RTI this Saturday

Not a single kite visible, we have maybe 20 boats visible in the murk. Flaming is duelling with a Dragonfly 40 right at the needles. The dragonfly for some reason hasn’t been able to point, right from the start. Possibly a problem with the nut on the end of the tiller.
 
If you look at Vesselfinder/Marine Traffic and click any boat in Yarmouth, heading east or into Lymington, you'll see loads of retirees who turned back at Hurst narrows. Must be bad out there.
 
Interesting to see the IRC Leaderboard at the Needles - after a presumably pretty bumpy upwind, the top three boat typres were a Sigma 38, JPK 1080 and a J109.
One would expect a heavy Sigma 38 to be beating its handicap upwind in strong winds, but amazing to see how well a (well sailed) light weight boat can get upwind also.
Expect leaderboard will change a lot by the end of the downwind legs.
 
Yeah, we saw 48kts. We got past Hurst Castle and quit. There was a stream of retiring boats. I guess HC was a decision point for a lot of people and a lot of people didn't fancy several more hours.
Seemed to be more boats heading east than west in the Solent when I looked on AIS midmorning.

Be interesting to see the figures on number entered, did not start, retired, etc. Just wondering whether this has been the worst year.
 
Seemed to be more boats heading east than west in the Solent when I looked on AIS midmorning.

Be interesting to see the figures on number entered, did not start, retired, etc. Just wondering whether this has been the worst year.

Thst's how it felt on the water between Cowes and the Needles. A stream of boats sailing East.
 
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