Royal Air Force Yacht Club

The Yarmouth rally has a history unsurprisingly for the time of the year, of being beset frequently by gale force winds and equinoctial rain storms. The 2011 Yarmouth rally will be remembered as one of the hottest weekends of the year with record breaking temperatures, light winds and wall to wall sunshine.

The Yarmouth rally was always going to be heavily subscribed and Rally officer Chris Glanton had the unenviable job of finding moorings for more than 27 boats on the Harold Hayles pontoon, plenty of other crews in addition, having booked themselves space on the walk ashore moorings. Chris managed to identify and manoeuvre boats in to slots with the precision of a watchmaker co-locating his finely machined pieces. He also managed to sustain a smile throughout!

The legendary pontoon party established itself along the Hayles pontoon, the volume of food and drink along with the number of enthusiastic attendees, prevailing to sink the pontoon not just in parts, but at times it felt that we were standing on the deck of a submerging submarine with water rising from the bilges along much of its length.

The RAFYC were welcomed at The Royal Solent Yacht Club which generously offered us exclusive access to their splendid dining room which was filled to the gunwales with hungry rally goers, they provided us with a very fine meal and the bar staff managed to deal with the heavy demand for beverages from thirsty crews.

The Commodore and his speech writers were called on in the evening to deliver the final rally speech of his term as well as to congratulate Chris Apps and Sea Jay for winning the esteemed concours d’elegance prize for the best turned out vessel in the fleet.

Such was the warmth of the evening that many crews continued to enjoy the social activity both in the club and on their boats in light boating wear until well into the early hours.

On Sunday morning the course for Ladies Helm Passage Race was set with a genteel starting time of 10:45 to 11:00. At the allotted time the starting fleet was found drifting on the tide towards the East with little if any wind to speak of. Within a few feet of each other, the various boats were independently on a beat or setting spinnakers even though they were all travelling in the same direction on a glassy sea.

Unfortunately the momentum of the fleet was disrupted by wash from a number of power boats, not the least of which was the Yarmouth lifeboat on a shout to Newtown Creek. This soon had the fleet scattered and conversely all pointing in different directions at the same time all apparently on a beat. Despite much patient helming by the ladies the sight of much of the fleet furling genoas and turning on the iron sail became too much for most and the majority of the fleet retired with the exception of Amanda and Mark on Blush who managed to sustain the lightest of winds and reach the second mark of the shortened course.

What a scorcher – Thanks go to Race Officer David Brown and Rally Officer Chris Glanton for a splendid weekend.

(David Brown arranging for the course to be shortened)