Yacht clubs in snowy weather are even odder than snow resorts in summer. But in America's sailing Mecca of Newport, Rhode Island, there was a further inversion at the East Providence Yacht Club on Sunday night after the annual pre-Christmas party reports W M Nixon.

Only a lone barman was left on the premises, and when a large fat white-bearded man dressed in red and carrying a sack came bustling in, he smiled a cheerful welcome. But the new arrival immediately brandished a gun, and by the time the police arrived he had cleared out all the weekend takings – "a lot" – and had made good his escape to the sound of jingling bells.