This years round the island race, Who's doing it? & any special tips?

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farmerdan79

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The 2011 RTI is the 80th anniversary and (i'm told) they are expecting a record number of competitors heading off from Cowes early on the morning of the 25th.

I'm sure there are may forumites who have experienced the thrill (or maybe carnage:D) before, but this is my first time:eek:

Has anyone got any golden nuggets of info that will help me get round safely and swiftly?
 
I am, with Bajan sailor on Black Pearl, my best advice is to keep clear of all the others, relax and enjoy the day, and get into Cowes for the evening celebrations.
 
Did it in 2009.... great fun.

My report if you are interested:

We started close to the ODM just behind IDEC and managed to push one
of our rivals up so they had to slow down to avoid missing the ODM.

IDEC soon pulled away, but we caught and overhauled a couple of the
open 60s by the time we reached Hurst. We were making 9 - 10 knots in
about 12 knots of wind and gained a nice lift as we came through the
narrows. We went for clear air even though the tide was less
favourable.

After rounding the needles outside the wreck, we put the assymetric
(150 sqm of very bright orange!) up and took off on the rhumb line to
St Catherine's, chasing RKJ on Grey Power. This was perhaps the most
fun bit, generally at 12 - 13 knots, occasionally hitting 14 knots
with the upwind float flying high. Tactically we should have headed in
on one of the wind shifts, but with a crew new to the boat and a
couple of non-sailors, our gybes took a little while and we didn't
want to mix it with the more nimble boats.

By St Catherine's we were a little far out as we'd elected to maintain
speed rather than sail dead downwind, so we gybed in towards the
point, gybing out again just behind Grey Power. One chap on a
Dragonfly probably needed to change his underwear as we dipped him
with the kite up at 14 knots.

We made good time on the leg to Bembridge then just stopped. The wind
shifted 180 and dropped to nothing. This was a good place to know your
racing rules, although rights changed by the minute as people gybed.
We went for clear air by heading out and picked up a nice breeze after
maybe 10 - 15 minutes. After that we raced up the mainland shore,
mixing it with Grey Power and Toe in the Water. This was probably a
good idea for us as tacking was not the fastest of manouvres and it
was looking busy further inshore, but from a wind point of view it was
wrong - the lift that the inshore boats got was a header for us as we
tacked in to the finish line.

We crossed the line along with Grey Power, he was 10 secs ahead, but
he started 10 mins before us, so we were pleased.

16th in our class, much liquid merriment was imbibed at the Folly.
 
It's a pretty good day out really!

I'd make sure you're reasonably confident with the basic rules, even if you think "it's ok, we'll just keep clear of everyone" that's more or less impossible. There really are an unbelievable number of boats!

It's pretty tough to cope with all that and instruct a load of new crew, so although it's tempting to invite all and sundry along for the ride, make sure you get as many as possible out on the boat before hand and learn some manoeuvres.

And if you're the only person on the boat you trust to rig the spinnaker, hand over the helm and go sort it out yourself. Don't be the skipper sat at the helm shouting at the crew. If the helm is in your hands your ONLY job is to steer. Appoint someone else to be the crew boss, or appoint someone else to helm.

And if boats do come together remember that fibreglass is easy to fix, people are much harder, and that's what insurance is for. Don't let your crew fend off.
 
It's certainly a spectacle and whatever level you are it's guaranteed to raise the heart rate to unsafe levels!

Whether in the IRC (racy) class or ISC (less racy and no IRC certificate needed) you will be bound to get into very close contact with other boats and knowing the rules will make your day easier as will being confident in small margins and manoeuvres.

I would recommend doing some club racing beforehand to help these areas. Apologies if you do anyway but it doesn't say.

This year I'm thinking of dropping anchor at Seaview or Osborne Bay to watch the fleet but will probably end up racing! Snag is you never see the spectacular yachts because they start even earlier than the rest.

Good luck.
 
Think this will be my 14th! Buy the booklet "winning tides" and really work on being in the main stream when you can and completely out of it when the tide is adverse. Bail out of a port and stbd early as the reaction/action of some vessels is hard to predict! Don't go to the line to early - mayhem at times and watch the tidal drift to the line, particularly if its light winds.

