Race Report Cowes to Weymouth - 48 Nautical Miles

Report by "Tim the Helm" from Whistler
The intense race preparations for 'Team Whistler' started as usual on Friday evening with the crew turning up in dribs and drabs at 'The Castle' in Gosport. As it was our intention to motor up to Cowes that night, restraint was applied to the amount of alcohol consumed (by the Skipper anyway). So it was that once Bruce arrived at around 9pm, off we went to Cowes.
The remainder of the crew, Veronica and Matt, met us in the pub at Cowes along with Princess Leia and Jasper, their respective dogs. We were very impressed when Jasper, with encouragement from Matt, attempted to run through the entire canine Karma Sutra with the Princess. The evening also saw the debut performance (outside the kebab shop) by Matt the Bowman on the new 'Whistler' bugle, which we are threatening will be our ride-out accompaniment for Cowes Week. Apologies to the residents of Cowes for the awful racket emanating from this instrument of torture, there is more to come!
We had a cracking start, on the line, in a reasonable position and off we went up the Solent managing to keep many class 4 boats behind us. The tactic here was simply to stay in the deeper water to get full benefit from the tide and to stay out of the wind holes that could be clearly seen. This worked fine until we got to Hurst where a combination of light wind and the overfalls caught out a lot of boats, causing them to be pointing in all directions with little or no steerage. One such boat was Scarlet Jester who appeared to be sailing back up the Solent and we had to fend them off. Shortly after this we were in close quarters with them and, obviously referring to us, their Skipper was heard to announce "ready about, I want to get clear of this thing"! Thing? Thing? What kind of way is that to talk about a fellow competitor - only joking guys, you gave us all a laugh!
When the wind started to fill in, it was from different directions in different places, so it was interesting to see the fleet generally heading in the same direction, with some under spinnaker and some, including us almost close-hauled. Crossing Christchurch Bay, we started to believe that we were doing OK, as we seemed to have our own patch of wind all the way, with boats inside and outside us struggling in holes. We concentrated hard on staying out of them and managed to maintain our good progress, we were even managing to keep Independent Bear in our sights, but we soon understood why…
St. Albans Head, that's why! Admittedly, we knew the tide would turn foul before we got there, but there was no real indication as to how difficult it would be in the light wind. We tried everything - short tacking under the cliffs, long tacking out to sea, but we made very little progress. We arrived there at 1pm and finally got round at around after 7pm. We were surprised to see Independent Bear retiring here, and many other boats did as well. It was frustrating to see boats that were behind us, creep through inside and get round, including Electron, who we assumed would then race away and leave us.
It was at this point that the upbeat mood of 'Team Whistler' started to drop. Skipper lost his Oakleys over the side and your correspondent snapped when a crewmember said for the umpteenth time, "we are STILL near those lobster pots". The air went blue as I waxed lyrical about the lobster pots and insisted we were making progress - we weren't.
Once we were round, we decided to head straight for Weymouth in the hope that the wind would veer and free us (note form the Skipper - there was actually a lot more science behind this!). This seemed to pay off as we made solid progress across Weymouth Bay. As darkness fell, thoughts turned to food and whether we would make it to Weymouth in time for a curry, the arithmetic was done and no we wouldn't - b****r! The mood was lifted however when we saw a number of dolphins about 50 metres from our starboard side. They were there for about a minute or two before disappearing - amazing sight. Another highlight was 2 satellites passing overhead, clearly visible in the night sky.
Some way across the bay, we were suddenly aware of other boats around us, including Electron who were now behind us. We tried to keep quiet to not reveal our intentions, but they surely must have heard the incredible snoring of Tony the trimmer, who was enjoying one of many good sleeps (honestly guys, it was Tony and not our engine!) The wind eventually freed and strengthened enough to let us hoist the kite and increase speed sufficiently to pull away from Electron and overtake at least one other boat before finishing at around 0115, in what we hoped was a reasonable position.
After parking the boat, we had a beer or two while we watched a drunken idiot in a small motorboat, charge around the harbour. He aimed at a few of the moored boats and eventually disappeared, never to be seen again. Despite what we thought and said at the time, I hope he didn't come to any harm. We were then invited onto Aquaholix for a glass of wine - thanks girls; we will return the favour one day. At 3am, we decided to head back home with half the crew sleeping rather than stay for what remained of the night. So after spending over 16 hours to get to Weymouth, we stayed for less than two!
The motor back to Cowes was uneventful with the exception of the ritual renaming of St. Albans Head. In Whistler circles at least, it now includes a popular expletive beginning with 'F'. We feel that this renaming should be included in the next chart update…
Leaving Cowes after dropping some of the crew was spectacularly eventful! Just out of the main channel (thankfully), Whistler suffered a total engine electrical failure, so we dropped the hook to attempt a repair. We soon realised we were out of our depth technically and Sea Start were called, which was not a problem as it was a lovely day for sitting in Cowes Roads watching all the boats go by. However, whilst waiting we realised that the anchor warp was running astern in the same direction as the tide (huh?). We suspected that the warp had become wrapped around the keel, how did that happen? Sea Start fixed the electrics quickly enough, but we could not free the warp. It was about this time that, despite having the anchor ball displayed, a yacht sailing out of Cowes sailed into our starboard side, thankfully causing more damage to herself than the scratches sustained by 'Whistler'. We then had to cut the warp and lose the anchor to free it from the keel. To cap it all the throttle lever jammed (luckily in neutral) just as we turned onto our pontoon!!!!
None of this drama and grief could detract from our pleasure of the 3rd place that we feel we worked so hard for. Another great weekend!