Round the Island Race Photos 2011

Bacon sarnies then off the dock at 06:00 for a 07:20hrs start this year. Overcast with a challenging SW F6 wind meant an exiting & very physical beat down the Western Solent to Hurst Castle, almost loosing one of our double reefed main sail battens, were it not for the deft deck work of our crew. We travelled 25 miles to cover 13 miles over the ground, picking up the strongest west going tide & keeping close to the Shingles Bank. Wind over the tide made things very choppy & wet, especially for our bowman, who's lifejacket auto inflated, with the 3 meter waves coming over our decks at the Needles. Rounding the lighthouse, passing as close as possible to the Varvassi wreck paid off here, as we sailed inside many boats that had taken a wider course.

Bearing away onto a broad reach, we elected not to use the Spinnaker in fear of being overpowered by the 30 knot gusts & headed inshore to Freshwater Bay to avoid a foul tide. Then south east & a fantastic reaching sail hugging  the coast, picking up the favorable back eddy to St Catherine's point. 

Rounding the point we were dead downwind & set the sails Goose Winged with a preventer on the main & poled out headsail. This gave us plenty of controllable power to ride the high rolling swell chasing us. We watched a few boats brave enough to try spinnakers get into all sorts of trouble, with broken masts ripped sails & capsizes all around.  Gybeing  at Dunnose, removing the pole & preventer, we changing course for Bembridge, the sea becoming flatter with more shelter from the Island.

Turning North at Bembridge Cardinal, around the Eastern end of the Island it was everyone back on the rail. We ground in the sails hard for a spectacular close hauled blast, the sunshine coming out at last. Cutting in between No Man's Land Fort & Ryde Sands skimming the bottom with only .7 of a meter under the keel to save distance & cheat the foul tide. Several boats went aground here by cutting it too fine. We put in a couple of short tacks along the eastern Solent, deciding that it was not worth traveling the extra distance tacking into Osborne Bay too avoid the tide. Our course on port tack was almost directly to Cowes. The wind speed dropped to F4/5 as we shook out a reef on the final leg.

So it was everyone on the rail for a very exiting finish, with several short tacks to make the line and then a well deserved celebration beer.

Great crew and a great days sailing. 

Results: 

        380 overall out of 1908 entries

        73 in division out of 119

        25 in group out of 37

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