Get clean air and enjoy a fantatic day!!
 
Flaming is correct - don't treat this as a jolly day out with inexperienced friends - you need to give people tasks which they might not be used to and a knowledge of the most basic rules is ideal for people on the rail or the genoa trimmer for instance who can be look outs and keep you out of trouble whilst you can concentrate on sailing the boat.

Not done one since the early 90's - got round in 6.45 mins one year (1990 iirc) in a 45ft Bene - 6th monohull round and saw an old two tonner (ex Pocket Battleship) hit the wreck (Varvissi) and retire very quickly! They were shouting as us to bear away to pop up their kite but the had no rights and did not tack away!
 
E39mad said:
Not done one since the early 90's - got round in 6.45 mins one year (1990 iirc) in a 45ft Bene - 6th monohull round and saw an old two tonner (ex Pocket Battleship) hit the wreck (Varvissi) and retire very quickly! They were shouting as us to bear away to pop up their kite but the had no rights and did not tack away!
Click to expand...

Sounds rather like they would have required "room to pass an obstruction" to me... Which gives them rather a lot of rights. Essentially, as you approach an obstruction (and a wreck would qualify...) if you, as ROW boat, decide to pass it on one side you must give room for the other boat to do likewise.

Currently rule 19, dunno what it would have been in the 90s.
 
If you really want speed, take as much weight out of the boat as you can. You will be amazed at the difference in handling.

Remember, boat speed makes you a tactical genius.....
 
Not sure either Flaming - they weren't quoting the rule though just shouting at us to bear away - don't think they knew they were going to hit it!

Once our kite was up and we settled down we looked back to see a support rib by the boat and the sails down. It transpired that the keel punched a hole in the hull that the bilge pumps could not deal with. Some clever thinking person on board closed the engine inlet seacock removed the hose from the seacock end, placed it in the bilge and they motored flat out to Lymington YH travelhoist thereby saving the boat!
 
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Go out and sight the line the day before as you will be disqualified for doing it on the morning of the race. Last year was a downwind spinnaker start and a lot of people went over early. And as for the prat who used his engine to get back over the line after being called OCS....
 
flaming said:
I'd make sure you're reasonably confident with the basic rules, even if you think "it's ok, we'll just keep clear of everyone" that's more or less impossible.
Click to expand...


Completely impossible - you'll be racing within 10 feet of people for most of the race. And make sure it's the Racing Rules of Sailing you read - we had 3 boats quoting colregs at us last year as we luffed them up.
 
st599 said:
Go out and sight the line the day before as you will be disqualified for doing it on the morning of the race. Last year was a downwind spinnaker start and a lot of people went over early. And as for the prat who used his engine to get back over the line after being called OCS....
Click to expand...

A good tip is to use a handheld GPS to help with the start. Go out the day before, when they helpfully turn on the lights that help mark the line. Go to the inshore end of the line, and when you're on the line create a waypoint. Then sail down the line to the other end and create another waypoint on the line.

Now create a route from one waypoint to the other. Many new GPS systems (and chartplotters) will plot this straight line route on your screen - and hey presto the start line stored in your Nav software. Otherwise with older non graphical sets you can use the XTE function to see how far behind the line you are.

Maybe some helpful soul here will do this and publish the lat/long of two points on the line...?

Of course it is still subject to a little bit of error, so use the lights to judge if you're close when they fire the cannon....
 
Also, whilst I think about it....

As soon as you arrive in the start area station someone on the bow for collision avoidance. Especially to look under the genoa....

And make sure they only give "positive" calls. I once nearly T-boned someone because my Bow shouted "don't go up" and I only heard "go up".....
 
flaming said:
Also, whilst I think about it....

As soon as you arrive in the start area station someone on the bow for collision avoidance. Especially to look under the genoa....

And make sure they only give "positive" calls. I once nearly T-boned someone because my Bow shouted "don't go up" and I only heard "go up".....
Click to expand...

At the start I would also keep your engine running but not engaged just in case.
 
I have a friend who often does it.
If you see a dark blue folkboat I'd steer well clear. :D

(To be fair, he was a victim of circumstance, and it was a Folkboat race not the RTI)



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