AUTUMN 2011 £5.00 ROYAL SOUTHERN YACHT CLUB

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AUTUMN
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Editor's Column
p2
David Mead - Vice Commodore
Tim Robinson - Rear Commodore
Sheelagh Cohen - Editor
Pat Aspinall - Sub Editor
Jenny Walton - Sub Editor
Brian Curtis - Art Director
Mike Jones - Picture Editor
Advertising Sales
Design and artwork - Owl House Limited
Editorial: editor@royal-southern.co.uk
Advertising: advertise@royal-southern.co.uk
Charitable Trust
p2
Twinning with the King's
Royal Hussars
p3 - p6
Gaastra Insignia Clothing
p7
175th Anniverary
p8 - p9
Sleepless in Seattle
p10 - p11
40 Years Ago
p12 - p15
Racing – May Regatta
June Regatta
July Regatta
p16 - p17
p18
p20 - p21
Cowes Week
p22 - p24
Rán – Winning Ways
p26 - p27
September Regatta
p28 - p29
Hamble Scramble
p30 - p31
ICOYC Cruise
p32 - p34
Cruiser Race
p36 - p37
Beaulieu &
Exbury Gardens
p38
Our Antigua Adventure
p40 - p43
Motor Boats
p44 - p47
Golf & Shooting
p48
Splash
p50 - p53
Academy
p54 - p55
Ladies Committee
p56
Balloon Competition
p57
Brambles Cricket Match
p58 - p59
Snippets
p60 - p61
Obituaries
p62 - p65
Benefits of Membership
p65
Southern Hospitality
p66 - p67
2012 Programme
p68
© The Southern is published by the Royal
Southern Yacht Club Ltd., Rope Walk,
Hamble, Southampton SO31 4HB and
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Cover Photograph
The King's Royal Hussars marching from
the Hamble Village Green to the Clubhouse.
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SISTER SHOW
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The Editorial Team would
Edition of the Southern.
contributors to this Spring
Peta Stuart-Hunt
Stuart Alexander
Judi Hussey
Ann Arscott
Clare Ingham
Pat Aspinall
Mark Inkster
Michael Austen
Zoe James
John Beardsley
Sandy McPherson
Chay Blyth
Vicky Mansfield
Lucy Burn
Peter Poland
Chris Davies
Ian Ridpath
Sam Davies
Philip Riley
Peter Delbridge
Sally Sturt
Mike Foster
John Walker
Kate Gough
Diana Ward
Natalie Gray
Andrew Webster
h
Judy Greensmit
Maggie Widdop
Colin Hall
Karen HendersonSimon Hand
Williams
Tim Harrison
Keith Hughes
ROYAL SOUTHERN
YACHT CLUB CONTACTS
secretary@royal-southern.co.uk
023 8045 0300
Sailing Secretary: Natalie Gray
023 8045 0302
sailing@royal-southern.co.uk
Office and Administration:
023 8045 0300
Accounts:
023 8045 0304
1
EDITOR'S
COLUMN
Sheelagh Cohen
Despite being autumn we have started a ‘spring
clean’ on The Southern in readiness for our
175th anniversary year in 2012. It is now nearly
five years since the current design concept for
the magazine was developed and the editorial
team believes it has served us well. However,
it is never good to stand still and let oncesuccessful ideas become outdated, irrelevant or
just boring.
Some new features have been introduced
into this edition, including this piece and some
technical changes, and we are planning more for
the spring edition. Our approach is not only to
let you know what’s been happening but to give
a flavour of the event or experience so that you
might be encouraged to try something new for
yourself – whether it is racing abroad or a rally in
the Solent.
None of this, however, would be possible
without our invaluable contributors, to whom
we are indebted, and your feedback. While
the Editorial Team is committed to providing
a magazine that contains Members’ news and
articles you want to read, and includes as much as
possible about Members’ activities we can only do
this if you tell us what you are doing and what you
would like to see in the magazine.
Please feel free to contact any member of the
Editorial Team with ideas and suggestions either
direct at editor@royal-southern.co.uk or via the
office or individual email addresses which will be
in the forthcoming Year Book.
Enough of the serious stuff. I hope that you
will enjoy reading this edition of ‘The Southern’
and join me in congratulating all our Members
who have done so well this season.
Looking forward to an action-packed year in
2012 – afloat and ashore.
Mike Rogers
A gloomy, late October Sunday saw Members
gathering in the dining room for a lunch to
say au revoir to Mike Rogers who has been
associated with the Club for over ten years
and Club Secretary for some four years.
2
After a traditional Sunday lunch of roast beef,
with all the trimmings, followed by
calorie bombs of puddings the
Commodore presented Mike with
presents of a cut crystal ship’s
decanter together with some
port. During the Commodore’s
presentation we learned that Mike
had taken to the water and was
now kayaking. The final present
was then brought into the dining
room – a red kayak complete with
paddle and Club burgee - which
Mike will be entitled to use as
the Commodore also conferred
Honorary Membership on him in
recognition of his contribution to
the Royal Southern.
Mike is moving into the field of training
and education but will not be totally lost to
the sailing world as he will also be doing some
work for ICOYC; so we will no doubt see him
again during the ICOYC conference in 2012, if
not before.
We wish him well for the future.
Charitable Trust
At this time of year the Trustees have the
pleasant task of looking through the new
applications for grants. In the main these come
from young people wishing to push forward with
their aspirations to start sailing or enhance an
already established foothold in the sport. In
times when it seems easy to criticise our youth,
it is encouraging to receive such enthusiastic
letters of application. We see the Trust helping
develop these young people and, through their
success, encouraging and mentor others.
Applicants have a very wide range of abilities.
There are those wanting to experience being at
sea for the first time, usually through one of the
sailing trusts, where not only do they gain sailing
experience but team building and leadership
exposure are part of such programmes. We find
that in this area we are helping, in the main, less
privileged youngsters. Of course we also like to
assist organisations such as Sea Scouts and Sea
Cadets and by doing so we are able to widen the
benefits of the Charitable Trust to more children
and young people. Requests for assistance from
disabled sailors are always a pleasure to receive.
We believe that sailing is an activity that can
be enjoyed irrespective of disability and one
where disabled competitors can participate on
equal terms with able bodied competitors. To see
someone who may just have realised that there is
life outside their disability and to be able to help
in some small way is indeed what this Trust is
all about and we have assisted individuals and
community groups.
In the past we have mentioned the help given
to the development of our own Royal Southern
Academy. Whilst we have supported the Academy
as a whole, for the benefit of many, we have also
supported individual Academy Members in their
pursuit of higher goals; indeed we have been
rewarded by the knowledge that some of these
young sailors have reached world championship
status. However our true reward is that, by the
example set, many others will want to follow in the
pursuit of excellence and once again our grants
reach out beyond our initial expectations.
We hope that in reading this short resume
of the achievements of the Trust you may derive
the same pleasure as that of the Trustees. We
can report that our Trust is unique. At the recent
conference of the International Council of Yacht
Clubs, with delegates from all corners of the world,
the Royal Southern Trust was indeed the envy of
all; there were many questions and a number of
delegates vowed to test their individual countries
laws with a view to following our example.
To be able to give this support we do need
the help of our Members. We hope this overview
will encourage many more Members to become
Friends of The Trust with your valued contribution
the Trustees can do so much. It’s been made easy
for you to make a contribution - it can be added to
any direct debit you may have with the Club or a
simple call to the accounts office.
Once again I thank you in anticipation of your
support
John Beardsley
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Historical
links lead the
Royal
Southern
Yacht Club to
twin with the
King’s Royal
Hussars
The Commodore and the
Commanding Officer of
The King’s Royal Hussars
(KRH), an armoured
regiment of the British Army
celebrated their formal
twinning at a ceremony
held at the Club House in
Hamble, Hampshire on
Friday 29 July.
The twinning seeks to
establish and maintain in
perpetuity, friendly relations
between the Club and the
Regiment and to promote
sailing, social, educational
and youth exchanges, and
share a supportive interest
in each other’s activities.
With the Club celebrating its
175th anniversary in 2012 the
twinning is a fitting prelude to
this historic milestone.
The link lies in the
strong historical connection
they share in the figure
of James Brudenell, 7th
Earl of Cardigan who was
simultaneously Commanding
Officer of the 11th Hussars
(Prince Albert’s Own),
now amalgamated into
The King’s Royal Hussars,
and Commodore of the
Royal Southern Yacht Club
between 1847 and 1854.
Indeed, Cardigan was still
Commodore of the Royal
Southern Yacht Club when
he led the famous Charge of
the Light Brigade in which the
11th Hussars took part.
3
Twinning with the
King's Royal Hussars
The King’s Royal Hussars, based in
Tidworth, Wiltshire, recruits many of its
soldiers from the Southampton and Hamble
area. Having deployed to Kosovo, Northern
Ireland and Iraq in recent years, and training
for possible deployment to Afghanistan in 2012,
a standing invitation from the Royal Southern
Yacht Club will provide sailing opportunities
and instruction to young soldiers and provide a
completely different challenge for them.
In addition, the Royal Southern will help
raise funds for The King’s Royal Hussars
Appeal to support injured soldiers in times of
hardship.
The King’s Royal Hussars paraded their
Guidon (a light cavalry equivalent to Colours)
through the village of Hamble, accompanied by
a 22-strong Guard and musicians of the Light
Cavalry Band together with a VIP Ceremonial
Party. They marched down Green Lane to the
Quay where a Panther armoured vehicle and a
recruitment station was based for the occasion.
Thereafter the entire ceremonial party moved
onto the Pier of the Royal Southern Yacht
Club for the twinning ceremony and Beating
the Retreat, watched by hundreds of spectators
including VIPs and Club Members.
At the Twinning Ceremony Mark Inkster,
Commodore, said: “It is very important for
us to commit to providing on-going support,
beyond a formal twinning arrangement for
the soldiers and, by being pro-active, we can
maintain a strong relationship going forward.”
Lieutenant
Colonel
Alex
Potts,
Commanding Officer of The King’s Royal
Hussars, responded:- “The King’s Royal
Hussars are delighted to be establishing this
friendship with the Royal Southern Yacht
Club. The moral support we receive from the
Club and the local community will make a
significant difference to our soldiers when they
face the tough challenges of counterinsurgency
operations in Helmand next year. We are
Hampshire’s Cavalry Regiment and today’s
ceremony with the Royal Southern is a splendid
way of demonstrating this.”
The Twinning ceremony received the full
support of Hamble-le-Rice Parish Council and
Eastleigh Borough Council.
Photographs by Peter Delbridge and John Walker
with special thanks to Judi Hussey and Chris
Davies
64
5
GAASTRA
Twinning with the
King's Royal Hussars
continued.....
The opportunities offered by the 175th.
Anniversary programme included a complete review of the Club’s Insignia collection, including how we should register and
protect our brand and its logos and not
least, the range and designs of clothing
available. After discussions with a number of potential clothing supply partners,
the Club has reached an exclusive agreement with the Dutch company, Gaastra, or
Gaastra Pro Gear BV to give it its correct
title, but where has this company come
from and why have they been selected?
The company was founded in 1897 as
sail makers in Sneek and is an iconic sailing
brand in Europe. Based in Aalsmeer, Gaastra
Pro Gear BV is headed by Jeroen Schothorst,
Marc Blees and Ben Kolff, all of whom are
experienced and successful sailors. Blees
represented the Netherlands at the Olympics
in the Finn Class and, is the 2011 Dutch Star
champion, worked on the Allinghi America’s
Cup campaigns and sails in everything from
the Maxi Worlds to classic boat regattas.
He came to prominence running the O’Neill
surfwear business and was head-hunted by
Schothorst in 2002 to take a traditional clothing brand into a specialist high tech action
sports leisure brand. Using the experience
of its directors, Gaastra Pro’s mission is to
design and produce sailing and other lifestyle
brands of top quality: partnerships with teams,
regattas and clubs are an integral part of their
marketing strategy and among those clubs are
the Royal Belgian Sailing Club, New York Yacht
Club, Real Club Nautico de Palma and Yacht
Club Costa Smeralda. The company’s ethos
is always to respect the club, its insignia, its
people, its heritage and its market. The Royal
Southern Yacht Club now joins this elite list.
6
Gaastra will be producing exclusive
designs for technical and dockside clothing in
a Members range and specific ranges supporting events in the 2012 calendar and beyond.
These designs will be totally new, very stylish, highly desirable and available on-line and
direct. Full details of styles and colours will be
introduced and integrated with the Insignia
Range as 2012 approaches.
All our current insignia collection is also
being reviewed with the objective of ensuring
that we are providing what Members need
and whether the range needs to be reduced
or expanded. All usual items are available until
further notice and an order form is enclosed
with the magazine. Christmas is coming…
7
175
... It’s
More
Than
Just a
Number
Those people who have been associated
with big, multi-dimensional, long drawn
out projects will know that almost inevitably, the passage of time between inception
and delivery will see things and people
burned along the way. Those who start
balls rolling fall by the wayside, sidelined
by circumstance or changing roles and
responsibilities. Best laid plans become
nuanced by evolution. Increasing, or
decreasing, time and budgets influence
what is and isn’t possible and better ideas
are brought to the table by enthusiastic
people, who were absent at the project’s
birth, so many months ago.
The Club’s 175th Anniversary programme
is no different, but happily, most of the
ideas first tabled in early 2009 have not only
remained on the calendar but have grown in
stature and value as the months have passed.
Even those which no longer appear in their
original form have evolved so that their first
purpose, or method of delivery, has been
improved and our Cowes Week parties for
Members and media brought home just what
has been achieved so far, as we announced
the first group of sponsors and launched the
key events for 2012.
Chronologically, the first of our ‘big five’
events will be the 175 Anniversary Regatta and
running from 25th May - 10th June, it will bring
together many classes that have raced regularly with us over many seasons. Incorporating
both our May and June Summer Regattas,
we will be organising 16 days of waterborne
competition with classes as diverse as IRC
and Impalas, Farr 45 and Foxers, Laser SB3s
and XODs. Principle Race Officer for this
regatta will be Tony Lovell, with a strong team
of race officers including David Arnold, Martin
Bedford and Simon Hand and a supporting
team, assembled by Shira Robinson and our
Race Management Committee. Make no mistake, this will be a big event.
175
REGATTA
In the midst of it, between 1st - 4th June,
while the inshore sailors chase each other
around the Solent cans, the offshore and
cruising fleet will take part in the 50th edition
of the Cowes-Deauville race. As it has always
been, it will be a mixture of sharp competition and stupendous hospitality, which we
run jointly with the Royal London Yacht Club,
Deauville Yacht Club, Junior Offshore Group
and for the first time in recent years, the Royal
Ocean Racing Club. Next year, there is a different challenge involved as the Royal Southern
will take on Deauville at Match Racing, first
175
jog
8
REGATTA
in the Solent in the days before the main
race and later, when our French hosts return
the honours, in Seine Bay, after the race. Ian
Fowler and Colin Sinclair will head the event
management team.
Last of the ‘big five’ is the Biscay 2012.
After many months of consultation, planning
and reconnaissance, our anniversary year will
see the inaugural running of a new open offshore race for monohulls, to ports in Biscay,
named with no subtlety at all, the Biscay 2012.
Thereafter, it will run in every other year, as a
tangible legacy to and for the Club. In 2012, it
will comprise a race of three legs, starting and
finishing in the Solent and visiting La Rochelle
and Brest, with a single race between Brest
and the Solent for Club Class White Sail cruisers. Our partner Clubs are the Société des
Régates Rochelaises and the Société des
Régates de Brest, and both they and the host
cities will be giving full backing to our race,
that will be flagged away on 16th September.
Other events on the calendar are undergoing their final
refinements, further sponsorships are in negotiation,
but by the time you read this
edition of The Southern, just
weeks before the anniversary
year arrives, 175 will be more
than just a number and its
programme will be ready for
delivery. Let the fun begin.
175th. Anniversary
Year Programme
Feb 16
Weld Lunch
Mar 18Songs of Praise
Church Service
ROYAL SOUTHERN YACHT CLUB
BISCAY
Apr 19Ladies Lunch
with the Lord
Lieutenant
May 25 – Jun 10
175 Anniversary
Regatta
May 31Inter-Club
Match Racing
in the Solent
Between 27th -29th June, the Royal Southern
will be hosting the British Open 12 Metre
Championship, the first regatta of four, collectively comprising the Brewin Dolphin 12 Metre
British Tour and bringing modern Americas Cup
yachts to race as a fleet in the Solent. The Club
is no stranger to 12 metre yachts, having been
the Challenger of Record in 1980, when Tony
Boyden’s Lionheart took on the world; to the
purists, these 64 foot leviathans still represent
all that is best in the Americas Cup competition.
Seeing ten or more of them fleet racing will be
a sight to be cherished, under the race management of David Arnold, Tony Lovell and Martin
Bedford.
Between
11th -15th
September,
the Club will be
hosting the conference of
the International Council Of Yacht
Clubs, when Flag Officers and professional
managers from 26 of the world’s top clubs and
other guests will gather to discuss, not yachting
per se, but more, the business of yachting and
how to face, harness and benefit from changing
circumstances and technologies. If you don’t
think this affects you or our Club then think
again, and the Commodore’s report, elsewhere
in this issue, on the 2011 conference in Seattle
makes for interesting reading.
We were very happy to announce in Cowes
that one of the Club’s Honorary Members,
Sam Davies, a recent Yachting Journalists’
Association Yachtsman Of The Year and blueocean sailor of immense experience and fearsome reputation, has agreed to become the
official Ambassador for Biscay 2012. She
warmly welcomed the Club’s initiative for the
race and its target for getting experienced and
less experienced people afloat and racing, particularly the partnership with Sunsail Racing.
When planning the Biscay race, the view
was taken that essentially it should be appealing to Members and others in their own
yachts, but it would also have appeal to those
who might not own a yacht right now. With
their one-design fleet of 42 Beneteau-built
F40s, Sunsail offers a perfect solution to this
problem and the wild card in this race is that
a significant part of the fleet may be made
up of F40s, chartered by Members and nonmembers, for the purpose. As evidence of
the race’s appeal, it was heartening to receive
expressions of interest from potential competitors within minutes of its public announcment.
Sunsail Racing will assist the Club as a
technical and marketing partner and together,
we will be instituting cogent and logical prequalification and technical support for chartered F40s and safety cover across the entire
Jun 1 – 2CowesDeauville 50th.
Edition
Jun 3Inter-Club
Match Racing
in Seine Bay
fleet. Under the overall guidance of experienced sailor, Tom Richardson, the Principal
Race Officer will be Jack Edwards, ably assisted by Jury Chairman, Philip Gage and Safety
Officer, Richard Salaman, supplemented by
PROs, Patrick Maurin and Henri Baccini with
others from our host Clubs in La Rochelle and
Brest, to comply with the guidelines of the
Fédération Française de Voile.
The course, particularly around the Ile
d’Ouessant, will challenge skippers but not to
the tiresomely extended detriment of missing
out on the dockside activities by being stuck
the wrong side of tidal gates, for the Biscay
2012 event is about good sailing and great parties and the whole event should be home and
hosed down in under 12 days. The Notice Of
Race and Expression Of Interest form are on
the Club’s website and available to download,
or complete electronically.
