6 Swallows got up early on Friday to race to Cowes for the Vernon Trophy. In beautiful sunshine with a very light south-westerly and an increasing ebb tide, Prue Roome signalled the start at the Club line and the boats progressed slowly down harbour. Past Hayling Island Skua and Migrant were level but at West Pole, the only mark of the course, Migrant avoided the trap set by Skua and slipped ahead for the long 2 sail reach to the Forts. Into the Solent spinnakers were hoisted and the wind started to back and go even lighter. Ptarmigan and Boomerang, recovering well from a slow start, headed for Ryde and the rest wondered whether they would soon be taking tea gently aground on the sands. Skua opted to view the bathers at Stokes Bay, perhaps in the hope of more wind, whilst Migrant followed the backing wind almost into Wootton Creek, gybed and then had a comfortable 3-sail reach almost to Cowes when the south-westerly sea breeze finally arrived. A typical Solent day.
Results
- Migrant in 6 hours and 2 minutes
- Ptarmigan, +10 minutes
- Boomerang, +11 minutes
- Echo
- Harrier
- Skua, going north was right last year but not this!!
Household Division Regatta
Avocet, Peregrine and Solitude may regret the great effort made to get to Cowes for this event. Having been kindly towed almost to the Forts by Nigel Pattison, they then had a good breeze until the thunderstorm arrived with torrential rain. They eventually arrived at the Island SC looking like drowned rats while the rest of us were thankful to be under cover during the several postponements.
2 hours late, 6 Swallows took to the water and struggled in a flimsy wind against the first of the flood tide to get to the starting line where we had a difficult choice: to be at the wrong end of the line so you could read the course or at the right end and guess it! Finally another postponement was signalled a few seconds before the start and an abandonment shortly thereafter. The sailors returned thankfully to Pimms at the Royal Corinthian |
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