Round The Island Race 2015

I thought the muppets, among whom I count myself, were what made the RTIR special? After all, we spend all bloody year being cut up by hotshot racers so surely we're entitled to our bit of fun on this one day. :-)
 
ohmaggie said:
I thought the muppets, among whom I count myself, were what made the RTIR special? After all, we spend all bloody year being cut up by hotshot racers so surely we're entitled to our bit of fun on this one day. :-)
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You don't have to be a great racer to avoid being a menace.
I wonder some helms make it to the coast in their cars, maybe their wives drive them?
Have fun and stay out of trouble.
As you say it's the spectacle of so many boats that makes it special, it just amazes me that there aren't more collisions and injuries sometimes.
We must be due a windy one?
 
Last year I skippered a Bavaria 46 for the RTIR. This year I will be on board this one:

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I can't wait!

Pete
 
I
lw395 said:
I have resorted to engine within a couple of minutes of the start gun of a RTIR.
I avoided the otherwise inevitable collision with some halfwit in a cruising boat that was due to start about an hour later, but scared the hell out of the boat astern of me.

O
Top tip, buy a big boat so you start earlier, there's less muppets about.
That does work so well these days, the charter muppets are arming themselves with bigger boats.
Second top tip, have bowman and one other watching for muppets.
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Or try our tactic, start at the back and stay there. Less traffic to worry about cause there is nobody behind and we will never catch anyone up :)

Works at cowes classics and RTIR. last year I think we were one of the very last round the needles before the tide and remnants of the fleet turned around. Stayed wide and had a relaxing drift down to St Cats.
 
flaming said:
I hope so. 2011 was hands down the best day on the water I can remember!
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Seconded. Not least because it was spent on such an unusual boat (I guess a win helped too!). Also, a case made in favour of the earlier point about the potential in getting North once past the forts. See here: Click here

Oh. Can't seem to make texts a link anymore. That's progress i suppose.
 
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Never done the trip across to the mainland from the forts as I have tended to be on bigger boats (and at the front of the boat so not in earshot of the naviguessers) and hugged Ryde Sands to get out of the tide. Very interesting view and I'll be keeping a look out for people doing this from the land this year.
 
tat27 said:
Never done the trip across to the mainland from the forts as I have tended to be on bigger boats (and at the front of the boat so not in earshot of the naviguessers) and hugged Ryde Sands to get out of the tide. Very interesting view and I'll be keeping a look out for people doing this from the land this year.
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I have done it twice and regretted it both times, almost as much as I regretted coming to a gentle stop on Ryde Sands.
 
The advice I was given from a charter skipper th we were moored up to was if you see any of these boats (there was a large fleet all with novice/never sailed before crews) was to keep well out of the way. He said it would be likely that he would be the only person on board with any skills and experience. The rest would be either sea sick below, too hungover to care, or too incompetent to be helpful..... So the advice is, keep away from the corporate charter yachts....
 
halyardmonkey. said:
The advice I was given from a charter skipper th we were moored up to was if you see any of these boats (there was a large fleet all with novice/never sailed before crews) was to keep well out of the way. He said it would be likely that he would be the only person on board with any skills and experience. The rest would be either sea sick below, too hungover to care, or too incompetent to be helpful..... So the advice is, keep away from the corporate charter yachts....
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Advice that applies 24/7/365. Not just RTIR
 
flaming said:
I hope so. 2011 was hands down the best day on the water I can remember!
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I started racing aged 60.
Apart from a few club races, the 2011 RTIR was one of my first races as skipper with a reasonably competent crew, but we were not a honed team.
We were hoping to fly the kite, but on passage to the Island, from Weymouth we broached in 20knts of wind while trying a gybe some 6 miles west of the needles, it gave us a bit of a scare.
I think your advice on not trying to do things that don't happen without a lot of confusion and shouting is sound, and on race day a couple of the crew were a bit disappointed when I said I was not going to bother running the sheets and guys out for the spinnaker.
This obviously affected our placing, but at least we got round without incident, and had a great day finishing 547th.
 
BE good to know who else has registered for GPS tracking so that we can have a little forum competition during the day. We certainly have and it even works with phone below decks and plugged in - no excuses for suddenly running out of battery power!!!
 
flaming said:
I hope so. 2011 was hands down the best day on the water I can remember!
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My entire crew are doing a wind dance. We need 30+ just to get going properly. Rounding the Needles in 37 was the best fun I've ever had in a boat, we were racing alongside another boat, but could only see the top of his mast due to the wave height.
 
st599 said:
My entire crew are doing a wind dance. We need 30+ just to get going properly. Rounding the Needles in 37 was the best fun I've ever had in a boat, we were racing alongside another boat, but could only see the top of his mast due to the wave height.
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Stop it now! My crew are hoping for a repeat of last year so they can spend another day drifting round the island lying on beanbags getting pissed.
 
ohmaggie said:
Stop it now! My crew are hoping for a repeat of last year so they can spend another day drifting round the island lying on beanbags getting pissed.
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Last year was the most boring RTIR I've ever done. We're due another windy one. Or even a windy NErly one.
 
st599 said:
Last year was the most boring RTIR I've ever done. We're due another windy one. Or even a windy NErly one.
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Wind Guru forecasting SWly between 8knot and 14knots but still a long way off for forecasts. Last night they were forecasting NWly, backing Swly and a couple of knots higher. I will opt for the first if given a vote by the weather gods.
 
We do our best in the 15-20 range. Enough to get to hull speed most of the time without having to reduce canvas much.
 
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