service suffered a mechanical failure and that meant we were unable to run the service at the normal frequency. Thankfully such problems are rare but we recognise the impact that such issues can cause for our customers and for this we apologise.'

South Hams Council's civil enforcement officers handed out 29 parking tickets during Dartmouth's regatta – clobbering drivers with a fine of up £70 each.

Of these 23 were handed out in Kingswear and just six were doled out in Dartmouth itself.

At the same time the police handed out around five tickets to driver whose cars were causing an obstruction.

The regatta began amid claims that up to 200 parking tickets had been handed out by enforcement officers around Dartmouth following the introduction of new 'clearway' routes to help keep access to the town open.

A council spokesman revealed that warning posters had been put out and advertisements placed in local newspaper to inform driver of the various road closures and parking bans.

He said: 'The rumour probably stems from the 151 warning notices placed on vehicles in these roads on August 22 the day before the closure, politely asking motorists to move their cars to allow the cones to be laid. They simply state: "You are currently parked in a suspended road (coned area) which may result in a penalty charge being issued".

'There have been only two complaints from motorists – both of whom assumed that the notices were fixed penalty parking notices and are being reassured that they were only warning notices.'