Folkboat Round the Island Race

8th June 2003

An interesting race would be an understatement!

Sunday 8th June saw the second year of the Round the Island race for the folkboat class organised under the burgee of the Royal Lymington Yacht Club.

The weather forecast was for a typical June day, south westerly force 4-5 with occassional sunny spells.

The start saw the forecast as predicted as the 30 entrants assembled off the Lymington river. The class was divided into two fleets with the seven British cruising boats starting ten minutes ahead of the twenty-three Nordic one design fleet.

The south westerly breeze allowed a brisk beat to the Needles, this breeze kept filling in, accompanied by large rolling waves breaking off the needles.

The Nordic fleet saw Lymington boats dominate to the Needles with ‘Jessica’ (Crawford McKeon) ‘Svenja’ (Rob Berwick) and ‘Crackerjack’ (Stuart Watson) first to round.

The wind had not eased and had gathered further momentum as the fleet hoisted spinnakers on what was to be an exhilarating run round the south of the island.

As the fleet spread towards St Catherine’s positions began to change, ‘Madeline’ (Edward Donald) held a close inshore line moving into fourth position from mid fleet closely pursuing the leaders who remained relatively unchanged.

Midfleet saw some unfortunate incidents with ‘Aurora’ (Mike Atkin) having a horrendous spinnaker wrap having been in fourth place slipping back whilst trying to correct the problem. ‘Karen’ (Peter and Simon Nuding) broke their spreaders and had to down their spinnaker.

Rounding St Catherine’s the wind further increased and was gusting force six (plus) making the run even more exhilarating with all boats sailing on the edge. It was around this time that ‘Svenja’ lost her halyard spinnaker block having to sail to the eastern turning mark of Bembridge Ledge under jib. ‘Madeline’ who had sailed low all the way to Bembridge popped up into second place separating ‘Jessica’ and ‘Crackerjack’. The next group of yachts approaching Bembridge included ‘Merganser’ (Catherine Munro Kerr) and ‘So!’ (Simon Osgood).

The conditions were testing for both yachts and crews. The folkboat’s pedigree stood up to the conditions with ‘Crackerjack’ recording speeds of 15 knots on the run which had been confirmed by other competitors. Windspeeds of up to 40 knots had been recorded at Goodwood airport as I was later told when all flying had been abandoned. It felt as through we were flying in extremely turbulent air as we rounded the Nomansland Fort, wind howling, spray coming from all angles and rig shuddering.

Arrival at the Fort was quicker than expected due to the fast spinnaker run to Bembridge Ledge and subsequent reach to the Fort. There was still another hour and a half before slack water and the forthcoming ebbing tide to aid the competitors progress back to the Lymington finish.

For some, the journey had come to an end as retirements saw yachts make for Hamble and Cowes to seek refuge from some monotonous and tiring weather. The wind had not eased all day as the leaders approached Cowes after some seven hours of hard racing, with nearly another two hours ahead of them.

Having come so far maintaining third position, ‘Crackerjack’ ripped her main sail and limped back from the mid Solent to Lymington. ‘Madeline’ had gained the lead short tacking on the Cowes shore from ‘Jessica’ followed by ‘So!’ and ‘Merganser’.

The tactical decision of when to make a dash from the Island shore to the mainland shore was about to be answered as ‘Jessica’ went slightly before ‘Madeline’ to steal and maintain the lead to the well overdue finish. ‘So!’ pushed hard to make up on ‘Madeline’ to finish third with ‘Merganser’ fourth and ‘Riot’ (Nick Burgin) fifth.

The day had been tough and all those who completed could reflect and take great satisfaction of completing an extremely tough Round the Island race.

Five minutes separated the first three boats after nearly nine hours of racing within the Nordic one design fleet.

Unfortunately the cruising class had no finishers but all returned safely.

Overall Results: