Rallies 2005 and before
Poole Rally 4-5th Sep 1999
The Rally to Parkstone Y.C., Poole Harbour on the 4 & 5 Sept.’99 was a great success and the facilities offered by the Club and restaurant very good. The Cherbourg Rally photos were on display and a few words of wisdom spoken by Roger of S.D.Marine who with a few of his stalwart disciples arrived by … was it sand yacht or Mondeo?? Introduced were our newest members and our "volunteer" committee organisers for 2000; Sarah Huxford, Gordon Agnew and Julian Wise. Sarah is organising the Yarmouth, LO.W. Rally, Gordon the Rally to Cherbourg and Julian our novel event of a combined sailing l golf competition to Cowes. Naturally our Chairman was forced to say a "few" words and afterwards to introduce Gordon and his wife, Christine, organisers of the passage speed contest from many start points to Parkstone by sea and land. You may question was it fair?, car against yacht but a cunning formula had been devised by our team and prizes were awarded accordingly. Altogether we had in attendance 40 crew representing 13 yachts and for the benefit of our new members this compares with the 17 Maxis at Cherbourg in May.
- Hugh Rowan
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Inaugural Rally, Cherbourg 29-31 May 1999
Our first Association Rally was to Cherbourg, on 29 – 31 May, where we had most of the 17 Maxi’s berthed together although the marina was over capacity. Informal drinks on the terrace and dinner were held at the Hotel Mercure over looking the marina. The following mid day the S D Marine team provided a "drinks & snacks" meeting on the marina park land. Cherbourg Marina looked after us very well considering the overcrowding and some weeks later they were generous over a misunderstanding of berth payments. After the Rally a survey was taken of the members and all agreed the event to be a success and that we should hold another Rally later this year and also a repeat to France next year.
Hugh Rowan
Rallies 2001
Yarmouth 2001 27-28 Oct.
Two Maxi 1100’s, Jovi and Taranaki, met in Yarmouth for drinks and a pub meal. Saturday was gloriously sunny with a F3 to 4 South westerly, making a pleasant sail to Yarmouth.
Cherbourg 2001
- Five boats attended in Cherbourg on the weekend of 23rd-25th June. Berthing fees were exceptional value £1.20/m (£13 for 11m) per night. We made the 11 1/4 hour crossing from Gosport over Friday night, 15-20Kts of easterly wind and clear skies. The journey back on Monday took 10 1/2 hours in 15 Kts of Easterly.
As arranged, we congregated on Saturday night for Aperitifs followed by Dinner in the Yacht Club. Dinner was excellent value, especially the large ice-cream Profiteroles.
Many thanks to Hugh Rowan for organising the event.
Taranaki
Chichester / Cowes 2001
Nine boats attended for a night out at the theatre to see Tom Stoppard’s play “On the Razzle”, a very enjoyable Saturday evening. Sunday saw a move for some to Cowes Yacht Haven, evening drinks aboard Caorann and a brief AGM.
Taranaki
Yarmouth September 28th 2002
I received a phone call early in the morning of the 28th to say that Yarmouth was heaving with seven rallies. A little disappointing as I had called the Harbour master one month earlier and had been told that there were no events booked and that I couldn’t book. I now know that the harbour will take bookings, so the mistake will not be repeated. I must however thank the Harbour master for finding 6 berths for us at short notice.
The weekend was beautifully sunny with a SE force 3-4, the weather could not have been better!
Five boats, Taranaki, Cascade, Tumbler, Leda of Hamble and Jovi managed to moor between a pair of piles and Ospray squeezed on to the harbour wall. Unfortunately Maxima could not get into the harbour and Morfran had to moor on one of the outside buoys. Apologies to Maxima, Morfran & Ospray for the disorganisation and missing out on the Glasses of wine and chat.
The rest of us enjoyed some sunshine whilst sipping a glass of wine before rushing off to the Kings head to meet the 1830 hours food ordering deadline.
Pictures from the day –
Weymouth Saturday August 3rd 2002
Eight boats met on the east side of the Weymouth’s old harbour on Saturday night. Those from Taranaki, Caorann, Cascade, Tumbler, Maxima, Leda of Hamble, Jovi and local boat Aitch attended. We all managed to perch on/in Taranaki’s cockpit for a glass of wine and a chat. Ospray joined us on the Sunday on her way to the west country.
Thank you all for coming.
Mick & Rose
Pictures from the day –
East Coast 2002 Round-Up
Moonshine took part in the Haven Race to Ostend, managing an astounding average of 7.7 knots for the 78 mile trip. Wind conditions were good, starting at F4 and building to F5/6, with spinnaker runs for the first 12 and last 6 miles. Moonshine then followed this with a delightful day with Bacchus in Nieuwpoort before turning for home.|
Champions Bell at Burnham Week 2002
 After a disastrous excursion under spinnaker onto the Foulness Sands (or concrete) on Monday, the rest of Eclipse’s week went much better…
– Tuesday: class winners for the up river race;
– Wednesday: won the first off-shore regatta and took line honours too;
– Thursday: runners up in the second offshore race;
– Friday: won the last offshore race and as a consequence the Midweek Points and Offshore regatta cups;
– Saturday: class line honours
Overall, Eclipse were the Class 3 winners for the week and to cap it all, she was the Best Boat in Regatta in terms of points scored after discards (one retirement and a second place) and so won this year’s Champions Bell – quite an achievement!