Whilst the majority of events on the calendar have grown in stature, a small number
have been improved by evolution, notably
the open days and photographic exhibition/
competition. The purposed of the former is to
showcase the Club to class associations and
other organisations who don’t now race or eat
with us, but might in the future and the decision has been taken to do this over a series of
smaller seminars, running throughout the year
ahead. The purpose of the latter is self-evident
but instead of running this in November 2012,
it is proposed to use the whole of next year
as the subject matter and stage the exhibition
during 2013.
Jun 23Summer Ball
Jun 27 – 29British Open
12 Metre
Championship
Jul 6 – 8Motorboat
Open Weekend
Aug 4Family Fun Day
Aug 19 – 26Youth Regatta
Sept 11 – 15International
Council Of
Yacht Clubs
Conference
Sept 16 – 29Biscay 2012
Offshore Race
Oct 19 – 21Academy
Match Racing
Regatta
Dec 14Commodore’s
Lunch
9
Sleepless in Seattle
Seattle was the host city for the 2011
International Council of Yacht Clubs
(ICOYC) Commodores’ Forum. The city,
which is fourteen years younger than the
Royal Southern, was founded in 1851 and
fuelled by the timber industry and its
location as the gateway to both Alaska and
the Klondike Gold Rush. It is currently home
to the headquarters of Microsoft, Boeing and
Starbucks.
Located in America’s north west, Seattle
sits between Puget Sound and Lake
Washington and is idyllic for anyone with a
passion for the water. However, mention
Seattle to most people and they say “take
an umbrella”; the climate comprises
mild wet winters and just as mild
dry summers but Seattle has also
been subjected to a metrological
phenomenon known as the
“Pineapple Express”. This is the
non technical term for a strong
and persistent flow of heavy
rainfall from the Hawaiian
Islands to the Pacific coast of
America.
The hosts for the Forum were
the Seattle Yacht Club. Founded in
1892 it is one of America’s most active
and long established yacht clubs and
has direct access to some of the world’s
most beautiful cruising waters. The Club is
situated on Portage Bay; on an arm of Lake
Union and part of the Lake Washington Ship
Canal, which is linked to the sea by a complex
of locks.
10
The hospitality afforded us all by the Seattle
Yacht Club (SYC), its Members and Staff was
magnificent and I am delighted to report that
we formalised a reciprocal arrangement with
the Seattle Yacht Club whilst we were there. I
am particularly grateful to Commodore Kim
Lorenz of SYC for the hospitality he showed to
us all and for setting the bar high for the 2012
conference in Hamble. We are honoured to host
the next full conference at the Royal Southern in
September 2012 and look forward to welcoming
our friends from the other Member Clubs.
Mark Inkster
www.seattleyachtclub.org
www.icoyc.org
The conference opened with Gary Jobson,
President of US Sailing in Annapolis, Maryland
as well as being an America’s Cup sailor,
television commentator and author. This kicked
off 4 days of serious discussion on every aspect
of running a yacht club. Subjects included
the effect of current economic developments,
organisation of clubs, membership, developing
yachting in all its forms, communications and
youth. Presentations were given by a number
diverse of speakers with maritime connections.
With early morning starts and late finishes we
really were sleepless in Seattle but the value of
the debate was high and information gained
immeasurable.
The mission of the ICOYC is to foster
closer relations at Flag Officer and general
management level between leading yacht
clubs around the world in order to improve
the quality of the yachting and other services
they provide to their members. International
organisations representing yachting or clubs
are few. The International Sailing Federation
(ISAF) immediately springs to mind being the
world governing body for the Olympics and
the sport of sailing. Access to ISAF is through
the national governing bodies and the RYA
represents the United Kingdom. The ICOYC in
no way competes with or impinges on ISAF’s
responsibilities nor would it seek to do so.
However the members of the ICOYC do have
access to every major yachting waterfront in the
world and certainly manage a large chunk of
the global yachting economy. The interaction
and exchange of information between Clubs
has become vital and is facilitated by fast
moving electronic communication and regular
meetings, both regional and global.
Current
Member Clubs
AFRICA
Royal Natal Yacht Club
(Durban)
AMERICAS
Annapolis Yacht Club
(Maryland)
Eastern Yacht Club
(Marblehead, MA)
Newport Harbor Yacht Club,
Royal Vancouver Yacht Club
Seattle Yacht Club
Southern Yacht Club (New
Orleans)
St. Francis Yacht Club, San
Francisco
ASIA
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club
EUROPE
Bruxelles Royal Yacht Club
Kongelig Dansk Yachtklub
(Copenhagen)
Kongelig Norsk Seilforening
(Oslo)
Kungliga Svenska Segel
Sällskapet (Stockholm)
Norddeutscher Regatta Verein
(Hamburg)
Nyländska Jaktklubben
(Helsinki)
Société Nautique de Marseille
Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee
(Berlin)
Yacht Club Italiano (Genoa)
PACIFIC
Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht
Club (Perth)
Royal New Zealand Yacht
Squadron (Auckland)
Royal Perth Yacht Club
Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club
(Newport, NSW)
Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron
Sandringham Yacht Club
(Melbourne)
UNITED KINGDOM
Royal Southern Yacht Club
Royal Thames Yacht Club
PHOTOGRAPHS
PREVIOUS PAGE Views of
Seattle.
THIS PAGE
TOP LEFT Our hosts Seattle
Yacht Club.
TOP RIGHT John Beardsley during a conference break - enjoying
lunch.
CENTRE The Yacht Club balcony
and moorings
CENTRE The dinghy park.
BOTTOM LEFT A lounge at the
Club exhibiting native Red Indian
blankets & baskets - even a bark
canoe.
LEFT The Americas Cup - complete with gloved minders on display at the Club.
11
40 YEARS AGO
Chay
Blyth
“The wheel's kick and the
wind's song and the white sail's
shaking, and a grey mist on
the sea's face and a grey dawn
breaking”
From John Masefield's Sea Fever
My 1970/71 solo voyage “the wrong way”
round the world is well documented but what
is, perhaps, less well-known is the role the
Royal Southern Yacht Club and its Members
played in making it a success. It was a story of
determination and team work and above all that
spirit of adventure which remains undimmed 40
years on.
The story begins at the end of May 1967
when Francis Chichester came home at the end
of his pioneering singlehanded voyage around
the world in Gypsy Moth IV. He made just one
stop.
The Canadian-born American Joshua
Slocum had done it in the 1890s with lots of
stops (and actually in the low latitudes – little of
the roaring forties and altogether nicer weather
– and he did not go round Cape Horn but
through the Straits) so now it was pretty obvious that someone was going to do it with no
stops at all.
And within 12 months it was clear a race to
complete the first singlehanded non-stop voyage
was on and by June 1968 11 solo-sailors had
emerged. History tells us they were competing
for the Sunday Times Golden Globe trophy.
This is not strictly accurate as the newspaper was late to the party and by the time it
announced its trophy all of the sailors had their
plans well in hand and some had even set off.
12
The Sunday Times “race” was always reckoned
to be more of a PR stunt for the newspaper. For
the sailors, themselves, it was never about the
trophy, it was all about being the first.
And, as we know, the first man to make it
all the way round singlehanded was, of course,
Robin (now Sir Robin) Knox-Johnston in his
32-foot ketch Suhaili.
But there were ten others who set off in the
summer and early autumn of '68 and I was one
of them. To the yachtsmen and women of the
time, I suspect I cut rather a curious figure. It
wasn't just that I had no experience of singlehanded sailing; I had no experience of sailing Full Stop. What I did have, though, was a belief
that I could do it.
That belief, as it turned out, proved somewhat premature but before that particular reality check hit home there was a boat to find and
fit-out. Sponsorship was out of the question.
With nil experience, no company wanted to be
associated with someone who would probably
die. However, I managed to borrow a Kingfisher,
the 30ft bilge keel yacht Dytiscus, from Westfield
Engineering in Dorset.
“Dytiscus”, as all science students know, is
a robust type of aquatic insect, a diving beetle
which lives in ponds and wetlands. For the
singlehanded sailor “robust” could only be
encouraging.
Oddly, though, as a now ex-paratrooper, I
did have some experience of the sea. In 1966,
together with John Ridgway (who was also
mounting his own bid for singlehanded laurels),
I rowed the Atlantic in an open boat and, at that
time (1968) part of my life was taken up with
lecturing.
And it was at one of these lectures that I
met Frank and Audrey Allen who lived on the
Hamble at Bursledon and were Members of the
Royal Southern Yacht Club. That friendship
was to blossom to the extent that we would meet
at the Royal Southern and plot my attempt to
sail singlehanded round the world nonstop.
Frank had a mooring on the Hamble on
piles between Moody’s yard and his own house
on the other side of the river. The Dytiscus was
moved to this mooring so I would be able to refit
her ready for the voyage. It may be more than
40 years ago now but I still remember the first
time I went on board on my own. I was to start
the refit and as I sat in the saloon and looked
round, I realised I had no idea what on earth I
was supposed to do.
After a while, feeling I had to do something, I stripped down and cleaned the cooker!
Actually, I was quite proud of my effort and
reported back to Frank.
His response was to send out an immediate
distress call to the Royal Southern. It was clearly
time to take me in hand and Club Members
quickly rallied round to help and advise. Besides
Frank there were Bill Cottell, Dr. Turner, Chris
Waddington and a host of others.
At my request we were to try and keep the
whole project secret for as long as we possibly could. I imagined what a field day the
press would have with my sailor's “L-plates”
and was anxious lest any word slipped out
OPPOSITE PAGE Chay Blyth
on British Steel. Photograph by
Beken of Cowes.
BILL COTTELL
Commodore of the
Royal Southern Yacht Club
1970 - 1972
13
14
too soon. This was made all the harder as
just up from Frank’s mooring, at the Elephant
Boatyard, John Ridgway was preparing his
boat, a Westerly, with the assistance of yardowner Tom Richardson, also a Member of the
Royal Southern. All in all I remember it was all
quite complicated.
Before too long, though, John moved from
the Hamble. He had elected to start his voyage
from the Arran Islands in the west of Ireland,
where, incidentally, he and I made landfall at the
end of our rowing voyage in 1966, whereas, as
time was running short, Frank and Bill thought
it best I should start from the Hamble Spit Buoy
and the timing taken by the Royal Southern.
The plan was simple, I would be led out of
the Solent by a RSrnYC yacht in front and wherever she went, I would follow; when she tacked
I would tack and so on towards the Channel. Ahead was Chris Waddington in his yacht and
alongside me to port was Frank in his yacht and
Bill to starboard. The idea was to give me some
measure of protection.
I was utterly clueless but, at least in those
opening few miles, my “outriders” knew that
if an emergency happened I could be sure of
colliding with one of them. The plan worked
a treat, I was led out of the Solent – without a
collision – and, just beyond the Needles at the
Fairway Buoy, there were cries of “bon voyage!”
and “good luck!” as my escort flotilla turned for
home and left me alone to learn how to sail and
navigate and, in theory at least, to sail singlehanded round the world without stopping.
There have been numerous books written
about what is known as the Sunday Times
Golden Globe race. About the race, the intrigue,
the death of Donald Crowhurst and about
the great French sailor and navigator Bernard
Moitessier, whose boat for the singlehanded
voyage was named the Joshua, in honour of the
solo pioneer.
It has to be said that singlehanded sailing
gets people in different ways and Moitessier,
despite being in with a very good chance of
being the first to circumnavigate the globe eventually dropped out. Not that he stopped sailing.
He didn't; he carried on – all the way round
the world, solo. He crossed his own path in the
south Atlantic but rather than heading back to
his start point at Plymouth, he sailed on east
eventually making landfall in Tahiti.
As for me, I could not get Dytiscus to track
down the big waves in the roaring forties and
she kept broaching, three times in one hour and
eleven times one day, I thought this was normal
sailing. In the end, common sense prevailed
and, at East London, South Africa, I abandoned
the global voyage to turn round and sail back
to Britain.
It was on the way back that I thought, well if
the yacht cannot go one way, why not the other?
It was my total naivety again and, as I had never
heard the saying “gentlemen don’t go to windward”, I resolved to go for it and sail “'the wrong
way” round the world.
By now – it was now 1969 - I had a slightly
higher profile as a sailor and I won sponsorship
for my “wrong way” trip from the then British
Steel Corporation. That voyage, too, has been
well written up but history does need to record
to role played by the RSrnYC.
As previously in the build up to the 1968
attempt, Club Members rallied round to help
and offer advice and with the now specially
designed and built ketch British Steel lying in the
Hamble it was all reassuringly familiar. It happened that on the Thursday prior to the weekend start we were storing the yacht at Moody's
yard. Each item had its place and entered into
the “Master Stores Book”, it was a hectic time.
As this voyage had never been done before
and we had been told it was ‘impossible’, we had
no idea how long it was going to take and we
stored up for 18 months! And it was sometime
on that Thursday that an individual arrived at
the dockside.
He was, it turned out, from the Board of
Trade. As the yacht was British registered she
had to comply with all the British regs in force
at the time and he had arrived to carry out an
inspection.
Forty years on I can’t remember exactly but
I feel sure he wore glasses and a suit. He carried an official-looking briefcase, I remember
that and, I like to think, had a row of sharpened
pencils in the top pocket of his jacket. Question,
answer and a tick on the official form; question,
answer, tick; question, answer, tick. Actually it
was pretty frustrating as we had stores to stow,
not that much time, and the questions droned
on. Eventually one of us had to crack.
“Have you two dan buoys?”
“Two?” It was Frank Allen, my first link with
the RSrnYC and up to his eyes in tins and packets of this and that, who spoke.
The inspector glanced up from his checklist. “Yes…two.”
“But who is going to throw it to him? He’s
going alone.”
The official was unmoved. There had to be
two.
We all shrugged. The questions went on until
Frank stood up.
“Look, we are really busy,” he said to the
inspector. “Can you come back sometime next
week and we will have all the kit assembled for
your inspection?”
The official agreed and duly went off.
I left at the weekend and no one saw me
again for 292 days. No one ever saw the inspector again.
As in 1968 I was started again at the Hamble
Spit Buoy and again the start and timing was
organised by the Club and as for my finish after
those 292 days at sea... well... that was amazing! I was escorted back into the Hamble by
the same familiar flotilla of Members and their
yachts but this time, coming up the Solent, they
and British Steel were surrounded by a huge fleet
of well wishers so it was probably just as well
my sailing “outriders” were on station as there
was plenty to collide with. And it was the Royal
Southern's Bill Cottell, the Commodore, who
fired the finishing gun.
The reception at the Club was unforgettable.
The Hamble was closed to traffic, a massive
marquee had been arranged in the club car park
for the press conference and, my, there were
hundreds of journalists.
There were two outside TV broadcast units
(there was only BBC and ITV then) giving out
live pictures which lasted for about two hours.
We moored up at the Club’s pontoon, The
Parachute Regiment’s Band was playing, and
the first person to welcome me ashore was the
Duke of Edinburgh, The Club’s Admiral, followed by Prince Charles, followed by Princess
Anne and then our Prime Minister, Ted Heath.
What an amazing day for me and the Club and I
doubt the Club had ever seen such thing before.
I was helped enormously by the Members
of the Royal Southern and the grand finale for
me was that, at a gala dinner given by the Club
in my honour, the Club made me an Honoury
Member. I was thrilled. I then presented the
Club with a half block model of the yacht British
Steel which hangs in the Club’s rooms to this
day.
What an adventure and what a Club.
Chay Blyth
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15
MAY REGATTA
16
What a difference a
day makes.
Near perfect sailing conditions on Saturday
and dogs – as forecast – being blown off their
chains on Sunday. Principal Race Officer
Simon Hand held on as long as possible, but
after due consultation with race officers Nick
Hollamby, Mike Foster and Stuart Childerley
had to bow to the inevitable and call off the
second day of racing in the May Regatta.
‘We went out there and had a look but didn’t
get much further than the mouth of the
River Hamble when it became obvious it was
blowing pretty hard,’ Simon reported, adding
that he would only expect to lose a day or two
of racing a year to high wind – lack of wind
being another matter
‘Bramblemet had it blowing consistently at
27 to 28 knots and gusts well into the 30s,
and that’s outside the criteria for running fair,
competitive racing round-the-cans. The start
lines would have been difficult as would the
mark roundings, and another criteria is the
safety of the committee boat and its crew – if you
can’t safely organise the race you can’t really run
it,’ said Simon.
Fortunate then, that the crews of the 54
yachts taking part in the regatta enjoyed some
sparkling racing on Saturday. The day had
dawned with light airs but right on cue a steady
14-15 knot south westerly breeze filled in from
the western Solent. A strong flood tide put the
onus on accurate laylines at marks.
One skipper happy to have made the twoand-a-half hour trip from his home in Ramsgate
was Paul Woodward, whose Farr-designed First
35 Stiletto won IRC2 by a whisker after posting
a fifth in race 1 and then winning race 2 to pip
Michael Brough’s Steady Barker. ‘We’d hoped
to do better in the first race, but we’ve enjoyed
racing in the Royal Southern regattas as they are
so well run and we get a full weekend of racing,’
said Michael.
For the 14-strong J80 class, the May Regatta
was a perfect warm-up for the UK Nationals
in Dartmouth the next month, and for class
winner Boats.com a final prep for the Worlds in
Copenhagen in July. ‘Unfortunately we can’t do
the Nationals – so this was the last chance for
the crew to sail together before then, so we took
it quite seriously,’ said skipper Ian Atkins after
recording a 1-1-4 scoreline. And he added: ‘I
have to say the courses were extremely well set,
the lines were absolutely square and they had
taken the trouble to offset the marks to allow for
the tidal effect. It was a really well run day and
the team did a great job.’
All the other contested classes saw the
winning boats marking up a pair of bullets.
Rupert Matthew’s J122 Jinja won IRC1,
holding off a challenge from Kenny Bruneflod’s
Hurrycane and Mark Chatfield’s Cajou, who
were tied in second. IRC3 was a J97 fest, with
Gordon Grant’s Fever dominating ahead of Mike
Holmes’ Jika Jika, Richard Watney’s Jeopardy2
and Tony Mac’s McFly, who accounted for the
remainder of the podium places between them.
John Allen’s X302 Antix
cleaned up in IRC4, while
Richard Vanner’s Blanco
dominated the nine-strong
Contessa 32 fleet.
17
JUNE REGATTA
18
You’ve got to be in
it to win it
The weather at the Royal Southern Yacht
Club’s June Regatta again proved the old
racing adage, to finish first, first you have
to finish. Co-skipper of class 2 winner Hot
Rats, Robbie Robinson, summed it up when
he said: ‘Our success was due to other
people’s failure – it was a bit of a war of
attrition.’
It was a story repeated through the
fleet, where a combination of good
seamanship, smart boat handling and
attentive crew work brought its own
rewards.
Saturday’s weather conjured
up The Solent at its most
unpleasant, with high winds
and a short, steep sea that
made for uncomfortable
conditions for racing
crews, Committee Boat
and mark-laying teams.
Some crews elected
not to leave the dock,
and many others,
having sampled
conditions in
Southampton
Water
and
further out in
The Solent,
elected
to race
another day and headed back. Those who
completed their single races – which counted
towards the IRC Solent Series – were happy
to be heading home before the full effect of
wind over tide kicked in. Principal Race Officer
on the red line Simon Hand said: ‘The wind
was quite strong, so knowing that the tide was
going to turn, we wanted to get a quick race.
