JeremyP's Blog

The weather was miserable, the crew not 100% fit, but overall it behaved like a well oiled machine (not in the beer sense) and we finished 36th in class of 78 and 300th overall (out of about 700). The crew sustained one minor injury.

Preparation started on the Friday night during which the crew tackled the weight problem caused by the fridge's excessive beer content. This was followed by a curry in Cowes and more beer at the beer tent in the marina (with an extremely good band). The minor injury was sustained on the way back to the boat as I descended the gangplank onto the pontoon. I went over on my ankle but being beered up did not think too much of it at the time. The next morning it was pretty sore, but appeared to be functioning in that I could walk on it. As I write this, it is a bit swollen and a sort of reddish purple hue.

The start was at 7.20am and we got out of the blocks well. The wind being about 20 knots suited us and we had much amusement watching other people mishandle their spinakers (we didn't have a spinaker, but we seemed to be going fast enough anyway). The rule was: we could eat a jellybaby if we overtook another boat. We managed to get in several.

The leg from the Needles to Saint Catherine's Point was interesting as we had to tack several times. Most of the time we were on the starboard tack, but every now and then we would have to go onto the port tack to avoid hitting land. This was exciting because you would then be crossing most other boats paths at right angles and under the rules of the sea, the boat on the port tack gives way.

During the next leg to Bembridge we were absolutely flying - wind and tide were just right and we hit 10 knots over the ground at one point. We seemed to be one of the fastest boats at this point, and the jellybaby supply was giving cause for concern.

The final leg back to Cowes was a bit of a disapointment. It was directly downwind and you really do need a spinaker in that situation. Questions were being asked. Would we have to give the jellybabies back?

It was on this leg that we had our altercation. Another yacht was approaching us from the port side on a course that was about 30 degrees off what everybody else (including us) was doing. There was some dispute about who had right of way. We said they were the overtaking boat. They said we were on the port tack, which was technically true; although we were going straight downwind, the mainsail was out on the starboard side. By the time we had finished arguing about this, the boats were so close together we had to jibe rather sharply. The boom wasn't totally under control and went flying across to the port side. Somebody on the other boat was heard to say "nice jibe" in an unnecessarily sarcastic tone. You can imagine the amusement when shortly afterwards their spinaker collapsed and they managed to get a line tangled in the prop or rudder whilst trying to sort it out.

Towards the end of the leg the wind dropped to 10 knots which was unfortunate in that the Moana doesn't sail well in those conditions. The speed over the water dropped almost to the point where we didn't have steerage, however, we struggled over the line in a time of eight hours, nine minutes and 30 seconds.

Celebrations were tempered by the fact that we couldn't find a berth at the marina or anywhere in Cowes and so had to go back to Southampton. We did get a tankard to prove we had finished the race.