Inaugural Nimbus Power Boat/Maxi Yacht Rally – 13/14th October 2007

 

"The inaugural meeting between our joint fleets was a great success. I must confess to having some concern before the event as to how the crews would get along together, but these disappeared after our first contact. There was an instant camaraderie between us all. 

The combined fleet arrived at the Folly Pontoon over the Saturday afternoon, all being assembled by about 1700 and ready for the pontoon party at 1800.

We had reserved the whole pontoon of nine berths. This looked good on paper, as Christina 2 had decided to spend the weekend at Island Harbour and Magewind was racing and would arrive late. Unfortunately the wind that weekend was non-existent, which ‘ was good for us but I not good for the racing sailor.

 

 

This resulted in their chairman, John Skipper in Magewind, abandoning his race and arriving earlier than planned thereby presenting Peter Stonestreet with the problem of diverting his chairman to the midstream pontoon. We too had an unplanned addition but fortunately only the crew attended. Just before the pontoon party Mick & Betty Blake appeared. Their boat Serena is moored in the south of France, but as they live in Cowes they came by road.

Sue Stonestreet and Avril had prepared a very impressive array of nibbles for the pontoon party and this very enticing, albeit incredibly fattening, collection of goodies got the evening off to a good start. Within a few minutes of the first drink being poured, it became apparent that we were all kindred spirits. Past voyages and races were  remembered causing the lamps to swing violently.

When the light had faded to a point where it was impossible to see which dip one was sampling, we repaired to the pub, where we enjoyed an excellent meal accompanied by even more salty stories. For those of us who were unfamiliar with the popular after dinner pursuit of the Saturday night dinner at the Folly Inn, it came as a hit of a surprise. It is an exercise known as ”Dancing-on-the-Tables". Now I had heard about it and assumed that one or two youngsters risked life and limb by climbing on the tables and danced to the live band. Not a bit of it! Young and old, even the aged and decrepit squashed themselves on to the swaying creaking tables and gyrated like dervishes. Fortunately, by the time we had eaten, all the tables were full, so we had to make do with the good old-fashioned floor.

Following this terrifying experience we returned to our yachts for the odd nightcap and to discuss venues for next year’s meeting. The combined fleets arose at a very late hour on Sunday morning. Prior to our departure there were the usual coffee parties and inspections of one another’s  yachts.  Footloose seemed to attract a great deal of attention from the more senior wives of the Maxi Fleet. I suspect that we may have a few Maxi detectors in the years to come!"