‘Sure enough when the tide turned towards the
end of the first race we knew it was going to get
extremely rough out there and the wind was still
building, so we decided against a second.’ On
the green line for J80s and SB3s – as well as
the J92s, whose national championships were
running in conjunction with the June Regatta
– line squalls and torrential rain were the order
of the day, and PRO Philip Gage decided not
to start any races.
In the IRC classes only the Class 3 J97s Jika
Jika and Fever had the confidence and chutzpah
to set spinnakers, and even they prudently elected
not to try and gybe them in wind speeds that
were gusting over 30 knots. Sunday promised
better conditions, and though the breeze built to
produce lumpy conditions when the tide turned,
the smaller boats were given three races and the
IRC classes two.
Class 1 saw a much anticipated match between
two of the bigger new boys on the block, the Xp44
XS Moment and the Club Swan 42 Magical Mystery
Tour. Edward Leask’s Swan harried the Xp around
the course but had to give best to their lower rated
rival, losing by two minutes on corrected time
before deciding to call it a day rather than risk
gear and sails in the second race. Skipper/helm
Guy Jackson welcomed the competition on the
demo yacht’s first ever weekend of racing. ‘It was
good. We had some stiff competition. It’s given
us a good idea how the boat is going to perform.’
The newcomer’s impressive performance was only
marred at the end of the final race by a spinnaker
drop that turned into a trawl.
Robbie and Lis Robinson admitted to being
surprised to have won Class 2 with a 4-4-2 scoreline,
but as the only boat to have completed three races
they were ahead of immediate competition from
Steady Barker and Elaine. ‘We just went around
in a seamanlike manner, completed the races and
came home,’ said Lis.
It was a similar story in Class 4 where Timothy
Corner’s Girolle won thanks to 2-3-3 with no other
yacht completing three races.
By comparison, Fever added to her May
Regatta victory with another win in Class 3 despite
strong competition from fellow J97 Jika Jika and
the First 34.7 Madraco. Skipper Grant Gordon
said: ‘Saturday was really testing stuff and I’m
really glad they put in a race, albeit it was over
25 knots. ‘We’re getting set for our nationals,’ he
added. ‘They do a great job at the Southern. It’s
great training and a great regatta as well.’
In the J80s Robert Larke’s crew on J2X won
with a perfect scoreline. The winner of the SB3
class aboard Eau No!, Mark Stokes said his crew
revelled in Sunday’s conditions, even recovering
from an OCS in the second race to come back and
win. ‘It was the first time out in heavy winds but we
knew what we were doing – we seemed to go well
in it,’ he said.
Phil Riley
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RESULTS
IRC 1
IRC 4
1 XS Moment
2 Jinja
3 Sabriel
1 Girolle
2 Antix
3 Crakajax
IRC 2
J80s
1 Hot Rats
2 Steady Barker
3 Elaine
1 J2X
2 Jumpin Jenga
3 Team Baltic
IRC 3
SB3
1 Fever
2 Jika Jika
3 Madraco
1 Eau No!
2 Robina
3 I Maximus
Groves, John & Westrup Limited, Silkhouse Court, Tithebarn Street, Liverpool, L2 2QW
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JULY REGATTA
20
The July Regatta turned out to be a waiting
game, but one that proved a winning strategy
with ‘champagne sailing’ conditions on
the second day. The ‘AP’ flag flew from
Club’s flagstaff early on both days after race
officers judged – even without the assistance
of a damaged Bramblemet – that gradient
wind conditions out in The Solent would not
support racing.
The wait for the sea breeze paid off, but
delivered some unstable and flukey conditions
on the Saturday that were to prove decisive for
some regatta hopes. In contrast, a solid breeze
kicked in on Sunday and built to around 15
knots, putting broad smiles on many faces.
One belonged to Paul Blowers, whose Patriot
Games won the Impala Nationals, which was
run alongside the big boat starts on the red
line. ‘Sunday was beautiful racing, fantastic’
said Blowers.
‘We won the first race (on Sunday) by a
reasonable margin, and then the breeze got up,
the other boats got a bit closer, and three boats
finished within four seconds of each other,
which is fantastic racing.’
In the final race IRC1 and IRC2 started
together, leading to the most contentious start
of the regatta on the red line. With a clear view
Line Officer Stuart Childerley called all but two
boats OCS, including all of class 2.
Mike Bridges’ Elan 37 Elaine was later given
redress after establishing she had returned to
restart and – with protests by Steady Barker and
Extra Djinn later thrown out - won IRC2 ahead
of Steady Barker and Stiletto.
By comparison, IRC3 was a clear cut affair
with J’Ronimo taking the win. In IRC4 Ursula
and Richard Hollis’ X95 Crackerjax delivered
an impeccable 1-1-1-1 scoreline to easily win
the class ahead of Paul Waxman’s Imperator
and Timothy Corner’s Girolle.
Mark Stokes was similarly dominant in the
competitive Laser SB3 class, taking victory in
Eau No! a clear 13 points ahead of Finitor 7 and
Sponge Bob.
Mike Lewis’ Jester was the only yacht to
complete all five races in the J80 class, which
he duly won ahead of a late charging J2X and
Wairua.
The J109s only raced on the Saturday, with
consistency again paying off in a very tight
encounter for Jahmali who pipped Outrajeous
and Jagerbomb to the post.
RESULTS
Impalas
1 Patriot
Games
2 Celerity
3 Polly
IRC1
1 Vortex
2 Quokka 8
3 Tokoloshe
IRC2
1 Elaine
2 Steady
Barker
3 Stiletto
Laser SB3
1 Eau No!
2 Finitor 7
3 Sponge Bob
J80
1 Jester
2 J2X
3 Wairua
J109
1 Jahmali
2 Outrajeous
3 Jagerbomb
IRC3
1 J’Ronimo
2 McFly
3 Hullabaloo
IRC4
1 Crackerjax
2 Imperator
3 Girolle
Phil Riley
Consistency proved to be the winning way in
IRC1 with Tim Harrington’s X34 Vortex taking
the narrowest of wins with a succession of four
second places. The class wins were shared
equally between second placed Quokka 8 and
Tokoloshe, who were trapped by a succession
of holes in race 2 and saw a clear lead turn
into sixth and last place. ‘I couldn’t really
believe that we won it with four 2s,’ admitted a
delighted Harrington. ‘It was hard work actually
as both Quokka and Tokoloshe were faster boats
than us, so to do anything different to them
was quite challenging. There wasn’t anyone of
similar size in our class, so we were sailing our
numbers and going where we thought we had
to go. ‘Everyone found holes in the second race
on Saturday, and there were several moments
when boats on opposite tacks were going in the
same direction, and sometimes it was a case of
who could get out of the holes quickest and stay
with the fleet’ he added.
21
COWES WEEK
22
XOD Centenary
– from the
Committee Boat
The owners of the 145 XODs that had
entered for the Centenary Regatta as part
of AAM Cowes Week this year must all
have been worrying about what would
happen on the start line. But spare a
thought for the Committee Boats anchored
on the line which was over half a mile long.
All those yachts coming down on them
and no escape! With average wind speeds
of over 20 knots for the whole week the
starts were lively, exciting and very noisy.
OPPOSITE PAGE Club
Member Simon (Fumsey)
Russell in X166 Swallow finishing a credible 7th overall
in this the XOD Centenary
year. Photograph courtesy of
Getty Images, Aberdeen Assett
Management Cowes Week.
ABOVE Photography of XODs
by Maggie Widdop.
LEFT & BELOW Photographs
courtesy Aberdeen Assett
Management Cowes Week.
On the first day last minute wind shifts
lead to delays and manoeuvring and although
there were last minute glitches on most of the
other days there was only one general recall
all week. Thursday’s race started on time from
the Squadron Line with HRH The Princess
Royal firing the gun at 10 o’ clock. It had to be
right first time as all the other classes would
have been delayed otherwise.
The Committee Boat was required to
anchor on a transit between the RYS flag pole
and the Fawley chimney. Even though the
bearing was known this proved to be almost
impossible as, due to the weather at the time,
the Race Officers on board could not see
either. The first attempt was not right but after
15 minutes to retrieve the anchor the pin end
Committee Boat was securely stationed in 26
metres of water and 30 knots of wind. The
course was displayed and the start sequence
began. It started raining and the IDM started
to drift on towards Lymington. It required an
anchor of twice the size in those conditions.
A huge yacht then stationed herself directly
on and in the centre of the start line. It made
no attempt to move. It looked as if they were
there to watch the XODs beating away to the
west but then just before the gun went off
they all turned and put up their spinnakers for
a running start to the east. The large yacht
took fright and moved astern as quickly as
possible. The Centenary Race was safely away
to the enormous relief of every member of the
race team.
The weather was really horrible but there
were still 100 finishers that day which was
very apt for the Centenary. Well done all XOD
sailors.
Pat Aspinall
23
COWES WEEK
TOKOLOSHE
continued
The promise long shown by Royal
Southern YC member Mike Bartholomew’s
Tokoloshe was realised in stunning form at
this year’s Aberdeen Asset Management
Cowes Week. The King 40 with a mixed
South African/British crew took a hard
earned win in a competitive IRC 1, also
claiming the highly prestigious Britannia
Cup en route to the overall class win.
The imposing trophy – first raced for 60
years ago in 1951 after being donated to the
event by King George VI – was presented
within the panelled walls of the Royal Yacht
Squadron, Cowes. Tokolsohe will now be
added to the wooden boards listing previous
winners, and is believed to be the first South
African yacht to be so honoured, and Mike
Bartholomew the first South African.
The Britannia Cup win on the Tuesday of
Cowes Week was one of three bullets for
Tokolsohe in the seven-race regatta, a nip and
tuck affair with persistent competition coming
from several yachts in the 20-strong class,
notably the Grand Soleil 46 Antilope, a class
winner for the previous two years and the Ker
39 Inis Mor, an established French adversary.
Much of the regatta was sailed in strong
winds, though the opening Saturday began in
lighter conditions. When the breeze filled in
Tokolsohe nailed the shift and claimed a second to open her account.
The Sunday and Monday saw windy conditions with 20-plus knots of steady breeze and
gusts into the 30s. The results were dominated by the larger boats. Tokolsohe put a 6-7
on the board, which would prove to be her
worst results of the week. Tuesday’s Britannia
Cup race saw Tokolsohe in third spot overall, a
point behind Antilope who in turn were a point
off a consistent Inis Mor. In a less than dream
start Tokolsohe was OCS largely thanks to a
windward boat that refused to come up on the
line. However, the variable and flukey conditions of the day presented opportunities for a
comeback, brilliantly seized by the afterguard
of tactician Mike Richards and navigator Pete
Selby to deliver a 1 minute 29 second win on
corrected time after over four hours of racing.
24
The wind returned on Wednesday with
Tokolsohe posting a solid if unspectacular 5th,
perhaps in part due to one or two of the crew
being a little ‘dusty’ after the celebrations of
the previous evening. Thursday saw a return
to form, again in big breeze, with a 1.29 min
corrected time win over Antilope ahead of Inis
Mor. The only casualty of the day was the S4
spinnaker which gave up in a 30-plus knot
gust.
With the single discard now activated
Tokoloshe went in to the final day on 15 points,
one ahead of Inis Mor with Antilope still in the
game on 18. More moderate conditions saw
a tight race with the outcome in doubt right
up to the final beat. Inis Mor gave Tokoloshe
22 second an hour on corrected time, and
at the last bottom mark was on the cusp of
saving her time. But smart tactics up the
beat to the finish off Cowes saw her lead cut.
Tokoloshe took the win, and overall victory,
just 4 seconds ahead of Magical, a Swan 42,
with Inis Mor taking third six seconds ahead
of Antilope.
Phil Riley
REFLECTING ON YESTERDAY,
THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW.
EAUNO!
Eau No!, the SB3 owned by Mark Stokes
and crewed with James Eastbury and
Spike Watson revelled in the boisterous
conditions of Aberdeen Cowes Week to
win their Class. Mark has competed in the
past six Cowes Weeks and was delighted
with his win. Eau No! had been vying with
Red Rocket, helmed by ISAF Number 1
Laser sailor Nick Thompson, all week and
the result depended on the final race. The
Laser SB3s had an incredibly close finish
at the end of their 16.7 mile race, with a
number of boats grouped in tight bunches
of 4-6 craft and although Eau No! came
second it was sufficient to take first overall
with a 2.5 points margin. To celebrate their
win Mark was ceremoniously thrown into
Cowes Harbour… by his crew… when they
returned to the dock.
Aberdeen Cowes Week is one of the major
attractions of the sailing year and provides
a showcase for sailing. The Club continues
to play a full role by helping to organize the
racing, providing committee boats, judges
etc and also by Members participating in the
racing both on their own boats and crewing
on others. Given the scope of our involvement
we can only give you a summary of the highlights but our thanks and congratulations are
extended to all who participated and helped
make it, yet again, such a memorable event.
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you are onboard a beautifully handcrafted cruising yacht, recognised throughout the sailing world
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working in harmony with sleek modern profiles, like the unmistakable triple seascape windows that
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RÁN
ABOVE RÁN II at the start
of the Rolex Fastnet Race off
Cowes. Photograph courtesy of
Rolex / Daniel Forster.
RIGHT Photography courtesy of
Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
26
Winning Ways
Niklas and Catherine Zennström continued
their winning ways competing in Ran II and
Rán IV. In Rán II they won the Rolex Fastnet
Race for the second time, the first time
a boat had won consecutive races since
Carina II in the 1950s, the Rolex Mini Maxi
World Championship and the IRC Class 1
of the Rolex Middle Sea Race.
On Sunday 14 August, 314 boats set sail
from Cowes – the largest ever Rolex Fastnet
Race fleet. The forecast for brisk winds for
the first two days followed by light conditions
mid-week, indicated that the event would
favour the larger, faster boats on handicap.
This proved to be the case. Mike Slade’s ICAP
Leopard was in the lead in the monohull fleet,
at the Fastnet Rock but was overhauled by the
three VO70s. After a spectacular race where
each of the VO70s held the lead at some
point, Abu Dhabi, – with just 4 minutes 42
seconds separating her from Groupama 4 –
took line honours. In the process shei broke
the course record for a monohull. Rán II was
fourth to cross the finishing line at 12:53:44
BST on Tuesday, in an elapsed time of 2 days
3 minutes and 44 seconds and even upon her
arrival the silver hulled Judel Vrolijk 72 was
looking strong to take the overall prize in the
Rolex Fastnet for a second consecutive time.
On Wednesday, pace in the Rolex Fastnet
Race slowed with the onset of a high pressure
system over parts of the race course, leaving
many yachts becalmed, particularly around
the Scilly Isles and along the south coast
of Cornwall. The light winds continued into
Thursday as the bulk of the fleet approached
the Plymouth finish. Boats arrived with wind,
LEFT RÁN II finishing the
Rolex Fastnet Race at Plymouth.
Photograph courtesy Rolex /
Carlo Borlenghi.
only to be stalled on a foul tide, so there were
several virtual restarts approaching the line
and on Thursday night after the tide turned
over a period of just two hours, an armada of
105 boats crossed the finish line, the crews
arriving with tales of prolonged periods they
had to anchor to avoid going backwards. This
was a nervous time for Rán and her crew,
including fellow Club Member, and Rán’s tactician, Jeremy Robinson, one of only a handful
of yachtsmen to have been part of winning
teams for both the Rolex Fastnet Race and the
Rolex Sydney Hobart
Niklas Zennström’s Rán was finally confirmed as the overall winner of the Rolex
Fastnet Race on the Thursday afternoon. It’s
fantastic, really, really good,” said Zennström
of his second victory. “Everyone on the team
is very happy and very pleased. I think we’ve
never sailed better as a team. We sailed the
boat very hard, we were never kind of relaxed,
we were very focused all the time and we
pushed the boat a lot.”
In early September, just three weeks after
their Fastnet win, Rán’s crew arrived in confident mood at Porto Cervo on the Costa
Smeralda as defending Mini Maxi Rolex World
Champion. Rán started the week as the yacht
to beat. Bar a catastrophic loss of form or
retirement, Rán II’s second successive triumph in the Mini Maxi Rolex Worlds was in
the bag after a convincing start to the week,
when she won three of her four bullets. Her
three main rivals: Alegre (GBR), Shockwave
(USA) and Jethou (GBR) all had moments in
the sun but never really got close enough.
Rán’s crew had arrived in Porto Cervo with a
single objective: “We came here to defend our
championship title and pulled off a very good
series, sailing very well often under pressure.
We came into today [the final day] with a comfortable lead so we knew we just had to sail
well and not make any stupid mistakes.” The
Rán II crew enjoyed the challenge posed by
this week’s temperamental conditions: “This
venue is fantastic, you always have good wind
during the week here in Porto Cervo. It was a
little challenging with the Mistral before two
days of good wind. The Race Committee did
a really good job organising everything,” said
owner-skipper Niklas Zennström. However
the season didn’t end in Sardinia for Rán II as
she was scheduled to compete in the Rolex
Middle Sea Race in October
The Rolex Middle Sea Race takes place
in the heart of the Mediterranean and covers one of the most beautiful courses in the
world. Unique in that it starts and finishes in
Malta, the 606-nautical mile route includes
the deep azure waters of Sicily and the Straits
of Messina, the islands of Pantelleria and
Lampedusa, and even features Stromboli’s
active volcano as a course mark. In addition,
two days of coastal races around Malta and
Gozo take place prior to the start of the longdistance race. A total of 70 yachts started the
32nd Rolex Middle Sea Race on Saturday, 22
October. This year’s conditions favoured the
smaller boats for a change and in the top ten
overall, all of the boats were under 45 feet, the
sole exception the 72-foot Rán.
In addition to campaigning Rán II Niklas
Zennström also campaigned Rán IV, a TP52
designed by Judel/Vrolijk and built at Green
Marine in Lymington, which was launched in
the spring. After launching she undertook sea
trials in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and participated in the Palma Vela regatta as a warm-up
before entering the Audi Medcup in May.
The Audi MedCup Circuit consists of five
regattas over the course of five months in
four different countries. They are all sailed
in Southern European waters, one in the
Atlantic at Cascais near Lisbon, followed by
four in the Mediterranean at Marseille, Cagliari
Cartagena and Barcelona. Rán IV came fifth
overall, in her first season of campaigning, finishing by winning the final regatta in Barcelona
to become the holder of Conde de Godó – the
Barcelona Trophy.
Follow posts from the Ran yacht racing
team at http://blog.ranracing.com
[The sea goddess Rán in the Norse mythology lives at the bottom of the sea. She uses
a net to capture sailors and drag them down
to her, where she also holds wild parties from
time to time. The way to be safe and not be
captured is for the sailors to hold a piece of
gold, according to the mythology. That’s why
the team made sure to equip the new Ran
with a golden bulb that should be well visible
from the bottom of the sea.]
Rán IV
Rán IV is a Judel/Vrolijk
designed TP52 racing yacht
built at Green Marine in 2011.
Sail no: SWE5211
Class: TP52
Length: 15.85 m (52 feet)
Width: 4.42 m
Draft: 4.35 m
Weight: 7,300 kg
Mast Height: 23:80 m
Upwind Sail Area: 93,5 m²
(main sail) and 65 m² (foresail)
Gennaker: 260 m²
Capacity: 13 crew
Design: Judel / Vrolijk & Co
Builder: Green Marine Ltd.,
Lymington/UK
Rán II
Rán II is a 72 foot Judel/
Vrolijk designed Mini Maxi
racing yacht built at Green
Marine in 2009
Sail no GBR7236R
LOA 21.91m
Beam 5.75m
Draft 4.81m
Weight 17.5 ton
Crew 21
27
SEPTEMBER
REGATTA
Big winds fail
to overshadow
September Regatta
A Mayday and the remnants of a hurricane
threatened to overshadow what proved to
be an exhilarating weekend of racing in the
September Regatta, the final Summer Series
event.
