Words from the Crews!
Gill & Crew…………….. BLUE LADY
Aboard Blue Lady, both participating in the rally as well as being rally control is always a busy number but this year all was quite chaotic. Just getting across to the start line at Daks Simpson buoy in Osborne Bay in very poor visibility and pouring rain was a challenge - an over-prolonged reef shake out head to wind in the north channel left us virtually lost in the mist on Bramble Bank ! Also, Blue Lady kept repeating her last year’s nasty habit of getting the headsail sheet jammed in the jaws of the spinnaker pole which is stowed against the mast. AND several Club participants ignored Gill’s plea to use mobiles and repeatedly called over the VHF which was not repeating below decks so all comments had to be relayed down from the cockpit.
Sea Dream was beautifully positioned and first off the start line and disappearing into the mist. But, where was she headed we wondered aboard Blue Lady – had we banged the course incorrectly into our GPS and why did the bloody GPS not move us automatically to the next buoy after N. Ryde Middle. Gill was swearing and cursing at her beloved GPS. Ahead on our own now, past Burgess Salmon and east towards Browndown. Sandwich time Gill promises to Paul at the helm, Stanley and Lynn. Hang on there, several boats are on our tail now – Wylde Oyster and Ariam. Rounding Browndown now, leaving plenty of space as this is not a race, this is a rally and we do not want to endanger the boats but look out there, Wylde Oyster is wildly bearing down on us as we approach the buoy and with enormous chutzpah overtakes us on the inside whilst rounding the buoy with a huge banging of sail and sheet floggings. Watch out, Gill cries as Blue Lady has to veer off course. From Wylde Oyster we can hear her skipper loudly berrating and haranguing his crew – get winching there ! Westwards again and around Burgess Salmon to port and headed south towards Mackley Construction, sandwiches promised yet again. Why is Wylde Oyster way off course heading westwards ? Gill telephones Bryan to warn him – he is most appreciative ! Blue Lady is back in front with Ariam still hot in pursuit and closely followed by Antara, Celestra and Sea Dream. 14.56 and Blue Lady is over the finish line, Stanley on the helm is quite simply wringing wet – he has sacrificed himself for the good of the Blue Lady and the promised sandwiches still have not arrived !
Steve and Crew……….. ANTARA
“What an earth am I doing here?” I thought as we sailed across the Solent in
pouring rain. A week ago I was in Virginia in 90 degrees Farenheight. In Osbourne Bay we heaved to while Ruth & Louise prepared lunch. The hot
soup helped to raise our spirits while we waited for the other boats to
assemble at the start line (it wasn’t a race by the way!). In spite of
arriving first we were last to cross the line due to a miss-understang over
the starting signals. We never caught up as Gill had a 5 minute start on us.
Nevertheless we managed to steadily catch up with the others and crossed the
finish line only juct behind Brian & Sandy.
Surprisingly we all had had a thoroughly enjoyable r*ce, err rally I mean.
Crew of “Antara”: Steve, Louise, Richard, Ruth, Robert & Wendy
Phil and Crew….. ARIAM
Skippered by Phil Sugarman and crewed by Nanae Gendre, Melinda Viner, Michael Vine and Victor Newton, we hoped to do justice to Ariam’s racing pedigree. However, our inexperience in racing showed. We were one of the boats late for the original start, we missed the signal for the delayed start and suffered during the whole race with an overshaped mainsail (we couldn’t work out how to ease a stuck topping lift)! Nevertheless we battled to catch the leading boats as they came in and out of sight in the mist. Ariam, maybe next year we will make the most of you.
Sandy, Avi and Nigel…. SEA DREAM
So there we were, eager but full of trepidation with our new boat “Sea Dream”. Would we make complete asses of ourselves or would she sail like a Dream? Having come through a Force 6/7 the previous day we were at least reasonably confident we wouldn’t sink her. The big question of the day however turned out to be – would we drown as the downpour began? There’s wet and there is the 2007 Regatta, short of actually lying in a bath this was as wet a one could get. Sea Dream got off to a cracking start leading the field crewed by us and the irreplaceable Nigel Reese – as big a crew as one could wish for. Maintaining our initial lead didn’t survive the race as we were reeled in by the nimbler boats Blue Lady, Wylde Oyster and Ariam. Still it was a cracking race – I mean rally – if only we could see where we were going in the wet and mist with Wylde Oyster losing her way completely for a few moments! But it was nice to see her at the finish.
It was a cracking regatta with 5 boats taking part and an incredible 7 out of the 9 past commodores at a great dinner at the Royal London in the evening where we were joined by the Weisfield clan who specially drove over for the dinner in spite of not being able to take part in the rally.
Well done HSSC what a wonderful weekend for all the participants and organisers and especially thanks to Gill.
First up, weather. Bloody awful. Should know by now Regatta in June complete waste of time, better arrange for December when always perfect. Want to to sail in Monsoon, can go to India. Obvious to meanest intellect.
Next thing. Start procedure. No radio count-down, no flag drop, no ickle puff of smoke like Royal Yacht Squadron. Nothing. No. Just kiddy-toy hooter pointed upwind deliberately inaudible to anyone outside Race Organiser’s cockpit. Result? Typical. Race Organiser sounds horn whilst sailing across line at full speed. Cheating if ever I saw it. Outrageous. Forced shout at crew all his fault. Cruelty to animals, no alternative, law of wossname. Jungle.
Course? Rubbish course, as usual. Bossy Galore Woodbridge always puts in one buoy that either does not exist, invisible, changed name the week before last or only she knows about. Not on chart, not on chart plotter, not in almanac. I think some of these things are actually lobster pot markers. Result? Due to delayed start because of rubbish start procedure, forced to catch up with fleet by virtue of superior sailing technique, brilliant crew management and violent but legal racing turn at 3rd mark. Nothing to do with long waterline length. Overtake whole lot and then head off for non-existent yellow buoy. Mile and half later, B-G Woodbridge on blower, where hell you going tee hee, have you got sick headache. Sickening. Ought to take at least line honours in posh 40-foot thoroughbred, if not actually win race, even with de Mesquita as crew. Result? 4th out of 6. Pathetic. Can see I should be organising this thing myself.
Dinner not bad. Can’t remember much about it. That’s how I know!
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