Hailing "We Are Racing", in the Solent

[R.Ems]

Any interloper in the Cowes week starts you’d think would be both blind and stupid, yet it happens. I do wonder if it’s deliberate bloody mindedness sometimes. In our case, they’re taking a gamble that the skippers are going to go to great lengths to avoid spoiling their week, or their classic wooden race boat.

From conversations with others, that's all true.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

From conversations with others, that's all true.

And true to form, a cruiser went through the RYS start line today (in the wrong direction) 35 seconds before the Victory class start. That’s a crass move, the tide was pretty slack, in fact probably turned against him on the island shore. If the owner is a member here, why didn’t you go outside the pin end, 40 metres to your port side?

we also had fun with a VLCC during the race on tuesday. Nowt that can be done about that, he has right of way and you’d be a fool to argue. Lots of people cut it fine in front of him, then found he had a tug on his starboard side at the stern. Glad we were well past him.

 

[LittleSister]

I generally try to steer clear of racing fleets, but it's often difficult to deduce the course and where they're going next.

Some years ago I was wafting about the western Solent one sunny weekend, going nowhere in particular. Having got a bit tired and hungry we waited until we had a lot of clear water all around then hove to and stopped for a break. As we sat supping our tea and munching our cheese on toast or whatever, admiring the scenery, we spotted the Folkboat fleet in the far distance rounding a mark, and wondered if our friend George was, as usual, among them. The next time we looked up we saw the entire fleet heading straight for us! Reckoning that if we got moving again at this stage we'd probably be disadvantaging some of the fleet and giving the others an advantage, and that being only 17 foot 3 inches long we wouldn't require anyone to move far off their intended line on a leg maybe a mile or more long to miss us if we stayed put, we just sat there like the proverbial rabbits in the headlights as the whole fleet bore down on us, parting slightly in the middle to pass either side of us!

I had a more stressful encounter in the approach to Falmouth long ago in my then Hurley 22. I was suffering from serious sleep deprivation, having sailed out to the Isles of Scilly single-handed overnight only three nights before, set off back within 24 hours of arrival without fully catching up on my sleep, but (possibly as a result) got my tide timings wrong and, with insufficient wind, had used up all the petrol for my outboard avoiding getting swept up into the Irish Sea. I then spent the night in the cockpit drifting in mist close to the Lizard, my kitchen-timer alarm waking me every 5 minutes to check for fishing boats or rocks sneaking up on me. The next morning a nice breeze sprung up and I headed towards Falmouth to buy some petrol and get a few hours sleep before I continued on to the Tamar.

As I approached Falmouth, though, there was a continuous long line of boats (wooden dayboat type of things, IIRC) racing across the entrance. Cursing whoever had set the course across the entrance, I jilled about, and waited, and waited, for the end of the long line to pass, then, much relieved started heading in. Before long, though, I encountered the same blinkin' fleet, still in an almost continuous line, heading back the other way blocking my path again. I uttered foul oaths, and spotting a slight gap in the line, seized the moment, gybed and shot, not quite fast enough, through the gap.

I regret I did slightly inconvenience the next couple of boats in the line, albeit not significantly race-wise. I also regretted that I'd got my come uppance by breaking my gooseneck fitting in that gybe. But all that was forgotten once I'd tied up and very belatedly passed out for many hours.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Folkboat week is just a couple of weeks away. Just sayng?. Being somewhere on a race course, and sailing through the start line late in the sequence are totally different levels of it. You have every right to heave to for lunch in the solent. You have to be a bit special to sail the wrong way though the squadron line, guns going off, surrounded by small keelboats, during Cowes week.

 

[SaltIre]

And true to form, a cruiser went through the RYS start line today (in the wrong direction) 35 seconds before the Victory class start. That’s a crass move, the tide was pretty slack, in fact probably turned against him on the island shore. If the owner is a member here, why didn’t you go outside the pin end, 40 metres to your port side?

Here:
Cowes Week Day 6 - from Cowes Week 2022 (around 49mins in...)