The distress call came between Red Line
races 1 and 2 on Saturday when a crew member
on the J97 InJenious suffered head injuries when
he was hit by the boom. The Hamble Lifeboat
attended and Ed Morris, 22, was subsequently
airlifted to Southampton General Hospital where
he was assessed, treated and, thankfully, released
later in the day.
The remains of Hurricane Katia, meanwhile,
gave race officers pause for thought as it headed
across the Atlantic, and may have contributed to
a significant number of DNCs across all classes.
As it turned out, only one Green Line race was
lost on the Sunday. Race Officer Tony Lovell
explained:
“We were debating whether we’d get
any racing at all, but we looked at all the
weather sites around the Solent and it
was 20 to 25 knots, which it was when
we got out there. It just kept on gusting
a little bit more and more and by the
end of the second race there had
been a lot of wipeouts and it was
obvious people were going to be
pretty tired, so we canned the
last race and soon after started
to see 30 to 35 knots. We
were surprised to get five
races in – and it’s great to
see those boats sailing in
those conditions.”
RESULTS
Green Line
J80
1. Just Do It
2. Wairua
3. Swallow
In the IRC classes it was mainly a tale of
the three Michaels, with Messrs Bartholomew,
Brough and Holmes winning classes 1,2 and 3
respectively.
Mike Bartholomew’s King 40 Tokoloshe
took straight wins in Class 1. Michael Brough’s
Bavaria Match 38 Steady Barker also posted
four wins, taking IRC2 ahead of Robbie and Lis
Robinson’s Beneteau 35 Hot Rats who pipped
the J109 Me’ Julie of Dom Monkhouse for
second overall.
Michael Brough welcomed the decision
by Red Line race officer David Arnold to roll
classes 1 and 2, and 3 and 4, in together for the
final race 4 start.
SB3
1. Eau No!
2. Polar Bear
3. Chill Pill
J109
1. Jumunu Four
2. Jahmali
3. Jaegerbomb
Red Line
IRC1
1. Tokoloshe
2. Rocket Dog
3. Jolou
“It was great. It made a much more interesting start having the two classes combined;
a lot more exciting and a lot more tactical. The
courses were fantastic, exemplary really. We
enjoyed it and we’ll be back next year.”
Mike Holmes, meanwhile, had to work hard
in his J97 Jika Jika to win class 3 ahead of near
sistership, Gordon Grant’s Fever. Annie Kelly’s
J92 Blackjack was placed third. In the threestrong IRC Class 4, Timothy Corner’s Beneteau
First 36s7 Girolle took the win ahead of David
Rickard’s Dehler 29 Trout and Brian Mead’s
Westerley Typhoon Wishful Thinking.
BUILT WITH PASSION,
DRIVEN WITH PRIDE
IRC2
1. Steady Barker
2. Hot Rats
3. Me’Julie
IRC3
1. Jika Jika
2. Fever
3. Blackjack
IRC4
1. Girolle
2. Trout
3. Wishful Thinking
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28
J80 class winner Terry Palmer on Just Do
It was one competitor who was happy to have
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based yachtsman. Just Do It finished nine
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pipped Gordon Craigen’s Swallow by a point.
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in the SB3s, a string of wins only marred by a
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29
Hamble
SCRAMBLE
September 2011.
A rainy start on Saturday gave way to
a clear day for the start of the Hamble
Scramble from the Royal Southern buoy.
The south westerly wind was blustery and
provided the competitors with challenging
conditions.
Unfortunately Saturday’s IRC winner Batfish,
did not compete on Sunday as their mainsail split
before the start of racing. Bill magnanimously
offered his crew to anyone that was understaffed
- an offer that was enthusiastically taken up.
Whilst Hot Rats was making a good start two
very premature starters eventually returned to the
start line. Meanwhile drama was unfolding on the
Committee Vessel. On recovering the anchor it
was found the swivel shackle pin had unscrewed
and the anchor was holding on by a millimetre of
unsecured pin. Swift action ensued to rope the
anchor to the yacht. With repairs in place the race
was finished at Bald Head. Hot Rats took the IRC
handicap and podium top spot. Praise must be
given again to the smallest entrant, Needlework
as she also finished first on handicap giving them
two bullets for the weekend in the Club Class.
Bill Blain on Batfish was the only entrant
to fly a spinnaker on the downwind legs which
provided him with the leading position at the
first leeward mark. Peter Jones on X Celsis
took over the lead on the next beat but had a
reefing problem which allowed the Robinsons,
on Hot Rats, to overtake both boats.
The course with its long legs down the
Solent, against wind and tide for most of
the race produced close racing. With rising
wind and changing tide creating ever higher
waves it was decided to shorten the course.
This gave the Committee Vessel Amberjack
problems anchoring in deep and very bumpy
sea conditions, holding station at the extreme
end of its anchor chain.
Thanks to Philip and Sheila
Dowell for their hospitality and
for providing Amberjack. These
regattas could not take place
without the volunteers who
provide the committee vessels.
Also without the other Race
Officers, Mary McPherson
and Richard Vaughan, the
smooth running of the race
management would not have
been secured. Thank you all.
Mike Foster
One party goer certainly took
Philip to task, but he explained
that he was not responsible for
the course.
The first five yachts finished within four and
a half minutes. Needlework (pictured below) the
smallest yacht in the race, battling a 30 knot
headwind, finished 40 minutes later to claim
first place on handicap in Club Class in what
must have been close to survival conditions for
this old quarter ton yacht.
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30
The party on the pier had the usual wet feet
as the pontoon submerged under the weight of
the party goers. Despite the inclement weather
the social atmosphere prevailed with all the
usual sea stories and bravado that evolved as
the drinks flowed.
Robert Mulcahy Yachts LLP
Tel: + 44 (0) 1473 353455
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e-mail: robert@robertmulcahyyachts.com
31
ICOYC CRUISING
Seattle Yacht Club (SYC) and the Royal
Vancouver Yacht Club (RVYC) organised and
hosted the cruise in the San Juan and Gulf
Islands. It was immediately after the ICOYC
Forum and any member of an ICOYC club could
participate. In total there were 23 boats from 9
different clubs, including 4 Royal Southern
boats. In addition Club Members John Stork,
the president of ICOYC, with his wife Delphine
were on board the only Royal Thames boat.
The cruising area was between Vancouver
Island and the mainland with the route taking in
both United States and Canadian waters. It was
always going to be a bit of a problem deciding
what to pack knowing that the climate would
be similar to ours. In fact there was a heatwave
which had started towards the end of August
and lasted throughout the cruise. Temperatures
were in the high 20s with blue skies everyday
except for the last day, following a 180 degree
wind shift, when we woke up to heavy cloud
but still no rain.
The charter boats came from Anacortes
and Bellingham in the United States and
Vancouver in Canada. The first trip was to
meet up at Henry Island, which is owned
by SYC. In Anacortes we could see a great
bank of fog just beyond the headland.
Fortunately a friendly RVYC member explained
TOP CENTRE Waterfront at
Victoria.
ABOVE Hanging basket at
Sidney Marina.
LEFT Harbour taxi at Victoria
(looks like a floating yellow
train).
LOWER LEFT Angus Newton's
Champagne breakfast with
Southern Members.
BELOW Our 'Greenbox' hors
d'oeuvres competition.
BOTTOM Orens Island outstation and the raccoons.
In the evening there were prizes for the
two boats that stayed on the start line until
the race was abandoned. Royal Southern
came up trumps. Kookaburra won a bottle of
wine for being so keen on the first day - they
had tried to agree what rating their Island
Packet 37 would have and Lady D’Isles won a
bottle of wine for having their washing on the
rail - the organisers made sure that the rest of
the fleet saw the photo – six pairs of knickers.
After that the boat was known as Lady Dylis
as far as we were concerned.
that fogs were common at that time of year
but that it would burn off by lunchtime. This
duly happened and, as we set off, we had a
spectacular view of snow-covered Mount Baker
behind us and a receding bank of fog ahead of
us. It was a case of motoring all the way. We
did try the sails briefly but what little wind there
was immediately went on the nose. There was
fog again the next morning, causing most of the
sailing boats to miss the start line for a race to
Victoria on Vancouver Island. Thankfully this was
the last of the fog for the whole trip
32
The approach to the customs dock in
Victoria meant having to watch out for commercial traffic, dodge harbour ferries and
water taxis (which were yellow to match
the ordinary taxis) as well as keeping out of
the way of the constant seaplane traffic. In
the evening we were taken to dinner at the
Royal Victoria clubhouse in a classic yellow
school bus. The next stop was Sidney, still
on Vancouver Island, where the marina had
double hanging baskets on every pile with an
automatic watering system. This was to be
another race but, with very little wind, most
of the sailing boats opted to go whale watching instead. There were lots of dolphins and
birds and several seals but no whales.
Next day started with a champagne breakfast on the pontoon for Angus Newton’s 70th
birthday, organised by Russell and Helen
Tribe. All the sailing boats then joined in a
race to Ganges on Salt Spring Island, some
doing better than others. The crew on Double
Eagle enjoyed the sail once John Beardsley
had got over the sad fact that his 50 foot
Beneteau was so easily overhauled by John
and Sue Bradney in a 36 foot Bavaria. This
may have been because he could manage
only 6 knots in 15 knots of breeze due to towing a large dinghy with an outboard – which
he had been told to leave on the dinghy as it
was so heavy. Ganges was a fun place, full
of artists and artisans - very different from
Victoria and Sidney. It had a very good craft
market that was clearly aimed at tourists and
an equally good hill-billy band in the local pub
which was for the residents - who were dancing. Think “rustic” - serviceable but swaying
pontoons and double showers.
SYC hosted us again at their outstation on
Ovens Island where
the only facility was
the pontoons, with
the obligatory hanging baskets. Despite
the lack of facilities
there was a greenbox (hors d’oeuvres)
competition and a
Mexican tacos supper to which everyone
contributed.
Some brave souls
went swimming and others went canoeing.
The island covered in trees, and it was possible to walk round it in a few minutes. It was
also home to raccoons and we were warned
to keep our boats closed up and any garbage
locked away. In the dark we could see them
coming down to the water’s edge to catch
mussels and when we had our sausage and
pancakes breakfast in the morning the empty
shells were scattered everywhere.
33
ICOYC CRUISE
cont:
From Ovens the tide whisked us through
the Gabriola Strait to Tugboat Island in Silva
Bay, one of RVYC’s outstations. Our notes
said that RVYC had owned it since 1960
and that “it had many interesting trails, tidal
pools and wildlife across 24 acres. Deer, raccoons, otter, mink, owls and a multitude of
sea birds”. Also more hanging baskets, thick
woods with lots of arbutus trees and a fossilised sandstone beach - plenty of interest.
MDL Marinas
The final day saw us back on Salt Spring
Island at Scott Point which was another of
RVYC’s outstations for a farewell dinner. The sky
had turned grey but the weather was still good.
The hospitality that we enjoyed from both SYC
and RVYC was fantastic and almost every day
the Commodore of SYC produced Starbucks
lattes at 8am which he served on a silver tray.
Friendships were made and renewed and there
were lots of laughs. Plenty of dolphins and seals
and raccoons but no orcas unfortunately.
We are already looking forward to the cruise
that the Royal Southern will organise next year
with Royal Thames. Many of those attending
this year have said that they hope to come. We
know that we can give them a good time. Let’s
hope that the weather will oblige too.
Pat Aspinall
Freedohming
B ert
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There was a clubhouse with a DIY kitchen for
the use of members in which our RVYC hosts
produced seafood cannelloni for all of us.
More prizes for the Royal Southern. A wine
tasting competition was convincingly won by
Double Eagle. A bocce ball competition (similar to boules) was won by RVYC members
with Double Eagle’s “A” team (i.e. the three
men) reaching the semi final.
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TOP RIGHT Mooring up at
Tugboat Island.
TOP SYC's outstation at
Tugboat Island.
CENTRE RIGHT Commodore
of SYC serving coffee on a silver
tray.
ABOVE Martin & Chrissie
Hoar, Pete & Christine Tanner
and Pam Lowry of the SYC one
of the cruise organisers.
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34
Kookaburra
Lady D’Isles
Northern Breeze
Double Eagle
Martin and Chris
Hoar,
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CRUISER
RACE
Keen sailing,
playing hard
and chilling
out
After the beautiful spring it was fated to be
less settled in July for the Cruiser Race. The
weather leading up to the start was distinctly
unfavourable and most boats timed their
channel crossing to the Cherbourg rendezvous
between the rolling fronts - with mixed success.
The Committee Boat screamed across in less
than 9 hours whilst one boat struggled for
over 18 in howling winds Nevertheless we
all met for a convivial pre-race dinner at
Cherbourg Yacht Club. Race Officer, Cliff
Sturt, made the usual introductions to all
and held the skippers’ briefing in the bar. The
weather conditions were such that racing was
deferred until further notice with skippers’
meetings every 12 hours either over coffee and
croissants at breakfast or in the bar, whilst
analysing the innumerable forecasts.
Instead of racing on the first day, a knockout boules tournament was held to maintain
competitive sharpness. Boules were weighed,
jacks found, a flat pitch identified and the
referees cleaned their spectacles and sharpened
their pencils. The final saw Kuutar battling with
Dizzy Di. Keith Jones together with Bill and Sue
College from Dizzy Di clinched the title.
Day two’s highlight was kite flying – racing
having been postponed again due to the weather.
These were not simple kites cobbled together
from string, sticks and cloth but stunt kites up to
2 metres across. The kites soared and swooped
gracefully under the control of various Club
Members. There was the occasional dive bomb,
taking out other competitors’ crew members,
sabotaging one boat’s lunch and even catching a
lamp post. Drinks aboard the Committee Boat,
Spirit of Epsilon, later that evening brought the
rest of the competitors down to swooping and
dive bombing.
36
On day three, with reduced winds of F5 – 6
westerly, the decision was made to race but
with expectations of moderate to rough seas.
The fleet were keen to shake out their sails and
charged around the Grande Basin prior to the
start; Dizzy Di practicing slicing off the stern of
the Committee Boat as they bore onto the line.
At last we were off with Dizzy Di first over the line
followed by Kuutar and then Providence. Tactical
racing was immediately evident - Kuutar hugged
the shore to maximise the back eddy; Dizzy Di
and Providence battled it out beating against the
wind to reduce their engine time and Diamond
Blue headed directly northwest as they were low
on fuel.
The fleet rounded Cap de la Hague with
some trepidation. The closer one got, images of
clothes in washing machines and tumble driers
came to mind, as we went up and down and
up and down…… Gradually the tumult calmed
as we headed towards Guernsey and in the
Little Russell the mood lightened even further
when Providence was spotted with her motoring
cone upside down and Io had ripped theirs to a
fractious point. Both boats earned the duck of
the day award.
The following day saw no rest for the wicked
and we were off racing to Jersey. The rough seas,
strong tides and technical difficulties meant a
self start. Kuutar was first past Oyster rock,
headed for Bell rock and set sail all the way to La
Corbiere in steadily decreasing winds and seas.
Dizzy Di and Providence vied past Oyster rock and
their jockeying persisted to La Corbiere where
Dizzy Di took the north passage with lumpy seas
against the tide whilst Providence stood off. In a
nail biting finish Dizzy Di pipped Providence to
the post by only 29 seconds. A well earned rest
followed in Jersey: a lay day concluding with
drinks hosted by Tim and Maggie Stokes on
Aeolus and supper at the Royal Channel Island
Yacht Club.
Our Race Officer then set a challenging two
part programme for the third and fourth legs.
Both races had the same start, but the third race
was for the fastest boat to within 1 cable of a
westerly cardinal, a third of the way to St Quay,
and the fourth, to a finish line just outside St
Quay. Given a wind of F3 and dropping, with
little tide, tactics become more important –
primary consideration being use of the engine
(not more than 50% of total time) and whether
to use cruising chutes or spinnakers with the
associated penalty.
In glorious sunshine the Committee Boat
set up the start line in St Aubin’s Bay. The
start was very close with all the boats crossing
the line within 15 seconds and setting off in a
similar direction either goose-winging or using
the spinnaker pole to hold the jib. The greatest
challenge to the skippers was to maintain
alertness as most crews lazed and sunbathed.
This became even more important with the
increasing proliferation of lobster pots. On Io the
Tribes picked one up around their keel and did
a very elegant 720° to release it whilst a French
fisherman steamed in, not to help them but to
rescue his pot. Diamond Blue got their crew
motivated to fly their spinnaker in an attempt to
speed their passage. Likewise the intrepid Aeolus
decided to fly their spinnaker for the first time
out of the bag, undeterred by their experience
on last year’s race when, on a similar leg into St
Quay, they ripped the clew out of their main sail.
Given the conditions, it was a very close
finish with most boats converging on the finish
line at the same time, but Kuutar clinched the
race, beating Dizzy Di by just 5 seconds. Io, came
a very credible third given their close encounter
with the lobster pots.
The Cruiser Race culminated with the
following day’s celebrations. Crews got busy for
the dirty shirt race scheduled for 3pm, quickly
followed by the fancy dress, which included the
prize giving, and then whizzing through a pit
stop at lightning speed, to prepare for the final
collective supper.
All yachts prepared a suitable craft for the
dirty shirt race, each with different objectives
- the tars of Kuutar did not wish to be diluted
with water and so sported oilskins and strategic
umbrellas; the naughty boys of Io took their
buckets, as did Keith Jones of Dizzy Di whilst
Gemma and Amelia Sturt from the Committee
Boat were very fashionable in a doughnut,
pineapples, war paint and wet suits. The most
tactical sailing came from the youngest member
of the fleet, Jonathan Reading from Diamond
Blue, who crafted a bin bag sail which deftly
kept the wind from the sails of Providence who
were using their house flag. Within seconds of
taking to the water all were able to indulge in
being big kids, to much hilarity. The two dripping
lads from Io took line honours and then helped
rescue or dunk others.
It was then time for the fancy dress, the
theme of which was Saints and Sinners. Sinners
were in the majority, including the Race Officer
who came in sack cloth and ashes, however,
we were chastened by the presence of many
ladies of virtue, knights in shining armour and
Southampton football supporters. Given the
current climate, we also had our own newspaper
private investigator. To much acclaim, the results
were announced and the prizes awarded. The
close nature of the results testify to the keen
sailing and total concentration of the skippers
and crew when on the water, whilst the social
events allow participants to let off steam,
playfully but cohesively, culminating in a great
holiday. Yet another successful Cruiser Race.
Sally Sturt
37
Beaulieu
River and
Exbury
Gardens
– May 2011
The weather was somewhat chilly but,
undeterred, 22 boats set off for the Beaulieu
River with a visit to Exbury Gardens in prospect. The very warm spring meant that the azaleas, having bloomed early, were almost over,
but there was much else to see - the trees and
shrubs in Exbury being outstanding. Following
the visit to Exbury we adjourned to the veranda
at Gins Farm for our ‘pontoon party’ as it was
significantly warmer than standing on a sinking
pontoon.
