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!