 

[penfold]

They would have their fenders out.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Thats the one. It’s obvious how easy it would be for him to have gone outside the pin. It‘s the big yellow thing, for the non racers.

 

[SaltIre]

Thats the one. It’s obvious how easy it would be for him to have gone outside the pin. It‘s the big yellow thing, for the non racers.

Had they gone outside the pin would they not have impeded the boats approaching it on starboard?
The video evidence suggests they timed it perfectly and impeded nobody. The white hulled cruiser that sailed outside the pin 30 secs before the start seems to have caused more potential interference...

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I think the Victorys saw him coming. But you have a point. If he’d been 5 mins later it would have been the X class, 41 entrants. We had a general recall today as it happens, all too pushy. All the same, you’d think people would know. That was luck, not judgement there, IMHO. They’d held that course for some time, we saw him coming.

 

[SaltIre]

They probably had fenders out to port as well - just in case.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

They probably had fenders out to port as well - just in case.

My focus was on other things at the time?

 

[creeks]

If the owner is a member here, why didn’t you go outside the pin end, 40 metres to your port side?

Unlikely, it appears to be a French boat from the flags.

 

[LittleSister]

All the same, you’d think people would know.

Why would they?

Some would, some wouldn't.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Why would they?

Some would, some wouldn't.

Maybe the hundreds of race boats? Maybe photographers and the press everywhere in RIBs? Start guns going off? Bunting and flags everywhere ashore and afloat? There are clues?Cowes week is massive. I appreciate it doesnt spread as far as the East coast, this is not a problem. But if you rocked into the solent and saw that lot, I think you might draw the obvious conclusion. Everyne has at leadt heard of Cowes week, haven’t they?

 

[scottie]

Is that the local agricultural show ?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Is that the local agricultural show ?

We do get to find out who the big cheese is.

 

[SaltIre]

Maybe the hundreds of race boats? Maybe photographers and the press everywhere in RIBs? Start guns going off? Bunting and flags everywhere ashore and afloat? There are clues?Cowes week is massive. I appreciate it doesnt spread as far as the East coast, this is not a problem. But if you rocked into the solent and saw that lot, I think you might draw the obvious conclusion. Everyne has at leadt heard of Cowes week, haven’t they?

Do you appreciate the blue yacht is visiting from France? He may or may not have heard of Cowes Week, but as the video shows he sensibly sailed in an area not crammed with race boats at the time.?

 

[savageseadog]

This skipper didn't shout loud enough:

 

[LittleSister]

Maybe the hundreds of race boats? Maybe photographers and the press everywhere in RIBs? Start guns going off? Bunting and flags everywhere ashore and afloat? There are clues?Cowes week is massive. I appreciate it doesnt spread as far as the East coast, this is not a problem. But if you rocked into the solent and saw that lot, I think you might draw the obvious conclusion. Everyne has at leadt heard of Cowes week, haven’t they?

I'm sure that almost anyone would cotton on to there being racing going on, but look at it through the eyes of someone unfamiliar with racing.

They could very easily be unaware that a race was about to start (rather than, say, already being underway); where the start line is (not at all obvious to the outsider); or why the gaggle of boats that are bunched up, milling about 'over there' and which they are keeping well clear of, are going to suddenly start heading at speed towards where they are.

No, not everyone has heard of Cowes Week. Many (most?) who have heard of it will have little or no idea what it actually is and involves.

The latter includes me, and I've sailed for decades, used to keep a boat in the Solent, have even (elsewhere) raced dinghies and been a race officer, and, I've just remembered, crewed several times on a Folkboat racing in the Solent..

 

[SaltIre]

If anything the Skipper of this boat that bimbled around then motored across the startline going the wrong way is a worse offender - imho. What on earth were they thinking?
(Around 1hr 19min into the video at Cowes Week Day 6 - from Cowes Week 2022 )

Edit: I assume they were motoring, although there is no sign of a motoring cone.