Solent
Cruiser Race
2011
38
It was the morning after the Royal Wedding
- and the Cruiser Supper – so it was an
achievement to have 15 boats starting the
Solent Cruiser Race. The gate start – the first
one we have tried on this race – was executed
with great skill by the Committee Boat,
Kuutar. Although the course took us zigzagging across the Solent the first 4 competitors
finished within 5 minutes after racing for 3
hours. The Dan Bran had been booked and,
after tying up, some enjoyed a late lunch
whilst others had retail therapy in Lymington
High Street. At the customary pontoon party
the ‘duck of the day’ was awarded to Rob who
had asked the CRO for details of the finish
line and then managed to go the wrong side
of the mark. Another duck was awarded to
Keith who, perhaps understandably, missed
one of the 15 marks that were rounded on
the course.
Then came the bombshell! We were advised
that ‘unexploded ordnance’ had been found on
the Needs Ore bend and the river was closed
to yacht movements pending the arrival of the
naval bomb disposal unit at the 5.00am low
tide. They would assess whether the ‘ordnance’
could be moved, or whether it would be detonated in situ. Fortunately for us it was deemed
safe to move, craned out, and we could leave in
time to catch the morning tide back.
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The next day the wind was still is the North
East. The start off Berthon was a little earlier
than usual in order to make sure everyone got
in over the bar at Beaulieu. Again the gate start
worked well and the course took the fleet along
the mainland shore and the ones who gained
most ground were tacking in close along the
shore where there was less ebb tide. The supper
in Gins Farm on Sunday evening was enjoyed
by 47 members and guests. The duck of the day
award went to the crew on Nesina for leaving a
fender out. The forecast for the last leg, back to
Hamble, was force 5 to 7 with a nasty sea running. This caused mutiny on many boats and
proved to be challenging for the 5 boats that
raced back to the Clubhouse for the prizegiving.
Kuutar was the overall winner ahead of
Keith & Di Jones’ Dizzy Di and Daniel &
Suzanne Anthony’s Matambu, whose daughter
Rebecca helmed for most of the weekend. The
Sailing Prize was awarded to Chris Stevens’
Finlandia.
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Photographer Sander van der Borgh/Gaastra
Saturday morning was our first transfer
from Jolly to English Harbour, on the south of
the island, with the purpose of pulling up the
sails and discussing crew posts. Although not
all that far, the drive takes around 40 minutes as
the roads have some quite big pot holes.
We crewed on a local yacht which the others have been sailing on during their holiday
breaks. Elethea is a shoal draft Beneteau First
38, from sometime in the early 1980’s, designed
by Jean Berret, and had a previous life as a
charter boat and if boats could talk, etc. Still,
like many of the boats based in Jolly Harbour,
it lives on a hoist out of the water, the bottom
had been well prepared and it was equipped
with a new set of North Sails. CSA favours the
use of a ‘cheater’ instead of a spinnaker which
is a 0.75oz copy of the maximum sized headsail
which is flown loose luffed but using a spinnaker pole – looking like twin headsails when
going down wind. It certainly makes gybing a
bit easier.
ADVENTURE
n
a
Antigu
The original plan had been to join the team for
this year’s Antigua based RORC Caribbean
600 which started on Monday 21st February.
Gordon Cossar, Steve Lemon, Bill Blain and
some other members were involved in the
charter of a Beneteau 47.7. Unfortunately, I
could not make it due to work commitments.
It is worth recording that they went on to finish a very creditable 2nd in IRC2 to Tonnerre
de Breskens.
40
One of the main reasons for this race’s
popularity is the fantastic sailing conditions.
Big breezes and swells provide fast surfing
conditions on an intricate course which weaves
through 11 Caribbean islands. Best not land
the job of navigator. In terms of preparation,
the race is no pushover and crews need to think
about this as a warmer version of the Fastnet.
Plan B was Antigua Race Week which Chris
& Pam Mansfield and Gordon & Carol Cossar
arranged with Dick and Jan Long and Fay & I
as enthusiastic volunteers. This year Race Week
ran from Sunday 24 to Friday 29th April with
Wednesday as a lay day. There is an IRC division but most of the regatta is run under CSA –
Caribbean Sailing Association’s own handicap
system which seems to work OK.
Antigua itself is vaguely round in shape
averaging about 11 miles across, a land area
totalling 108 sq miles and a resident population of about 65,000. It is known for its fine
beaches – allegedly one for each day of the
year – and British colonial era history, with
Race Week based around the restored naval
base at Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour.
Antigua is a second home for a considerable
number of Club Members and walking through
English Harbour during the main events can
be a bit like walking down Hamble High Street.
So the Mansfield’s and the Long’s together
with us flew over on Friday 23rd April on the
Virgin Atlantic 747. The flight was full of competitors and more resembled the King & Queen
on a Saturday night of Regatta Weekend with
stories and refreshments flowing freely until the
Captain announced that they had run out.
We were collected from the airport by the
Cossars, who were already in residence, and
transferred to Jolly Harbour which was to be
our accommodation base for the whole trip.
Jolly is a modern marina based development on
the north-west coast, gated and with a decent
supermarket, the ‘Epi(cure)’, as well as a range
of restaurants and bars. The beach bar looks
west out toward Montserrat and is a great place
to take a rum punch (2?) and watch the sun go
down.
each race, together with the benefit of shore
support provided by the Carib Girls, who were
in fact from Trinidad and had a very friendly
disposition.
I was to be tactician which was a bit daunting not having sailed in Antiguan waters before.
Still, it was a very strong team supplying plenty
of good advice. Next day, the first race, the first
leeward mark heard the yell from a competitor
of ‘protest’ at us on an overlap – or lack of on
our part. It turns out that the locals take their
racing seriously with two Jolly based boats
coming together and nearly sinking one shortly
after. We did end up in the Protest Room, after
an attempt at arbitration, with three international judges. The pretty slick way in which it
was dealt was a credit to the organisers with the
verdict in favour of the righteous.
What followed were three days of varying
length windward-leeward courses along the
south coast. Thursday was a passage race to
Jolly Harbour and Friday a passage race back,
all sailed in prevailing NE’ly trade winds, 1.5m
seas. There is a 0.5kt set (ish) that is driven by
the wind so in principle you stay left but watch
the wind around the headlands. You can see
most dangers and the biggest worry is not getting sunburnt knees and staying hydrated.
ABOVE Daniel, our foredeck
hand consulting the Carib Girls
shore team after racing.
CENTRE LEFT Gordon under
the Cheater.
BOTTOM LEFT The locals
take their rcing seriously
BELOW The race team with
yellow shirts and product.
BOTTOM It was important for
the crew to wind down after a
hard day on the water.
During the regatta, Elethea was moored
bow to outside Antigua Sailing Club at the top
of English Harbour. This offered easy access to
the race course and only a 20 minute run out to
most of our starts.
The other feature of sailing on Elethea
was that one of the regular, local crew was a
manager at the local distribution company
that handled Carib, the most widely consumed
lager in the Caribbean. In return for wearing
their slightly dodgy coloured yellow tee shirts,
hats and bandannas, we were presented with
three slabs of product for cooling down after
41
Antiguan
ADVENTURE
cont:
BELOW Prize Giving Antiguan
Style is a colourful affair from
what I remember.
BOTTOM The post regatta
dinner
There are more parties than there are races.
There is in fact a party before the regatta, a
party every night after racing and two days of
parties after the yacht racing has finished. Most
involved chicken, beaches, rum and reggae. The
big set piece this year was Maxi Priest playing
up at Shirley Heights on the Tuesday night.
P
PP
ro c ra s t i n at i o n i s t h e T h i e f o f Ti m e .
ro c ra s t i n at i o n i s t h e T h i e f o f Ti m e .
ro c ra s t i n at i o n i s t h e T h i e f o f Ti m e .
We had a good regatta and ended up winning Class 6, the Class 6 & 7 Group, Best
Yacht over 20 years old and Best Antiguan and
Caribbean Yacht in our start group.
I have to mention trade wind sailing in the
Caribbean. Sitting on the rail in 20 knots of
breeze with the waves washing the deck, the
azure blue sea, watching the bottom as the reef
moves past underneath you has to be one of the
most cathartic experiences in life; anyone who
likes sailing, the wind in their hair and with an
ounce of soul could not help but be moved by
it. If you have not done it yet, make the time to
do it while you can. With a bit of planning, you
will be surprised how well you can manage the
costs.
During the season, Virgin Atlantic flies three
times a week and BA daily. The message on
flights is easy – book early. Sunsail has a base
in English Harbour and is right in the heart of
the action. There are also a few other charter
companies that operate from there. Those who
wish to sleep may want to consider renting
some accommodation ashore.
See you there next year.
Andrew Webster
A Fleming 55 anchored in the Abacos Islands, Bahamas
Owners
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arearepassionate
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Owners
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MOTORBOATS
As the owners of a motorboat we benefit from a number of advantages. One of
these is that, on the whole, all journeys are
enjoyed on a fairly level plane therefore
balancing a gin and tonic requires a steady
hand rather than a gimbal. Another is to
travel at speed and stick to a firm schedule,
when the weather permits, enabling us
to arrive at a destination, stop for a good
lunch and return to base in time for tea
However, this summer has been exceptionally windy (and as I write this there is
gale blowing outside) which has resulted
either in staying at home, not drinking
whilst underway (for fear of spillage) or
changing plans accordingly. This was evident during the Motorboat Open Weekend.
The Spring Rally to Chichester, Gosport
and Cowes was breezy and at times quite
gusty. There was hope for fine weather for
the main event in the Club’s motorboat calendar, the 12th Motorboat Open Weekend.
After all, April and May were warm and sunny
on the whole and, in hindsight, the best
weather of the summer. Not deterred by the
forecast, twenty-eight motorboats of varying sizes congregated on the Club’s pontoon
to take part in a weekend of activities, both
on the water and in the Clubhouse. It was
quite a sight from the balcony on a bright
and breezy Friday evening at the end of May.
The Club’s bosun had a challenge to accom-
44
modate all the motorboats and the RIB entries,
whilst berthing skills from the skippers was
greatly appreciated. In the front row were a
Sunseeker Predator 60 and a Fleming 65ft
motor yacht, who had been invited to take
part in the weekend with a view to competing for a new trophy – the C-Quip Distributor
Trophy. The Clubhouse was full with entrants,
sponsors, distributors and a small team from
the BBC South programme, H2O, who broadcast from the Yeoman Room during the drinks
reception. Lawrence managed, despite the
breeze, to provide us with a barbeque on the
balcony thus setting the scene for a casual
and jolly weekend.
One of the main events of the weekend is
the Predicted Log. This is a challenge of seamanship, navigation and mathematical abilities. The object is to declare, before leaving
the dock, the speed at which you will complete the course and the estimated time of
arrival. This has to be achieved without touching the throttles or referring to any time-piece.
There was a strong breeze all weekend and
at various times the wind was reported to be
gusting up to 32 knots. At the morning briefing we were also informed that an American
aircraft carrier had anchored on part of the
course and alterations had to be made in order
that the competitors did not go too close, or
indeed approach, said vessel for fear of arrest.
All the entrants made their way to the start
and congregated to wait for their individual
start time under the organizational abilities
of Simon Hand and Tony Lovell on Bonnie.
The seastate was “decidedly lumpy” – a
highly technical and obviously nautical term.
All four RIB’s retired and a number of other
competitors found the conditions too rough.
I believe this is the only time in the history of
the Club that a first prize has been awarded for
merely starting a race – the EP Barrus Trophy
was awarded to the RIB, Seychelles Dream
who made it past the start before quitting,
and the second prize was awarded to RIB
Newt merely for arriving at the start. Some
of the smaller boats were unable to maintain their designated speed in the conditions
on the Solent and the crews of those that
did were somewhat bruised and decidedly
wet by the time they arrived at the Cowes
Yacht Haven. A welcome lunch break and, for
some, a change into dry clothes was quite
necessary. However, there were various boats
whose abilities to overcome the seastate and
assess their boat speed correctly achieved
the accolade from those who had done neither. Steve and Rachel Lorriman on Capri Tide
predicted their finish time to within less than
1% of their declared arrival time. The C-Quip
Distributor Trophy went to Venture II and
they achieved second overall for this task.
There was a good entry from members of
45
Motorboat Open
Weekend cont:
46
the Fairey Owners Club and their traditionally
designed, deep-V hulls coped well with the
course. The Channel Islands Fairey Fantome
skippered by John Vaudin took first prize in the
Classic Division. Fred and Diane Ward dashed
around in Stealth of Brighton making a photographic record of the morning’s event. The
race officers and RIB drivers all contributed
to the success of the morning’s proceedings
in difficult conditions. At the other end of the
scale, the Vice Commodore’s boat, Speartime,
skippered by Richard Gough, completed the
course but was last of the finishers due to
a severe mathematical miscalculation by the
navigator (I am ashamed to admit)!
Sadly the wind did not abate and over
lunch, with deteriorating weather conditions,
and it was decided that the first element of the
Poker Run had to be abandoned. This would
have taken competitors, with pictorial clues,
to various buoys dotted around the Solent to
collect a poker hand of cards before heading
back to the Hamble. However, we were not
to be downcast, for the second phase of the
competition was ingeniously devised, displayed and played during the evening event
thanks to Trevor Blaber and Steve Lorriman.
Not only did they come up with a non-contentious method of dividing the playing cards
but, with the aid of TV monitors, played the
five best hands for all to see. The monitors
were then used during the evening to display
all Diane Ward’s photographic efforts of the
weekend so far. As evenings go, it was a
resounding success. Following dinner, Rufus
Stone, Hampshire’s leading soul band, and
Alex Shute’s disco had everyone dancing and
kept the 150 members, friends and competitors entertained into the small hours.
It was obvious on Sunday morning that a
number of competitors were feeling slightly
the worse for wear. However, there was no
time for hangovers! The Solent Safari was
to keep the competitors occupied for most
of the morning. This was to take the form of
an observational treasure hunt. Out at sea
the wind was still blowing strongly so it was
extremely fortunate that all the clues had
been set to keep the boats in the river. Whilst
some clues could be answered with the use of
charts, the internet or the local handbook, the
more obtuse would require a visual reckoning.
The majority managed to answer at least twothirds but a few catch questions or “googlies”
sorted out the competitors and gave us an
outright winner - John Skuse in Xanthus (who
also took third place in the Classic division of
the Predicted Log).
The delicious and traditional Sunday roast
and prize-giving rounded off the weekend
admirably and many of the entrants went
away with prizes and all took home a commemorative glass. It is with thanks to Andy
Short and his organization, time and effort that
the weekend was such a success.
Success was to play its hand again during
the Powerboat weekend in Cowes at the end
of August. Markus Hendricks, a member of the
Club, with crew members Simon Wood-Power
and Eric Smillie, took overall honours in the
Cowes-Torquay-Cowes International Offshore
Powerboat Race in Markus’ boat B558 Cinzano.
The race is 164.2 nautical miles and they
managed to complete it in a time of 2 hours,
53 minutes and 44 seconds giving an average speed of 56.7 knots (about 65 miles an
hour). In sea conditions which ranged from
benign to fairly rough, they brought the 38
foot boat home a mere 9 seconds ahead of
the Chinese entry, Powerboat Asia after a
race-long battle along the south coast. Built
in 1982 and designed by Royal Southern
Member, Don Shead (who happened to be the
uncle of crew member Simon Wood-Power)
Hendricks’ Cinzano had previously won this
race in 1984, 1985 and 2009. They picked up a
fistful of trophies and silverware including the
Beaverbrook Trophy, the Cougar Trophy and
the Waynefleet Trophy.
The Cinzano name was to be seen all over
the Cowes Yacht Haven during the weekend.
Not only did Markus race his own boat but he
was also a sponsor for a P1 entrant, Eclipse,
driven by Rose Lores and navigated by Lucci
Levi. For 17 year-old Lucci this was her first
powerboat experience and marked the beginning of a new chapter in the famous Aitken/
Levi family history. Her grandfather, Sir Max
Aitken, instigated powerboating in the UK in
the 1960’s and both her mother and grandmother had been participants. Eclipse took
line honours in their class.
The penultimate motorboat event of the
year was the Autumn Rally. Traditionally this
has been held in Cowes and this year was
no exception. With extreme good luck, the
weather behaved itself and corresponded to
the forecast as we enjoyed an Indian Summer
moment. Saturday was warm with light airs if
a little overcast but the fourteen boats arrived
in good time in Shepard’s Wharf Marina and
occupied the majority of the visitor basin. Di
and Martin Bedford amassed a fair number
on board Moonshadow and produced a spectacular lunch with the help of contributions.
Whilst some ate lunch others indulged in a bit
of retail therapy in Cowes High Street.
The early evening rendezvous was at
Westbourne House where we managed to
consume a modest amount of pink wine on
the slipway in the early evening light. Then
the assembled company meandered to The
Commodore’s House for a marvellous meal.
The venue, as some may know, is the basement of the House and is “decorated” by John
Terry’s collection of small boats, canoes, windsurfers, sails and a Frazer Nash car. We were
treated to an exceptional feast of flavours and
a thoroughly enjoyable evening was had by all.
Photographs of 'Cinzano' on
page 40, page 42 and above
courtesy of Chris Davies/BPRC
The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club was the
venue for Sunday lunch. Yet again, we were
blessed with a lovely day and pre-lunch drinks
were taken on the terrace before tucking into
a traditional roast beef carvery. Fully replete, it
was back to the marina and the boats returned
to their home ports on a sunny if breezy afternoon. The participants of the Autumn Rally
cannot complain about the quality and quantity of food nor would they have gone home
hungry. However there may be some who will
complain of groaning waistbands. I refer to my
comment in the Spring issue of The Southern
about the desire of the motorboating fraternity
to wine and dine exceptionally well. This has
held true all season.
Thoughts now turn to Christmas and as
always the Motorboat, Shooting and Golfing
Societies will have their Christmas Dinner
Dance on the first Saturday in December.
This has always been a riotous evening and
this year should be no exception. A festive
fare with party hats, balloons, whistles and
dancing to Teddy Messiah has always started
the season with a flourish. All Members are
enthusiastically encouraged to join in the evening even if you are not a “stinkpot” boater
(a phrase I acquired from the Commodore),
shooter or golfer.
Kate Gough
47
GOLF
This season the Royal Southern golfers have
visited some of our old haunts – Bramshaw
and Corhampton, whilst also going to some
new courses – Botley Park and Paultons Park
(not the theme park).
OUTBOARD MOTORS
We have seen new faces integrating with the
old, young with the old, high handicappers with
the lows, pilots, photographers and even the odd
sailor out on the course.
To change from the usual review of the games
which we have all played and enjoyed over the
summer, I feel that this time it would be good to
give an example of a typical Southern golf days
for those of you who wonder that we do.
Eight a.m., we meet at a golf club within 30
mins drive from The Southern, fresh bacon rolls
and coffee is served by the golf club. Around 9
we depart in teams of three or four for 18 holes.
Whilst there is a men’s and a women’s competition, we also highlight that the main aim for
the day is to have a relaxed game of golf with
Members who you may not have met before. After
the golf the club will serve us a ploughman’s type
lunch. Everyone then departs and heads home for
a power nap prior to the Club supper at 8 back in
Hamble. After dinner we present some glassware
to the winners, and personalised bottles for some
of the others.
