Round the Island Race viewing

[Mandolin]

Can any one reccommend good spots to watch the race from?
We will be coming out of Port Solent and would like to moor up and watch the boats go by.
Also what is the start time
Thanks

 

[BrendanS]

High up, Needles or St Caths point. You can moor in Alum bay and go up the cliff tops to watch. St Kaths you have to go by land.

Leisurely, just go into Bembridge, and watch mid/late afternoon, from a variety of vantage points, for most of action, unless lots of wind and everyone hoolies round the island quickly.

Anchoring points around the island with view points. Alum bay, and watch the bunch up before the Needles, or over by the fort on the other side.

Freshwater bay as they come round the Needles.

Loads of places to anchor from Freshwater to Kaths point, but not a lot of action to be seen.
Pretty much the same from there to Bembridge, though plenty of places to anchor in bays.

From there on, you can always go into Osbourne,but won't see a great deal of action close in

Loads of choices though, just have a look at charts. How close into the coast they get at any particular point is going to depend on wind speed and direction at the time, but most anchorages with a sea view will get at least some of the action.

More fun is to get into a small fast boat (powered) then you can go look at the fleets, while being nippy enough to stay out of the way of them, and not annoy them

 

[Hurricane]

Last year we got up early and stooged around the start waiting for them to go.
In the past, they've used W Bramble cardinal as a limit mark for the start - in an attempt to keep the competitors as close to the island as possible.
So if you stay to the north of W Bramble you can stay out of the way.

Once the faster boats (multihulls) were off, we followed them down the Western Solent until about Yarmouth - then, keeping to the north side of the Solent we came back to watch the rest of the slower boats start - 1700 entries most years!! - quite a sight.

IMO it is worth getting up early to watch the start - you wont get to see them all together again - some take 14 or 15 hours to go round!!

Once they had all started we went in to Hamble Point and had a leasurely breakfast - it was weid - completely empty!!

If you can get into the right position without getting in the way there is a great opportunity for some photos.

Here's one I took last year.

 

[l'escargot]

Timings here - the directions are for watching from the land but it gives you an idea of where to be at what time.

 

[BrendanS]

Timings depend on winds though, so general is better to go with.