 It shows the benefit of a very well oiled crew and ….. a great yacht!
by Daryl M
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Folly Inn 2004
Before departure down to two boats. Weather forecast 5 – 7 gale 8 later. Wind against tide and on the nose. Second boat proposing to send bulk of crew by car and ferry, just two of them would sail. Poked nose out of Portsmouth entrance and due to crew threatening divorce papers decided to abandon trip.
Colin.
We were that boat!!
In the end we decided to sail with the full crew, including 4 children under the age of 11! We stayed under the lee of the island where possible, to avoid the wind over tide chop. Beating up the Solent, with over 30 knots of apparent wind, my business partner (a sailing novice) said, “This is really good fun. Why are there so few boats out here?” !! The kids seemed to think it was a fairground ride.
We also had a great run home on Sunday afternoon, surfing at up to 10 knots under just the jib.
Many thanks to Colin for excellent organisation – we had a spot reserved on the pontoon, a table reserved for dinner, and had a great time. Sorry nobody else could make it!
John (Magewind, 1050)
Weymouth – Saturday 21 August 2004
The rally kindly organised by David Brown was cancelled due to a poor weather forecast and interest from only two other members. The bad weather passed by the weekend which was Sunny with 15kts of wind. Weymouth harbour was not very busy, one members boat, 1100 Iona of Cowes was seen in Weymouth but the owner was not on board so she was probably chartered.
Scotland – Loch na Droma Buidhe (Drumbuie) July 24th 2004
An update on the Grand Rally for Scottish and N. Ireland Members held on July 24th and Loch Drumbuie by Tobermory. It was a filthy day, blowing a gale and pelting down with rain. Apart from us, nobody turned up except Tony and Alison Shaw with "Lyrebird". We were not surprised because we are very thin on the ground out here and unfortunately, meetings like this will never be well attended. We had a good time together with "Lyrebird" and will try to arrange a get together of local members on the Clyde later in the season, probably in September.
Laurie Prescott
Hamble Point – SD Marine Summer Event, 22nd May 2004.
The event attracted 31 boats on Saturday these were moored to the Cougar pontoon. The event was hosted and paid for by SD Marine. Berthing, drinks and a barbeque were all provided by Roger and his staff and we must all thank them for the most enjoyable weekend. A ‘Sail away’ treasure hunt was completed by 27 boats on Saturday afternoon. The Course took them out of the Hamble past ‘HE BAD LAD’ (Bold Head) buoy and SE to ‘I HAD HELL finding this RED one’ (Hill Head buoy). Then on towards where the TWO COWS once stood (Henry VIII’s Forts {COWS) at East and West Cowes; past the Prince of St.Croon (Prince Consort Buoy) and up the Beaulieu river to Exbury point where the flags spelling MAXI were flying at the Royal Southampton Yacht club at Ginns farm. Treasure Hunt was made up by Mick & Rose, we hope you all enjoyed it!
Weymouth Saturday August 9th 2003
We provisionally booked 10 berths in Weymouth harbour. We sailed from Yarmouth on Thursday and met with two other early-birds in Weymouth harbour. Eventually five Maxis turned up and were moored on the East side of the Harbour. The weather was gloriously sunny all weekend with a light and variable breeze. As usual we gathered for drinks at 1800 before walking to Hamiltons for supper. Hamiltons is near the old pier head and the food was very good, they only just managed to squeeze all 14 of us in.
Cherbourg
Perhaps the invitation was too late or members just too busy because Taranaki was on her own in Cherbourg. The weather was perfect for sailing and sunbathing!
Folly Inn Medina River Cowes Sat June 7th HW Portsmouth 1726 BST 4.1m
We reserved spaces for 8 boats on council mid-river pontoons at the Folly Inn, 7 boats attended. Thank you all for coming and making it a success.
Saturday was a good sunny one with light and variable winds, the weather stayed dry ’till midnight.
We started with a glass of wine or two, all 15 in Taranaki’s cockpit. This was followed by a very enjoyable evening at the Folly Inn. Fiona was celebrating her birthday so she ensured that we took full advantage of the Folly’s table top dancing facilities!
Sunday was not as expected and we all had a rather boisterous sail home. Lee on Solent recorded over 40Kts that morning.
Lymington Sat May 17th HW Portsmouth 1300 BST 4.9m
Bad weather hindered the Lymington rally but those that didn’t go by boat went by road and Taranaki, Leda of Hamble, Caorann, Les Alizes attended. The food in the Mayflower pub was excellent and is recommended.