Sandy McPherson
FAR RIGHT A tricky one for
playing the ball where it lies
RIGHT Surprisingly this is
the only place the foal felt safe
(obviously had not see some of
our approach shots)
SHOOTING
As a Club we should
be very proud
As we all limber up to next year, with London
hosting the Olympic Games, thoughts turn
not only to our medal potential but also to the
next generation taking us into the future. This
year’s RSrnYC shooting section has re-inforced
those thoughts. We have been blessed this year
with national and Olympic level shots joining
us with some considerable improvements in
the Inter-Yacht Club Clay Pigeon Shooting
Challenge. We were also treated on one of our
events to being hosted at Richard Faulds' new
ground. Richard was an Olympic gold medal
winner in Sydney and is a very high hopeful
medal winner for 2012.
48
At each of our 4 events this year, we have
been joined by a number of novices and improvers. Some have never picked up a gun whilst
some have barely shot in the last 30 years.
Shooting, like sailing, is one of those sports
which is readily open to those learning either
as a teenager or in later life but still allowing
for great success. Each novice or improver on
our days receives expert tuition to ensure their
safe development. Having sampled the delights
of shooting, quite a number take up the sport.
Without opportunities such as our shooting
section, it would take a very brave and committed person to venture into shooting as it is
a difficult sport to encounter without help from
more knowledgeable others.
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For our regular shots, the shooting section
provides a great opportunity to practice and
keep benchmarks. The handicap scores testify
to the steady improvement of all our regular
shots; some by as much as 15%. This has been
achieved by some, no doubt, through practice
but, more often than not, it is learning at first
hand from those better than yourself. Shooting
is one of those rare sports, like sailing, where
as a novice or improver one gets the opportunity to compete against national champions,
thereby improving your own performance.
Hence, we should be very proud as a Club
to provide such opportunities.
Sally Sturt
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Pride of Sidmouth Lifeboat
courtesy of Paul Duriez Photography.
SPLASH 2011
Our big event of
the year
Ben kicked off Splash with his usual style,
oodles of enthusiasm and humour. Over a
hundred Splashers gathered in the North
Dinning room of the Royal Southern Yacht
Club ready to listen to Ben, their Splash
Leader. He asked the young sailors to stand
up and face due north. After a good few
giggles they all managed to face the right way.
Followed by some guessing games, Ben created a great atmosphere for the children. All
fired up they went into their sailing groups.
Out on the water the groups sailed courses,
practised capsizing and raced. The weather was
mainly dry and plenty of wind for sailing. The
Hawks and Eagles headed for Cat Head where
they set a course and spent the day doing races.
They also took with them a two person boat,
a Feva and a Pico. They all took turns and
capsized frequently. Lots of smiles and fooling
about. Some of the Eagles were standing on
their boat hulls waiting for the next mate to
capsize.
Splash Youth week was well organised and
as usual just a great time for all the family, The
leaders took their groups off for daily morning
briefings and then out on the water. This year
seemed very calm and orderly thanks to the
Beach Master, volunteer leaders, parents and
grandparents. There are too many names to
mention, so a big thank you to everyone who
helped to make it a great Splash Youth Week
Some of the less experienced children started hiking out of their Optimists as the instructors filmed them. Much to the delight of the
children the footage was then played back at
debrief time. It proved to be a fantastic new
teaching aid. The week ended with hard won
medals and cups and the Splash Ball.
50
51
Splash 2011 cont:
Hawk Group
Shrimps (Ages 4 to 6)
The Hawk group has made excellent
progress this year with many competing in
open events and in the regatta fleets at the
Nationals where the hours of boat time have
allowed those participating to develop rapidly.
The group handled the varied and challenging
conditions
during
Splash
We e k
with
This year we had 19 Shrimps for Splash
Week! A record number with a record amount
of enthusiasm to become the next Olympic
rower! We had a whole fleet of Peanuts with
eight in total and we also had two Oppies in
tow for the week! Another massive contributing
factor to such a successful year was the amount
of help and support the Shrimp grown-ups
offered, for which I am very grateful so THANK
YOU EVERYONE!
With favourable weather we did lots of
exploring up and down the river with all participating in rowing, sailing, zip-wiring, mud
wading, rib driving and much more……
By day three all the Shrimps were rowing
independently without a line to the shore! This
was ideal for our third annual Pirate Party held
on the last day. All of the Shrimps had to row
across Ferry Creek to collect pirate treasure
from the far shores, and return in one piece
escaping from the natives!
All in all a fantastic week was had by all, if
a little tiring. The hard work did pay off though
and resulted in every Shrimp receiving a gold
medal at the Annual Splash prize giving.
I look forward to seeing you all again next
year and many more new faces!
Vicky Mansfield
(Wet and muddy, again!) Shrimp Leader
enthusiasm and confidence, completing trips
to Ashlett Creek, racing at Cat Head, fun
gunwale balancing games and runs ashore
to fetch ice creams. Although conditions
prevented a full race programme it was clear
that several group members were snapping at
the heels of the Eagles and have learnt a great
deal from all those practice starts.
The innovation for 2011 in having a Feva
or Pico circulating through the group during
the week was a huge success – particularly
experiencing asymmetric reaching for the first
time.
Nick Compton
Hawks 2011 Leader
The JCs
were really
looking
good!
This was my third Splash week, and I
have progressed masses since we first came
to Splash three years ago. I’ve made some
fantastic friends, and really learned how to
sail well. When I started I’d never done any
racing, and I could just about sail. Now I’ve
been to the Optimist Nationals (and met
even more friends). I love racing, and I love
sailing, and I love Splash! This year Ben
Richards (Eagle Leader) organised for us to
borrow a Feva for four days, and we all had
a great time in this, changing in and out of
our Oppies and learning how to manage the
spinnaker (and capsize!).
This year the Eagles, the top Splasher
group, did three days racing for the King Cup
(which I won!!!), but the highlight was the sail
to Cowes on Thursday. I was really looking
forward to such a great adventure, it would
be a big achievement in our Oppies. But then
disaster; Ben said the visibility was too bad
and we shouldn’t go. We pleaded with him,
and hoped that the weather would clear. Then
a miracle happened; the rain stopped and the
mist cleared. Ben looked out of the windows
and nodded. “Let’s go” he said. We all cheered
and rushed to change into warm clothes and
rig our boats, Three in the Feva, the rest of us
in Oppies. We set-off down the river, boards
up, wind filling our sails, and sometimes waves
filling our boats. It was a fast, planing reach all
of the way, bailing as we went. Every now and
then we stopped to keep everyone together. It
was really windy with lots of big waves. It was
exciting seeing Cowes getting slowly closer, but
I was worried that at any moment Ben would
say to turn back. I just concentrated on sailing fast: ride the wave, pull your mainsheet in,
shuffle back, pick up speed and surf, then don’t
nose-dive, let out the main, climb the next wave
and same again!
Suddenly we were really close. As we got
into Cowes there were some big waves and we
passed yachts heeled over with reefs in looking
surprised to see us! As we sailed into the RYS
harbour we were cheering – we’d made it! We
emptied the cafe of hot chocolate and marshmallows, then ribbed back, tired but buzzing
with excitement. A great adventure, a great
team and a great week!
Next year France!!!
Zoe James (Age 11)
The Cowes Exp
lorers were:
Annab
el, Chris, Eddie
, Freddie,
Cameron and
Zoe in Oppies. Nick, Maddie,
Ellie in the Fe
Sam, Ben and
va.
organising it, an Thanks to Ben Richards fo
r
d
for supporting our parents and grandparents
us in ribs.
52
Optimist National
Championships
– Pwllheli Sailing Club.
Twenty eight young Club Members
sailed in this year’s Optimist National
Championships at Pwllheli Sailing Club
contributing to a total of 450 sailors. The
Senior, Junior and Regatta racing fleets
had five uninterrupted days of racing
whilst the regatta coached and mini racers enjoyed a mixture of coaching and
racing. Four out of the five days had
winds of 4-11 knots and the other days
saw the wind reaching 20 knots and good
waves. On that particular day “those that
could did well and those who couldn’t
tried really hard in the testing conditions”.
All the sailors return home having learned
some valuable lessons and there were many
personal triumphs achieved. These included
Charlotte Lumby and Abby Childerley finishing the regatta coached race in what would
have been fresh to frightening conditions for
these two girls.
Some of the RSrnYC senior fleet sailors
found the going tough, although they did
well as it was their first season in the hugely
competitive fleet. Max Clapp had a good
week wearing the yellow jersey in the Junior /
Gold fleet for much of it until the final throws
of the championship when he slipped to
second, still a fantastic result. Ben Childerley
ended up third in the Regatta racing fleet
sailing an excellent series, including leading one race to find that his father who was
Regatta Fleet Race Officer, had abandoned
the race as the wind whittled away. Nicholas
Walters finished seventh in the same fleet of
85 boats.
It was an exhausting, but fantastic week
afloat and ashore for everyone. Yet again
those attending enjoyed the blend of coaching and racing depending on age and experience in the Regatta fleet whilst the more
experienced sailors continued to test and
develop their abilities. It is really worth considering joining in the fun at next year’s
Nationals or the IOCA end of season championships at Rutland Water in October.
RESULTS:
Senior Silver Fleet
29th Ben Waha
45th Conor Whelan
48th Emily Walters
53rd Emma Handley
Junior Gold Fleet
2nd Max Clapp
Junior Silver
5th Josh Waha
35th Annabel Whelan
44th Zoe James
55th Alice Handley
Regatta Racing
3rd Ben Childerley
7th Nicholas Walters
22nd Chris James
47th Will Parker
61st Freddie Liardet
66th Sam Richards
72nd Eddy Compton
83rd Isobel Parker
Regatta Coached
11th Isabelle Waha
15th Patrick Whelan
16th Charles Handley
28th Abby Childerley
31st Charlotte Lumby
34th Henry Compton
37th Sam Clapp
48th Alice Liardett
58th William Johnson
Mini Racers
8th Emma Clapp
18th James Lumby
Feva
The RS Feva
is a two pers
on sailing dinghy designed
by Paul Handl
ey, son of Clu
Members Dav
b
id
simple to rig an and Audrey Handley. It is
d easy to sail ye
t gives great pe
formance with
ran
Feva has spread asymmetric spinnaker. The
ra
pi
dl
y
all around the
and has traini
world
ng
novices throug and racing programmes fo
r
h to world ch
am
racing. It is an
ISAF Internatio pionship level
na
RYA Recognise
d Junior class. l Class and an
53
ACADEMY
What’s been
happening?
Our last report ended with the Academy
Match Cup after which most Academy
Members got their heads down for their
University exams. Things went quiet for a
while and then as we entered the holidays we
heard of some notable successes.
SB3 Worlds and Nationals
Rob Gullan, Academy Committee and
Solent University, came 6th in the SB3 Worlds
in Torbay, and once again our young Members
showed that they can mix it with former World
Champions and beat a few. Rob's boat was
crewed by Academy Members Ben Ainsworth
and Sarah Hickman. We’ll be hearing more
about Sarah a bit later.
The SB3 Nationals were at the Club and
so on home waters, we thought that Rob
was in with a good chance crewed again by
Sarah, Alan Roberts from the Academy, and
Chris Noble who wasn’t, but is now! With a
spreader breakage they missed the first two
races, but after commandeering Academy boat
“S’Boysterous”, they got to the start of the next
one in time not to come last.
The next day showed what might have been.
With outstanding downwind speed, they put in
the top performance of the day with a 5, 1, 2
out of the 36 entrants. These were by far and
away the best results of the day but carrying the
first three races meant that this was not going to
be their championship. However, it was at this
point that we noticed that our boys and girls
move about a bit! Wasn’t that Sarah Hickman
who had crewed with Andy Shaw when he won
every race in the Match Cup Final round robin?
It was indeed, and Sarah is no mean helmsman
herself.
‘More women in keelboats’
Sarah started sailing at Starcross in Devon
when her grandad built her an Oppy. She
progressed to a Laser 4.7 and then went to
two 420 World Championships before starting
at Southampton University where she is now
doing a Master’s degree. While at Southampton,
she has won the British Universities Sailing
Association (BUSA) Ladies Team Gold and
twice been top ten in the BUSA Yachting
Championships. Sarah says, ‘I want to see
more women in keelboats. We get asked to do
particular roles on a boat, but I want to do my
own stuff.’ We all know the saying – ‘behind
every good man there’s a good woman’,
but at sea perhaps it should be, ‘in front
of every good helmsman there’s a great
woman crew’! Sarah is Captain of
Southampton University Sailing
Club in the coming year and
has just joined the Academy
Committee. We wouldn’t be surprised
to see her with her own women’s match
race team before long.
The ISAF Nations Cup
This is ISAF’s own international Match
Race World Championship, and our Academy
crew of Andy Shaw, Ed Dyer, Ed Fitzgerald
and Simon Shaw went to the European Final
in Poland to represent Team GBR, with backing
from the RYA and us. They finished strong
runners-up to the Polish crew and impressed so
much that they were awarded a wild card to the
World finals in USA. However, Andy couldn't
go and so the RYA withdrew their support as it
would not be the same helmsman. Sad really,
but rules are rules and there is no doubt that
our team will be winning again before too long.
X-Yachts
The Captain’s Cup
We saved the most remarkable Academy
result till last: Andy Shaw won the Cowes Week
XOD Captain’s Cup with a day to spare! In a
fleet of 136 boats in the XOD centenary year,
this must surely be a ‘historic’ result.
Meanwhile back at the Club Guy Jackson,
who left Solent University last year and now
works for X-Yachts, won every race in the
X-Yachts Solent Cup until he retired to give
everyone else a chance.
J/24 Nationals 2011
Not everyone competes at the front of the fleet.
We heard that Academy Member Tim Brouard
had bought an old J/24 and with some friends
refurbished it, applied Academy stickers and with
an Academy crew entered the J/24 Nationals at
Poole. This is Tim’s report:
‘The start of the J/24 Nationals was welcomed
by all the crew who had been on the dreaded crash
diet to get down to the required weight limit for
racing. As soon as we had registered and weighed
in we went into Weymouth for our breakfast, lunch
and supper all in one at 5.30pm.
We started racing on Thursday in some good
conditions for sailing – 15 knots and no rain!
We had three races in Weymouth Bay, three great
starts but a lack of experience compared to the
other competitors soon showed us we had a lot to
learn to get to the front of the pack. The highlights
of Thursday’s racing were the two dolphins that
joined us round the racecourse, especially the one
that took a shining to my rudder and repeatedly
hit it.
Day two of the Nationals saw weather forecasts
of 35+knots and rain – enough to scare off some
of the older competitors – so the race committee
canned racing for the day. This gave us our best
result of the event – 1st to the bar!
The third day of racing brought champagne
sailing conditions - 20 knots of breeze and blue
skies allowing four races to be run to make up for
the previous day off. The first three races gave us
better results than the first day but we were still off
the pace. By the fourth race the wind had picked
up and we had carbon fibre failure: the spinnaker
pole had decided three races was enough for one
day. This forced us into two sail goose wing mode
for the final race. Somehow we didn’t finish last
in this race due to some great tactical calls on the
upwind legs.
The final day of the Nationals was much more
calm. With 10ish knots, just two races were run.
These were our best two results of the regatta;
ironically they were our two worst starts in all
the races. At one point in the final seconds of the
pre-start the race committee boat thought we were
going to join them onboard! Luckily a quick spin
round the back of the boat allowed us to start the
ROYAL SOUTHERN
ACADEMY
54
race finally. Picking the wind shifts like a pro,
Holly Scott, brought us back into the race. Some
great trimming from Alex Simpson and Tom Way
finally saw us looking like a competitive boat.
Shame this groove we found waited till the last
day to show itself.
Many thanks must go out to the support from
the Royal Southern Academy, which allowed us to
enter the event.’
We aim to enter the Club’s 2012 Biscay Race
and are very grateful to the Commodore, David
Mead and John Walker for securing the Sunsail
Mediterranean charter that will be raffled for
our funds. All the proceeds will be recycled into
sailing activities and with one Student Yachting
World Champion and maybe another soon, we
should see more Academy Members in big boats
next year.
These are exciting times for the Academy as
we feel we are moving ahead after a standing start,
and a rapid learning process. We always hoped
that Academy Members would increasingly
run things themselves and we are pleased to
report that the younger ones now outnumber the
older ones on the Committee. With 65 paid up
Members, the Academy continues to cover its
running costs with the aid of event funding from
the RSrnYC Trust.
We’d like to thank everyone who has supported
us, on and off the water.
The Academy
Committee:
Karen Henderson-Williams
(Chairman),
Colin Hall
(Vice-Chairman),
Ed Dyer
(Captain),
Ed Cox,
Andrew Dallas,
Rob Gullan,
Sarah Hickman,
Guy Jackson,
Liz Roberts.
TEAM WIGHT MATCH
Team Wight Match, a match racing team based in Cowes on the
Isle of Wight, was formed less
than a year ago and consists of
Tom Dawson, Tristan Jacques,
Dan Gohl and Skipper Sam
Pearson: all Academy Members.
So congratulations to all our Academy
competitors, captains and crews, participants and
winners. You have added a new dimension to the
Club and we’re looking to the future with you.
What’s next?
We have just had forward planning meetings
with the sailing and coaching staff at our two local
Universities and will be working more closely with
their Sailing Clubs in the future.
Another Academy Member, Ed Cox, has just
joined the Committee. Ed lives in Hamble and is
going to help us make better connections with the
sailors in and around the village. He also knows
about IT, Facebook and such things which are still
a mystery to the older folk on the Committee. The
younger generation now doesn’t use email much
and so our communications have been poor. Our
priority is to sort this out using Facebook and
whatever other social media are in, and so improve
information flow both ways. We intend to get a live
crew exchange up and running so that Academy
Members can find owners looking for crew and
Club boat owners can find interested crew.
Next year, we will run our Match Cup series,
but this time, our Final on 23/24 June will be a
qualifier for the RYA’s National Championship.
Following a successful season competing in match racing
events all over Europe they have
climbed to 131 in the world
rankings and currently the 2nd
highest ranked team in the world
counting only 4 events. This
success was rewarded with a
wild-card place in the Argo Group
Gold Cup took place in Bermuda
in early October. This is a world
class event and 15 of the top 25
match racers in the world will be
attending the event, including
current tour leader Ian Williams.
Prior to the event Sam said:
‘We are delighted to have even
been invited. We are now 100%
focused on the event and we
have begun training in any boat
remotely similar to the Bermudan
One Design. We have done some
sailing in Solent Sunbeams and
learned a great deal about sailing
a boat of that nature. We are very
realistic with our chances but feel
we will learn a great deal racing
against the world’s best.’ They
were placed in a strong group
and although they were knocked
out in the round robin stages by
teams that went on to the quarter and semi finals skipper Sam
Pearson said that they ‘Took a
lot from the event’ and that they
were looking forward to ‘putting
into practice’ all they had learned.
After the Gold Cup, Team
Wight Match have a busy period
ahead of them, competing in
numerous European events
including the Master Espana
Match Race, Bayona, Spain and
the RYA National Match Race
Finals, London. Their objective for
2012 is to move into the top 50
in the world rankings.
Their activities can be followed on the main social networks, Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube in addition to their website www.teamwightmatch.com.
