The Boxing Day swim at Cromer, 2011.

Balmy weather brought out the barmy and brave in their droves to plunge into the sea off north Norfolk’s coast yesterday, watched by hordes of well-wrapped spectators.

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Cromer’s traditional Boxing Day dip smashed last year’s record more than twofold with up to 300 people - and at least one dog - racing into the waves and squealing with shock as they felt the North Sea’s nip.

Organiser Clive Hedges, of the North Norfolk Beach Runners, is confident they will easily top their £2,000 target for cancer charity the Big C once sponsorship and bucket collections are totted up.

“It was absolutely amazing - I’m just so delighted everybody was up for it,” said Mr Hedges, who estimated the sea temperature to be a bracing but bearable nine deg C.

The cause was chosen in memory of club member Jeff Dodds, from Holt, who died from a brain tumour in July, aged 50.

Among the assorted throng of fairies, pirates, panto dames and Santas was East of England MEP Richard Howitt, 50, who alone hopes to contribute over £2,000 to the cause through his sponsorship.

“50 something” Liz Relf, from Thorpe Market, near Cromer, dashed in dressed as Father Christmas, together with her Labradoodle dog Brillo, sporting his own Santa hat.

Fakenham High School pupils Jessica Manson, 15, and Tallulah Harvey, 14, stripped down to bikinis and body paint for their chilly dip, while Cromer Parish Church members Gary Golby, 45, and Simon Clipsom, 43, went in wearing Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee outfits to raise money towards a new church and community centre in Uganda.

Pink fairies Lucy Jeffery, 43, and Nicola Goodings, 37, were hoping to raise over £1,000 with their feat, to be shared between Wicklewood Primary School, where both have children, and the Keeping Abreast charity.

Further down the coast more than 30 people took the plunge at Overstrand, raising £521 for the upkeep of play equipment in the village, with several more hundreds going to other registered charities. And at Mundesley more than 80 swimmers helped raise about £630 which will be shared between Mundesley’s independent inshore lifeboat and the village’s Youth and Community project.