RTI race - highs/lows

[Racecruiser]

I had to post something having read a bit here in the last few days! What a spectacle it is - everyone should do it at least once. I guess I've done 8 in my time with the last 3 being on my own boat.

Highpoints:
14.3 kts in 2008 on my Mustang - yeeha!
Sliding through the gap between the Needles and the Varvassi 2007 and 2009 - nothing less than 3m under the keel this year but it does get the heart going a bit!

Lowpoints:
Ryde Sands congestion just about every year.
Hitting Atherstone Ledge a bit too hard on a Prima 38 tacking away from the shore a few years ago.
It's all a bit commercial - good for JP Morgan for supporting it but I'm not interested in seeing the names of various commercial enterprises on boats.
The flat entry fee which is expensive for a small boat and dead cheap for a whopper - and the modest increase for sponsored entries.
Not seeing the grand prix boats because they are at the Needles when I start!

Any other high/low points from the years?

 

[Twister_Ken]

25 of them.

High points.

Once managed second in class behind an Olympic medallist.

One light airs race which was shortened at Bem Ldg. We found clear air all the way around the back of the Wight, and kept trickling along, overtaking hundreds of boats that were stuck and/or screwing each other up. Top 50 finish, overall, I think.

A boisterous spinnaker run around the back - the sight of hundreds of kites behind us was awe inspiring - I used to have a photograph that I took of it on my office wall, but eventually it faded, and I can't find the negative to reprint it.

And a comedy moment. The year that the ISC decided to lay a buoy off the Vervassi to stop people tonking it. Except the buoy dragged and was last seen heading off towards Anvil Point, pursued by race boats.

Low points.

Seeing an X99 sink in front of us, and being unable to do anything to recover the people in the water .

One windy race, two deaths on competing yachts - heart attack and struck by boom.

Getting it wrong on the beat back from the forts, and dropping loads of places by not getting inshore and flirting with the shallows.

 

[Resolution]

Ken
One of the occasional crew on my Sigma 33 a few years ago claimed to have been on an X99 that was T-boned and sunk by a larger cruiser broaching under spinnaker. He said it went down in a few seconds, but that the helicopter was there very quickly and rescued them efficiently. He made it sound quite fun, in a way, but I don't think he ever did the RTIR with me on the Sigma.
I wonder if it was the same one that you saw?
Or do X99s have a habit of sinking on the RTIR?

 

[tross]

Low
The start this year - I was in the fleet that started last and the wind dropped as I was just north of the outer distance mark We went backwards with the tide to the needles without crossing the line and then spending 45mins going the wrong way trying to cross the start line from the right direction.

High

2008 Family Trophy!

 

[Twister_Ken]

That'll be the one. It broached across the bows of a bigger yacht, which we concluded was the wooden prototype of the Starlight 39. The X went straight down, leaving a bunch of people in the water. Nearby boats (ourselves included) blew kites and tried to get to the MOBs but it was in the overfalls off St Catherine's, and as we neared them we realised we stood a good chance of crashing down on them and causing serious injuries. I think one guy was picked up by a smaller competitor, one or two more by a press motorboat, but the rest had to wait for the whirlybird.