55
It’s probably no bad thing to remind readers that the Ladies Committee has several
practical roles in the Club, and is one of the
three committees elected at the AGM each
November along with the Executive. The
committee comprises Flag Officers' wives or
partners and around nine elected members,
who, each serve a three year term.
LADIES
COMMITTEE
... some of the
Our role is to run daytime events at the
Club – no doubt harking back to a time when
rather fewer women had significant careers in
their own right – and to arrange the flowers and
decorate the Clubhouse at Christmas time. We
also fund raise – for our charities and for the
extras that make all the difference to the ambience of the Clubhouse.
As far as the Clubhouse is concerned,
Valerie Roberts’ tenacity in sourcing and selecting the new planters and Yvonne Curtis’s
artistic flair that resulted in painting one wall of
the chart room in picture gallery red are great
examples of what we do. We’ve also redecorated the ladies loo on the first floor this year,
refurbished the furniture in the chart room and
the butlers tables in the upstairs bar, as well as
persuading the Executive to replace the sofas
in the upstairs bar; all in readiness for the 175
celebrations.
The Christmas Fayre in early November is
our main event and source of income. This is
the one day when the Club is opened up to the
wider community, and with around 35 stalls
there really is something for everyone – from
handbags to “boys’ toys”, deli foods to delicate
small antiques and jewellery. This year Lulu
Taylor did exceptionally well raising sponsorship, mainly to pay for publicity. Once the
accounts are finalised in December, we hope
to be able to give a substantial sum, as always,
to Hamble Inshore Lifeboat and to our special
charity for the year The Rainbow Centre.
Next year, as part of the 175 Anniversary
celebrations, we are putting on our own Royal
Ascot Ladies Day at the Clubhouse, with a
special lunch and full coverage of the racing on
the TV complete with an in-house betting facility, so everyone can dress up in their finery and
have fun. We have also secured Dame Mary
Fagan, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, as our
guest speaker at the Spring Ladies Lunch.
Our special Charity
for 2011
The Rainbow Centre inspires and supports
children with Cerebral Palsy, assists adults
who have had a stroke or live with MS and
Parkinson’s disease and helps and encourages
their families. The work relies on conductive
education, a system of learning developed by
Dr András Peto and pioneered at the Peto
Institute in Hungary.
Daytime events
56
Our busiest times of year for events are
spring and autumn. The regulars include a
MacMillan Coffee Morning in September to
raise money for the admirable cancer care
charity. Our Bridge Afternoons in April and
November are renowned for the quality of the
tea provided. Catering and baking skills are not
actually part of the job description for membership of this committee, but they could be as the
members produce some superb fare.
The ladies’ lunches with guest speakers –
Valerie Threlfall on Ration Book Fashion in
March this year and Faith Powell on being a
TV game show contestant in October – are both
popular social events and good fund raisers. In
April we re-introduced a highly successful event
in the form of the Arts and Crafts Fair, ably
coordinated by Diana Gange. On this occasion
around 30 members displayed their skills in
painting, pottery, photography and other arts
for the admiration of all.
Although it receives no public funding whatsoever, The Rainbow Centre has developed a
purpose built centre at Fareham. Much credit
is due to its CEO over many years – Helen
Somerset How OBE – the drive and determination of its staff, volunteers and user families and
many generous donors. However money is constantly needed for running expenses, for further
development of the centre and the expansion of
its work to help many more children and adults
in need of its services.
We would urge you to visit www.rainbowcentre.org and to support the charitable and
wider work of the Ladies Committee.
Judy Greensmith
Sailability – a mum's
thank you
After a rather (to say the least) wet summer, my two
boys were thrilled to awake to a fine day. They leapt
out of bed and dashed, yelling, into our bedroom, “It’s
perfect weather for sailing!”. And it was, terrifically so,
which made a brilliant day out even more terrific.
Members of the Royal Southern Yacht Club had
very generously given up their time to take groups of
deaf people, and their children (at least in our case)
sailing on their own boats for the day, and even thrown
in a packed lunch to boot. The Members’ hospitality
was nothing short of amazing. As soon as we arrived
10 o’ clock on the dot and found our way to the
Members’ lounge, we were swiftly registered, nametagged and introduced to Elles, our captain and his
family.
The sun was out, glinting on the myriad moored
boats and glittering on the ripples and waves of the
River Hamble. A playful breeze played with our hair
and, to the South, lay the Solent and, on the horizon,
the Isle of Wight. The conditions could not have been
more perfect as we boarded Elles’ boat, Nesina.
Under Elles’ expert seamanship, we glided out of
the harbour and enjoyed a day’s sailing in the Solent.
The boys were fascinated with the number of different
boats and ships we encountered, from small but
speedy ribs to a huge oil tanker that, Elles informed
us, takes twelve miles to stop from the point its brakes
are applied. There were yachts, dinghies, car ferries,
police boats, and sailing boats in all shapes, shades
and sizes imaginable. It opened our eyes to a whole
new world.
We passed Portsmouth, crossed to the Isle of
Wight and headed towards Cowes, via a spectacular
view of Osborne House, before returning to the
Hamble. As we sailed we got a fascinating insight
into the various navigational aids used including
the charts, compass and depth gauge. In places the
sea was surprisingly shallow and, yet a few yards
further out, suddenly became much deeper. Dave,
my husband, and I were overwhelmed by the sheer
hospitality of the crew and enjoyed the cups of tea,
crisps and conversation - we learnt so much (though
we know we barely scratched the surface of all there is
to know) about sailing that day.
The day was an ideal introduction to sailing for
this family of total landlubbers and we would love
to do more. Is this the famous sailing bug? In fact
since then, our older son had been grabbing every
opportunity he could to do water sports with the
scouts. We can’t keep him away from the water!
Once we returned to the club we met the other
groups who went out and exchanged tales. One
group of adults had gone out on a rib, stopping
at various locations, other groups had crewed on
sailing boats, honing their skills and another family,
too, had enjoyed their first experience of sailing. And
this unforgettable experience was all down to the
generosity and hospitality of the Members of RSrnYC.
So, on behalf of everyone who took part on that sunny
day, a big thank you to the sailors who took us out,
who made us all very welcome on their own boats and
who did not even ask for a penny towards fuel.
Thank you to the members of Royal Southern
Yacht Club for giving us the opportunity to try out
sailing.
Clare Ingham
Win a Super Prize
in our
Baltic Lifejackets are famous worldwide
and as well as functional lifesaving
equipment they also manufacture
a comprehensive collection of
fashionable floatation clothing which
is available from chandleries and
watersports equipment outlets.
Club Member Keith Hughes, UK Director
of Baltic Lifejackets, is again generously
sponsoring our balloon competition. The prize
is a superb Baltic ‘Hamble’ floatation jacket.
In addition to being an attractive waterproof
gilet, it automatically inflates when immersed
in water and even has a concealed crutch
strap for added safety. Modelled by Lucy, our
Club Communications Officer. It is available in
a choice of sizes and colours (navy, red/black,
black, white/black) and normally retails for just
under £200.
To win this fabulous prize send the most
amusing caption for the photograph to The
Editor, Southern Magazine, Royal Southern
Yacht Club, Rope Walk, Hamble SO31 4HB
or email editor@royal-southern.co.uk. The
closing date for entries is 31st January 2012.
Our esteemed panel of judges will decide
the winner of the Hamble Jacket and the two
best runners up will receive a bottle of Club
wine of their choice. The jacket winner will be
contacted in order to select their prize.
Members are also invited to
submit ‘suitable’ photographs
for future competitions. Where
possible the subject should be
associated with the Club, its
Members or have a nautical
theme.
The winner of the competition
in the Spring issue was
Bryan Hughes, a frequent
contributor to the magazine on
the activities of the cruising
section. Congratulations to
Bryan for: “That's where I like
'em, dangling on a hook...!”
The runners up were Russ Tribe
with “I really must clean my
intake filter more often” and
Derek Gange with “Neptune
commands your members to
stop passing red wine into the
sea. They should know that only
white wine goes with fish”.
Good luck to all you budding
entrants……
57
Very,
very
English
Eccentric, bonkers, batty, total nonsense
and very, very English – if there’s one
annual event that has scribes reaching for
their thesauruses it’s the Brambles Bank
cricket match.
And 2011 turned out to be a vintage
year, and not just because it was the Royal
Southern Yacht Club’s turn to win the now
well-established mid-Solent encounter against
their traditional rivals the Island Sailing Club.
An Indian summer graced the occasion
on September 28 and calm seas made the
experience less of a scramble compared to
some years. An orderly queue formed at the
Hendrick’s Gin bar for those whose sporting
enjoyment is increased by something liquid,
and the well-timed passage of the giant cruise
ship the Independence of the Seas added to the
otherworldly feeling of the occasion.
For those who spend the rest of the year
trying to avoid a too close encounter with the
Brambles, standing on it, albeit for a brief few
minutes, is always an odd experience however
many times it’s repeated.
The dogs had as good a time as the dozens who made it ‘ashore’, though the minipennyfarthing bike found the damp sand and
extensive puddles a little too challenging.
As Royal Southern captain Mark Tomson
put it with some candour: ‘There are few days
every year that one really looks forward to –
your birthday, wedding anniversary if you can
remember it, the day your wife agrees to have
sex and the Brambles cricket match!’
Here’s to next year.
58
59
SNIPPETS
Tasters at work!
BELOW Hedley Bewes,
Patrick Brady (Hennings), Bill
Cartlidge, Angus Newton and
Colin Hall re-check the
new Club Rosé
The Wine Committee started work on the
new Wine List in early 2010. Stage one was to
define the range of wine styles and prices that
we felt Members would like. We then briefed
four well known wine merchants, with the
intention of settling on two or three. Apart from
range and price, service and continuity of supply are very important as we have limited storage space and reliable deliveries are key. The
Committee tasted blind. We were looking for
better quality Club wines at competitive prices
and a range of better wines to complement the
new menus. It took several tasting sessions
and by building in cross checks, there was a
remarkable consistency of scoring. Each tasting was divided up into several different flights,
e.g. Club Sauvignon Blancs, Club Rosés, Club
Merlot and then selections of the better wines.
Despite what you may be thinking, it’s not all
fun as you end up with a numb tongue and
black teeth. Hennings – independent merchants
from Pulborough who have been supplying
some of our wines for a few years - had the top
scoring wines in nearly every category, and the
House staff told us that their service couldn’t
be faulted. So, Hennings won the bulk of the
business.
Sailability Day for the Deaf
and Hard-of-Hearing
Thanks to the generosity of ten Members, the
Royal Southern was able to host a Sailability
day and provide 40 deaf and hard-of-hearing
people with a day to remember on the water.
60
Of course, wine is not a standard product,
vintages and prices change, Members get bored
with them and so some individual changes
have been made during the course of the year. But after analysing sales over the last year we
realised that it was time for a major review. So
this August, members of the Wine Committee
convened at Hennings to taste alternatives to
all the Club wines and about half of the better
wines where it was time for a change.
We found a very much better Club rosé
from Italy and an Australian Shiraz to replace
the current Club one. For the better white
wines, there will be a new Semillon/Sauvignon
Blanc from Australia with only 11% alcohol,
plus a Touraine Sauvignon, Verdejo from Rueda
in Spain and a Fumé Blanc. We found a fine
Rioja Rosado, quite different from the well liked
Provence Rosé on the list, and with the growth
of rosés in general, we will list them both. The
existing Vaqueyras will be replaced by another
Southern Rhone wine from Cairanne and the
existing Chilean Pinot Noir by a New Zealand
Pinot Noir. The new dessert wine will be a
Muscat de Rivesaltes from France.
A word about pricing and value. There has
to be a mark up to pay for the service, storage
etc. Most restaurants use a percentage mark up
system, so that wines double, treble, or more
their trade price. We use a cash mark up system – this makes the better wines much better
value. The top priced wines have a mark up of
well under double when you buy with your Club
card. When we started, the better wines were
only 8% of total wine sales, including wine by
the glass. Now with a better selection and better
value, they are over 20% of sales.
The new Wine List should be ready from
November. We hope that you will enjoy exploring it.
The Committee: Angus Newton (Chairman),
John Beardsley, Hedley Bewes, Bill Cartlidge,
Colin Hall, Fiona Pankhurst, Alan Sharman.
We were blessed with perfect weather warm, sunny and 15 knots of breeze - and their
experiences ranged from a high speed dash
to the Needles, with many diversions on the
return, to a wonderful sail to the Nab and back.
While Portsmouth Harbour was a favourite
destination almost every river and creek on the
Solent was visited by someone.
The vast majority of our guests were novices
and most had memorable experiences helming
and pulling-the-strings; many were so keen that
they refused to moor up for lunch and several natural talents were uncovered. The Deaf
Sailing Club was delighted to learn that many
of the participants were keen to join and embark
on a new pastime.
From the feedback, the day was a huge
success for our guests, for the owners and for
the Club too. A repeat next year would rapidly
sell-out.
All this would not have been possible without the most generous offerings of the aforementioned Members, to whom the Club offers
its’ most grateful thanks.
Tim Harrison
Hamble’s great
river gig
Hamble Sea Scouts were among numerous
Hamble crews participating in the annual Great River Race on the Thames on
September 17. The event, popularly regarded
as the London Marathon of the river, saw
some 300 serious and not-so-serious crews
pulling, paddling and no doubt cursing their
way along 21 blistering miles from Millwall
in London’s Docklands to the serene surroundings of Ham House, Richmond.
Hamble Sea Scouts’ A team in the Bursledon
gig Exocet retained their title in the Scoutaffiliated category, rocketing home in 3h 3m
16s, over a minute faster than last year. Their
under-14 team in Schmidt not only won their
age category but were also second in the under16 category, with a remarkable time of 3:50:57.
Hamble Sea Scouts ladies in Point Source were
second in the under-18 category, skimming
from start to finish in 3:40:06.
Several other boats
flew the Hamble River
Racing flag, among
them the Bursledon gig
Beryl C crewed by the
Bursledon Oars and
seemingly under a Welsh
flag of convenience.
Planning for next
year? It’s on September
15, starting at 10:30am.
Swanwick, Bursledon & Warsash Regatta
Members of the Royal Southern have always
been closely associated with the Swanwick,
Bursledon and Warsash Regatta or, as it
is more commonly known, the Burseldon
Regatta. Afloat the programme includes
dinghy and rowing races and has helped in
the revival of gig racing on the river. Ashore
there is amusement for all the family and the
day ends with the highly regarded firework
display. For many years the regatta has been
‘themed’, with prizes being awarded for fancy
dress – for people and boats. This year’s
theme was “Venetian Carnival”
that planning for the event can go ahead with
confidence. One bonus of being a Friend is the
opportunity to go to the party in the marquee
on the Friday night of the Regatta – an event
that is always over-subscribed.
It costs some £15,000 to put on the Regatta
and half of that comes from the Friends and
donors. The future prosperity of the Regatta
depends on how well the community and
that means mainly the sailing community,
supports this long established and popular
event. Becoming a Friend is a one way to
show your support - an application form to
become a Friend can be downloaded from
www.bursledonregatta.co.uk .
The Friends of the Swanwick, Bursledon
and Warsash Regatta are vital for the continued
success of the regatta. The support they give
to the Regatta Committee, both financial and
in providing a pool of willing helpers, ensures
61
OBITUARIES
Peter Twiss OBE
DSC and Bar
He became chief test pilot at Fairey and, on
the 10 March 1956, it was in one of its supersonic research planes, the Fairey Delta 2, that
he took on the world speed record. His cockpit
controls had indicated to him in previous test
flights that it could reach 1,000mph. Taking off
from Wiltshire, he made half a dozen passes at
38,000 feet, “travelling up and down the south
coast like a bus,” as he put it. Using radar and
information provided by ground observers,
he carried out his navigational feats superbly,
landing 24 minutes after he had taken off, with
an average speed of 1,132 miles an hour for
his runs. He was hailed as a hero. The only
people who took a negative view of his performance were the owners of greenhouses shattered by his sonic boom, and the US air force.
The attempts had been kept secret from
them: “I think the Americans were surprised,”
Twiss said wrily.
Peter Twiss was an airman who distinguished
himself in both war and peace, a fighter
pilot during the Second World War who later
became the first man to fly faster than 1,000
miles an hour. He lived much of his life on
the edge, first in aerial battle and later as a
test pilot, registering more than 4,500 hours
flying time in over 140 different types of aircraft. He had been a Member of the Royal
Southern since 1965.
Photographs from
'Faster than the sun'
TOP Peter Twiss at Lasham
in 1994.
CENTRE The record breaking
Fairey Delta 2.
BOTTOM From the film 'From
Russian with love' Peter Twiss
chasing Sean Connery.
62
Peter Twiss was born in 1921 in Sussex, the
grandson of an admiral and the son of an army
officer. He was educated at Sherborne School
in Dorset, living with his grandmother while
his parents were posted to India and Burma. A
spell followed as a junior tea taster with Brooke
Bond before the Fleet Air Arm accepted him
at the second attempt in 1939. This launched
him on his flying career. His initial operational
experience was on the Hawker Hurricane, in
which he was assigned to merchant vessels
equipped with a catapult. This arrangement
was designed to provide convoys with a means
of combating long-range German patrol aircraft but - with no means of landing back on the
ship - a pilot had to end the sortie by heading
for land or bailing out close to the convoy, and
hope he was picked up by one of its ships a decidedly risky enterprise.
He then moved to Fairey Fulmar fighters on board the elderly carrier HMS Argus
on Mediterranean convoys, being awarded a
Distinguished Service Cross. A Bar to the decoration came with his service on Supermarine
Seafires during the Allied landings in North
Africa, before he moved to another thoroughbred, the De Havilland Mosquito, on intruder
sorties over occupied France.
In the last years of the war he was assigned
as a test pilot in both Britain and the US, and
in this role he was loaned to Fairey Aviation. He
stayed on with the company after leaving the
navy with the rank of lieutenant-commander.
His widow Jane said recently: “He decided after
leaving the navy that he didn’t want to become
a commercial pilot because that would be a bit
boring for him - he said it would be like driving
a bus.”
Paul Curtis
Paul Curtis, who died suddenly in September
after a courageous fight against cancer, was a
much respected member of the Club and will
be sorely missed by all who knew him.
Sam Alexander MC
16 June 1982 – 27 May 2011
Having a home in The Square, it was only a
short walk down the hill to the club and, occasionally, it could involve a stop at Spake the
butcher to buy beef bones to dangle on string
from the public hard wall to catch crabs.
In 1960 when Fairey Aviation was sold to
Westland Aircraft he joined Fairey Marine and
was responsible for development and sales of
day-cruisers. His work as a marine consultant
led to directorships of Fairey Marine (1968-78)
and Hamble Point Marina (1978-88). In 1969,
driving the Fairey Huntsman 707 Fordsport, he
took part in the Round Britain Powerboat Race,
including among his crew Rally champion
Roger Clark. He was also a member of Lasham
Gliding Society for many years. His autobiography Faster Than the Sun was published in
1963, and revised in 2005.
He also had some adventurous moments in
motion pictures. He piloted a Fairey Swordfish
torpedo bomber in the 1960 movie “Sink the
Bismarck!” reprising the British attack on that
German battleship in World War II. In 1963 he
was at the helm of a Fairey Huntress during a
chase scene in “From Russia With Love.” He
wasn’t in quest of a speed record this time. He
was a bad guy in pursuit of Sean Connery’s
James Bond.
He is survived by his widow, Jane and two
children.
