Round the Island Race

I bumped into Jane in Woodbridge a few days ago and we naturally discussed FFSC. It seems a busy place these days, the newsletters keep coming and it is obvious that Jane is full on in her support of our club. Well done to her!

I mentioned the fact that I wrote a couple of personal sailing experiences which were published and one even found its way onto the internet. Jane mentioned that she is always looking for content for the newsletter.

It leads me to want to recount another of my sailing adventures from way back when I could sail. I was commodore of FFSC at the time and my company Z Spars Uk was getting firmly established as a mast and rigging supplier to the boatbuilders. One of my best customers, Hunter Boats of Rochford was producing a range of cruiser/racers and we were their chief supplier.

One day, their sales director and co-owner Peter Poland rang me and asked if I would like a cruise around the Isle of Wight in a Hunter Horizon 32. He had entered the Round the Island Race in their demo boat “Far Horizon”.  The Horizon 32 was set up for shallow draft cruising with a wheelhouse,  twin bilge keels and a modest fractional rig. They did offer a race version, the Channel 32 with a taller rig and deep fin keel but that was not on offer.

Hunter Horizon 32 model example

Best not say no to one’s best customer, so it was arranged that I would meet up with the crew at sparrows fart on the pontoon at Hamble Point Marina on the Saturday of the race. I had no idea when I left Hadleigh what was in store but soon realised that we would be participating in something significant when I watched  huge numbers of large yachts motoring in line down the Hamble River. It seemed all the marinas on the river were emptying and heading over to Cowes.

Peter introduced me to the crew which consisted of himself, Andy Cunningham (A great name for a boat salesman with Hunter Boats and a great guy to boot) plus Chris DeVas, an ex-director, and his wife whose name now escapes me. So we were five and we had a large hamper of food and drink to suit the occasion. Peter also mentioned that Andy had rigged up a spinnaker pole and he had found an old Impala spinnaker in a cupboard in the office.

So, we were all set for our day out.

Peter fired up the engine and as we left our berth invited me to take the helm to steer us across the Solent to the start area off the Royal Yacht Squadron. The breeze was fresh from the South West and I was happy to do this, but as we approached the start area it came home to me what a big day was in store for us. There were hundreds of boats of all sizes milling about getting ready to start. There were a few divisions of craft in the fleet, from the fastest to the slowest. I presumed we were in the middle group but had no idea when our start was nor could we see the Squadron start line. I asked Peter who was taking the helm for our start and he said “you are”.

I do get a bit nervous at any sailboat race start but this was a bit of a step up. However, the situation was so chaotic and seemingly out of control that I remained quite calm and consequently positioned us well buried in the fleet. We never heard our start signal but set off with everyone else tacking westwards down the Solent. My chief objective was to stay out of trouble and this we managed as we rounded the Needles. I asked Peter if we could go inside the wreck off there but he said we better not as nobody else was risking it.

By this time the wind had strengthened and we squared off to commence our run down the back of the Island.

“let’s try this spinnaker” I said. Andy had it sorted and we were soon successfully flying the Impala kite.

“Does anyone wish to take the helm for a while” I said. There were no takers so I grabbed a sandwich.

I decided our run should take us very close to the shore, we were broad reaching and very stable. Most of the fleet were well offshore and into some big swells. I knew that as we rounded the southernmost point of the island that we would be dead running before the wind and steering could get tricky. The boats offshore were rolling alarmingly and some were broaching and getting into difficulty. Someone must have fallen in as a helicopter appeared and there were a couple of lifeboats in attendance.  I believe some rigs went over the side. We managed to hold our course quite well, I think due to the stabilising effect of the twin bilge keels and as we approached Bembridge point we were required to leave a navigation buoy to port. We were running by the lee at times but I wanted to be on starboard and have rights as we approached the mark. Most of the fleet was on port at that stage but we were still offered little room to do our gybe around the mark. At the buoy,  I swung over the helm, we gybed and did a broach, just missing the mark by a few inches. Phew!  

We then commenced the long beat back along the north shore against the tide. I was able to take us close in on every tack, which gave us bit of advantage against most of the  deep-keeled yachts in close attendance. It was hard going against a very strong headwind.

 As we approached the Squadron finish line, Peter started to get quite excited. “We should not be up with all these big b****s, we must be doing ok” I remember we were swapping tacks with a Nicholson 38, so I figured he must be right. Race rules required us to record the numbers of the boats immediately ahead and astern as we crossed the line. Peter was panicking, not being able to locate a pencil or pen on board.

Panic over, Mrs DeVass provided a mascara pencil from her make-up purse and we were able to confirm our finish position in writing.

We had a couple of drinks in the marina in Hamble and Peter wanted us to go to his house in Bursledon and celebrate with more food and drink but I had a 3-hour drive in front of me and turned it down.

Monday morning I received a call from Andy Cunningham, “Peter travelled back over to the island yesterday to attend the prize giving. We won our division and a cup which he received on the Squadron Lawn in front of a large gathering of the yachting community. He was one proud guy”

I asked Andy if it was much of a deal. “Well there were over 700 yachts in our division……..” 

 

By Dave White