Some of Sam’s carefree, childhood days
were spent at the Royal Southern, not least
indulging a sense of adventure. It was far
more fun to capsize the Tadpole dinghy than
to learn all the technical stuff about making
it sail faster. Especially if that included passengers – unsuspecting girls were favoured.
Climbing to the top of marquees and sliding
back down was also a good game.
These were early signs of the fearlessness
that eventually gave Sam the determination to
complete one of life’s tougher obstacle courses, the Royal Marine Commando training.
The Green Beret of approval and transition
to 42 Commando was a self-made, personal
achievement.
Sign, also, of wanting to be part of a group
– his mother, Serena, helped found Splash
Club – which was so essential when, on his
first tour to Afghanistan, on the same day on
which he had survived a bullet through his
helmet, he went on to hold the ring while his
troop commander was rescued.
He was awarded the Military Cross, put
the Queen at ease during the Windsor investiture by chatting about his marriage to Claire
and their plan to buy a new house, and went
back to add a new role as father to Leo.
Clearing a known terrorist installation on
his second tour in South Helmand, he was
killed by an improvised explosive device just
a few days before his 29th birthday and a few
weeks before a scheduled return home for
Leo’s first birthday.
Both the club and country can feel proud
of him.
Stuart Alexander
Paul’s sailing career started in dinghies in
Norfolk (where he was born and brought up)
then he graduated to larger yachts in the 70s.
After co-owning a Hustler 30, Paul decided
to join the burgeoning Offshore One Design
movement and was one of the first to buy an
Impala 28 OOD. With his unique blend of
applied theory and instinctive feel for a yacht,
Paul was soon up at the front of the fleet. And
his wife Bronwyn was always an active crew
member.
Paul then went half-tonning – equally successfully - buying an HB31. After a few years, he
discovered an even better boat, an OPB (other
person’s boat). This particular OPB was Paul
Gatrill’s half-tonner Scorpio. The Curtis touch
was soon evident, as Scorpio picked up pots
galore and dominated her division in JOG offshore racing, as did a later Scorpio, a Sigma 38.
Paul then joined the new sportsboat scene
that flourished in the 90s, buying one of the first
Hunter 707s. Like many other Club members,
he dry-sailed this boat from the Club’s new
boat park facility. Paul and Bronwyn kept their
707 until a couple of years ago, continuing to
race this speedy lightweight (with considerable
success) well into their 60s.
Paul also did a lot for the Club behind the
scenes. He was a member of the Executive
Committee and, as a successful computer software writer, gave his considerable expertise to
the Club when new IT systems were installed
and developed. He also played a role in the
early days of Splash.
We pass on our condolences to Paul’s wife
Bronwyn and children Ashley and Camille. He
was a great guy and will be much missed.
Peter Poland
63
David Dunn
Mike Penney
David Mallett
All Members will have different memories of
David but they are united in their affection
for, and sadness at the loss of a kind, considerate and charming man.
Mike Penney will probably be best
remembered by most Club Members as a
protest committee judge. He was a regular
juror for the Club’s regattas as well as the
Warsash Spring Series and Hamble River
Winter Series and probably held the world
record for hearing protests. However there
was much more to Mike; he was a connoisseur
of fine wine, an aficionado of classical music
and a meteorologist.
David Mallett, who was born in July 1924
in Guernsey, was one of five children and
most of his childhood was spent in what was
then a sleepy backwater. However, in June
1940, the people of Guernsey could hear
the booming artillery on the French coast
and it was decided to evacuate the children
to the United Kingdom, and within two
days, boats full of youngsters were leaving
for Weymouth. David was one of those
youngsters.
David’s interests and activities were so
many and varied that it is difficult to know
where to start – the instigator and first editor of
‘The Southern’, latterly the voice of Burseldon
Regatta, long haul pilot, sailor, family man,
ready volunteer. The list could continue.
Born in Scotland, where he sailed as a
child, David started his working life as an
engineering apprentice before entering the
Navy for his National Service. It was the Navy
that taught him to fly which became one of the
loves of his life and led him to join BOAC as
a pilot.
David joined the Royal Southern in 1967
and during the seventies shared an Alan
Buchanan 28, Intrigue, with fellow Members
Joe Pridal and the late Alan Pirie. Intrigue
was subsequently replaced with a larger boat,
Carioch, a partnership that lasted 21 years.
David and Bridget married in 1969. They
had 3 children, Tom, Hamish and Sadie.
Sadley Tom was killed in a flying accident in
1999.
In 1981 he left the then British Airways to
join Singapore Airlines. This involved moving the family to Singapore but they retained
a house in Burseldon, and their links with
the area, to which they returned when David
retired.
During his stay in Singapore David
belonged to the Changi Yacht Club and, for
eight years, he edited their club magazine. On
his return to the United Kingdom the success
of this venture became known and he was
persuaded to do one for the Royal Southern.
Thus ‘The Southern’ was born. In those precomputer days the magazine was A5 so as
to fit on to the bookshelf of a boat. David
continued to edit ‘The Southern’, with Maggie
Widdop and produced four issues a year, until
2005. Afterwards he was generous in his assistance with the continuing production of the
magazine.
However he did not restrict his assistance
to the magazine but helped in a wide range of
Club activities such as the Christmas footlights
and Burns night – for which he often produced
his own script. He was a regular attendee at
the Aviators gathering on a Thursday evening.
Always good with children he revelled in
helping teach his children and granddaughter,
Caitlin, to sail and was always an enthusiastic
helper at Splash. He was a core member of the
Burseldon Regatta Committee, including serving as its secretary for 15 years.
We shall all miss him.
64
Following completing his schooling in the
UK he won an RAF Scholarship to Edinburgh
University and went to Canada for training as
a navigator. His first active mission was the
Arnhem Raid and he continued in the RAF
after the war. On leaving the RAF he went into
the space and defence industries during which
time he travelled the world. After retirement
he continued to travel with his late wife Mona.
He was born on 1 November 1945 into an
RAF family and, after a peripatetic childhood,
he started work as a trainee meteorologist at the
age of 16. He subsequently became interested
in computer engineering and pursued a career
in this until his retirement. During the sixties he
lived in London and, although involved with
the emerging modern music scene, classical
music was his first love. He was a dedicated
promenader and had the honour of placing the
wreath on the bust of Sir Henry Wood at the
last night of the 1974 proms. He married Anne
in 1975 and their move to Hamble enabled
Mike to renew his lifelong love of sailing. On
joining the Royal Southern in 1992 he was
quickly co-opted on to the Sailing Committee.
Despite enjoying racing, judging became his
primary interest and he became a well known
national judge. He also served on the House
Committee where his love of fine food and wine
made him a valuable committee member.
Some five years ago Mike had major surgery
and, following complications, was unwell for
the rest of his life. He died on 18 September
2011, his 36th wedding anniversary. He leaves
his wife Anne and children, James and Lucie.
Simon Hand
David loved the Club and had been
a Member since 1973. He chaired the
Entertainments Committee for some 8 years;
was a founder member of the ‘Six O’clock
Club’ and a familiar face at lectures and
all Club events until his health started to
deteriorate some five years ago. However, with
the help of his daughter Monica he continued
to visit the Club, albeit less frequently, until
earlier this year when he became too frail to
leave his home. He died on the 18th October.
ROYAL
SOUTHERN
YACHT
CLUB
BENEFITS
OF
MEMBERSHIP
Being a Member of the Royal
Southern brings many benefits
both on and off the water.
The BEST Racing in the
Solent
Greatly discounted entry to
Royal Southern Regattas
25 Cruiser Events,
Motorboat Rallies & Fun
Days
A rapidly expanding, high
quality Youth Programme
47 Moorings by ballot
18 RIB berths by ballot
21 Dry Berths by ballot
7 Clay Pigeon Shoots
5 Rounds of Golf
Numerous Games of Bridge
T
hree bars, Two Restaurants,
with 20% discount on drinks
with membership card
Online Crew Register
12 En Suite Bedrooms
Bosuns and Club Launch
available 7 days a week
20 Wednesday Lectures
2 Wine Tastings
20 RYA Training Courses
4 Club Balls
Numerous Dinners, Suppers
and BBQs
The best Clubhouse on the
South coast.
And most of all, 1600 friends
to share them with!
65
Special Events
Bars and Dining
bar HOURS
The Royal Southern is an ideal venue for
business or social functions. The Yeoman
Room, River Room and Dining Rooms which
can cater from 8 – 200 guests, have views over
the river and can be set up for conferences or
banquets.
Please contact Chris Pullinger House
Manager who will be pleased to help you plan
your party, wedding or conference.
Monday – Tuesday Bar Lunch served
1100 – 1500 hrs
1700 – 2100* hrs
1200 – 1430 hrs
The Club offers a choice of bars, each with
beautiful river views. Upstairs lunch is served
daily, with a menu ranging from sandwiches to
hot snacks and table meals.
Wednesday – Thursday Bar Lunch served
1100 – 1500 hrs
1700 – 2300 hrs
1200 – 1430 hrs
Friday – Saturday
Bar Lunch served
1100 – 2300 hrs
1100 – 1500 hrs
The upstairs bar with its large balcony is the
ideal place for a drink in good weather and, if
you have just come off the water, you may like to
stop off at the downstairs bar and have a drink
on the terrace.
Sunday Carvery served
1200 –2100* hrs
1200 – 1500 hrs
* Subject to demand
Dinner is served in the Club from Wednesday
to Saturday evenings, and theme nights regularly
appear on the programme.
Club
Contacts
Club Secretary
023 8045 0300
secretary@royal-southern.co.uk
Natalie Gray
023 8045 0302
Sailing Secretary
sailing@royal-southern.co.uk
Chris Pullinger
023 8045 0315
House Manager
house@royal-southern.co.uk
Lawrence Hall
023 8045 0300
Head Chef
catering@royal-southern.co.uk
Reception
023 8045 0300
admin@royal-southern.co.uk
Lucy Burn
023 8045 0300
Communications Officer
communication@royalsouthern.co.uk
SOUTHERN
HOSPITALITY
Sue Kent
023 8045 0300
Membership Secretary
members@royal-southern.co.uk
66
Options range from Bistro style dishes
circa £17 for 2 courses to the signature King
Scallops with Crispy Bacon, Watercress Salad
and Lime Dressing, or the RSrnYC Surf &
Turf of Lobster with Fillet Steak. Why not
round off your dinner with a Royal Southern
Sticky Toffee Pudding, and supplement your
food with an excellent wine from the list.
INING
D
M
O
O
R
R
E
RIV
Our River Room dining facility provides
contemporary, freshly cooked meals. Quality,
seasonal and variety of raw ingredients form the
basis of our monthly changing menu.
RIVER ROOM DINING HOURS
Lunch
Thursday – Saturday
1230 – 1430 hrs
Dinner
Thursday – Saturday
1900 – 2130 hrs
Booking is advisable. Please note the River
Room may be closed during a small number
of events such as Club Regattas and major
Club dinners.
Accommodation
Within 18th Century listed buildings
overlooking the River Hamble we have created
11 elegant new bedrooms and a Master Suite.
All rooms have modern facilities with ensuite
bathrooms, Internet access and flat screen
television. Tea and coffee is available in each
room and room rate includes breakfast.
David Williams
Chief Bosun
Mobile 07900 872461
Mike Hesk & Steve Gough
Bosuns
Club
Launches
Winter Service 30th October
2011 to 26th March 2012
Monday – Friday
0800 – 1600 hrs
Saturday – Sunday
0800 – 1800 hrs
Summer Service (with BST)
Monday – Thursday
0800 – 1800 hrs
Friday – Sunday
0800 – 2000 hrs
Hours may be extended during
Winter/Spring series racing.
VHF radio: Channel 37
(Marine 'M') 'Southern
Launch' – Low power (1W)
Duty Bosun mobile 07900
872461.
Please note any prices quoted in this
magazine are inclusive of VAT at 20%.
TOP RIGHT The Yeoman Room - perfect for dinners for up to 22. CENTRE The main Dining Room.
ABOVE The River Room.
67
ADVERTISERS
INDEX
E P Barrus Ltd
01869 363636
www.barrus.co.uk
Flemming Yachts Europe Ltd
+44 (0)23 8033 7289
www.flemmingyachts.com
Gaastra
www.gaastra.eu-gaastrastore.com
GJW Direct
0500 141 141
www.gjwdirect.co.uk
London Boat Show
0871 230 7140
www.londonboatshow.com
MDL
www.santcarlesmarina.com
www.marinadeicesari.com
Oyster Marine
01473 6995005
www.oystermarine.com
Picador Plc
023 8044 9232
www.picadorplc.co.uk/vauxhall
Piper Heidsieck
Robert Mulcahy Yachts
+44 (0)1473 353455
www.robertmulcahyyachts.com
The Vital Spark
07590 363874
www.thevitalspark.co.uk
2012 Programme
JANUARY
11Lecture – Army Officers, Kevin Oliver &
Tony Lancashire, Expedition to the Arctic
18Lecture – Charles Smith “Anything is Achievable”
21
Burns’ Night
25Lecture – Roger Shaw’s 3 year Cruise
from Plymouth to Corfu
FEBRUARY
Academy Match Cup Finals
Summer Ball
Club Pursuit Race
British 12 Metre Open Championship
Round the Island Race
3 – 4
Mid Week Rally to Newtown
JULY
Motorboat Open Weekend
6
Rally to the Horse & Jockey
7 – 13 Cork Week
11
Ladies Afloat
14 – 15 July Regatta
14 – 21 Cruiser Race to France
14
Optimist Flotilla Coaching
15
Youth Event (JC’s & Splash)
16
The Weld Lunch
22Lecture – Grp. Capt. David Greenways “Flying the 21 – 22 Poole & Back Race
25 – 28 J Cup inc. J109 and J97 National Championships
Royal Family”
London Olympic Games Commence
25
Race Officer Training (Shore Based), French Night 27
27 - 29 Brewin Dolphin British 12 Metre Open
29Lecture – Phillip Beale
Championship
“The Story of the Ship Phoenica”
MARCH
7
10
14
15
17
18
Lecture – Sandra Simmonds “Life Under the Veil”
Solo Festival
Lecture – Rosemary Joy “Flotsom from the River”
Bridge Drive, Clay Pigeon Shoot – Owl’s Lodge
Race Training with Jim Saltonstall
Commodore’s Cocktail Party
Songs of Praise
21Lecture – Sherwood Elcock “St Helena,” a
forgotten part of Britain’s Naval Heritage
24
Optimist Flotilla Coaching, Musical Soiree
28Lecture – Jane Wicks, a historians insight into
“Family History.”
31 – 1 Academy Match Cup: Heat 1
31
Fitting Out Supper
APRIL
19Ladies Lunch with Speaker
Dame Mary Fagin DCVO JP
20
21
21
22
25
Golf Day at Botley Park
Optimist Flotilla Coaching
Clay Pigeon Shoot - Widdington
Youth Event (JC’s & Splash)
Ladies Afloat
26
Crew Ball
26 – 27May Regatta inc. SIRCON,
X-Boats & Mini Tonners
REGATTA
29
Model Boat Racing
30
Inter Club Team Racing
31
Pre Cowes – Deauville Race Dinner
JUNE
1 – 3 Cowes – Deauville Race
2 – 3 Laser SB3 Solent Series
4
Inter Club Team Racing
8
Foxers Regatta, Ancient Mariners Race
9 – 10June Regatta inc. IRC Solent Series, ¼
Tonners, J109 & Southern Six, J111 Regatta
13
14
16 – 17
16 – 17
16
23
Ladies Afloat
Ascot at Hamble, Golf Day at Lee-on-Solent
Women’s Open Keelboat Championship
Farr 45 Regatta
Sailability Day, Optimist Flotilla Coaching
Summer Ball
17
Youth Event (JC’s & Splash)
19 – 20 Mid Week Rally to Lymington
2011 NEW YEARS EVE BALL
ANight with the
Stars
AUGUST
4
Family Fun Day
7 – 8
9
11 – 18
14
Mid Week Rally to Bembridge
Commodore’s Pre-Cowes Week Cocktail Party
Cowes Week
Commodore’s Cocktail Party in Cowes
25
29
Under 21 Race
Ladies Afloat
1 – 2
5
7
8
8 – 9
Hamble – Yarmouth Cup
Clay Pigeon Shoot – Compton
Golf Day at East Horton
Crew Ball
September Regatta, J80 National Championship
20 – 26 Youth Week
Music and
dancing
throughout
the evening
with...
SEPTEMBER
12 – 15 ICOYC Commodore’s Forum
16 – 22 ICOYC Cruise
4
Wine Tasting
14 – 15 Academy Match Cup: Heat 2
17 – 18 Mid Week Rally to the Folly
175
68
23 – 24
23
24
27 – 29
30
6 – 8
4
Cruiser Spring Supper
4 – 6 X Yachts Solent Cup
5 – 7 Solent Cruiser Race
14
Clay Pigeon Shoot – Lulworth Castle
16
Ladies Afloat
18 – 20Motorboat Spring Rally to Bembridge & Gins
Farm
19 – 20 SORC 175 Race, Hamble Scramble
19
Optimist Flotilla Coaching
20
Youth Event (JC’s & Splash)
22 – 23 Mid Week Rally to Beaulieu
The programme is subject to
change and additional events
are likely to be organised.
Check www.royal-southern.
co.uk or Club Notice Boards
for up-to-date information.
Events in bold form part of our
175th Anniversary Celebrations
1Lecture –Ian Hudson “1421, The Year China
Discovered the World”
8Lecture – Jill Daniels “Destination Disaster – The
Sinking of the Titanic”
15Lecture – Juliet Dearlove “Atlantic Children” the
story of a family’s year afloat
MAY
The Commodore, Flag
Officers and Members of the
Royal Southern Yacht Club
thank all the advertisers
for supporting the Club by
advertising in The Southern.
ROYAL SOUTHERN YACHT CLUB
13 – 23 Southampton International Boatshow
15
Optimist Flotilla Training
16
Youth Event (JC’s & Splash)
16 – 29 Biscay 2012 Offshore Race
19
Ladies Afloat
22 – 23 Motorboat Autumn Rally to Cowes
24 – 29 Brest Cruiser Race
28
29
Macmillan Coffee Morning
Ladies Race
3
5
10
13 – 14
17
18
19
Wine Tasting
Cruiser Supper
Lecture
Folly Rally
Lecture
Ladies Lunch with Speaker
Golf Day at Paultons
22
31
Bridge Pairs Evening
Lecture
3
7
10
14
15
17
21
24
28
Christmas Fayre
Lecture
Prizegiving Dinner
Lecture
Bridge Drive
Laying Up Dinner
Lecture
AGM
Lecture
OCTOBER
TEDDY MASSIAH
& NATALIE CHUA
20 – 21 Academy International Match Racing
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
5
Lecture
8Motorboat, Golf & Shooting
Societies Christmas Dinner
11 – 12 Christmas Rally to the Folly
12
Carol Supper
14
16
19
26
31
Commodore’s Cocktail Party
Club Christmas Lunch
Lecture
Boxing Day Members’ Bar
New Year’s Eve Ball
CHAMPAGNE
RECEPTION • 7pm
Tickets £75
After Dec 12th £85
SUMPTUOUS
BUFFET • 7.45pm
Carriages
at 1am
Ongoing extravaganza since 1785
Enjoy Piper-Heidsieck responsibly