O Y S TER NEWS
T e Royal Southern Yacht Club based on the world famous River Hamble was very proud to host the UK’s only 2010 Oyster endorsed regatta. T e overall programme allowed for a fi ne mix of sailing and social events, traditional Oyster fare. Four days of racing were combined with visits to the Royal Solent Yacht Club in Yarmouth and lunch on the fi nal day at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes. By way of extending the affi liation between Oyster and the newly commissioned Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyer, HMS Dauntless, several of the crew from the ship, including the Commanding Offi cer, joined owners throughout the week.
On Monday the week started in glorious sunshine as the yachts arrived at their berths in the nearby marina. At the early evening Skippers’ Briefi ng, Club Commodore John Beardsley welcomed the competitors before handing over to the Principal Race Offi cer Tony Lovell. Having talked briefl y about the general race area Tony reviewed the general rules of conduct; reaching starts, declaration of sail combinations and, with some emphasis, the calculation of the motoring time allowance for T ursday’s Round the Island Race. With the business of the day completed, owners and skippers joined their crew on the club pontoon for a Pimms Reception, hosted by Oyster Marine’s CEO David Tydeman and Marketing Director, Liz Whitman. A relaxing end to the fi rst day.
Raymarine, the electronics giant, sponsored Tuesday’s programme of two races around the cans, with lunch on board in between. T e sun had gone but the south-westerly breeze remained and at 10:30 Class 2 started with a long reaching leg eastwards towards Portsmouth. T e class was very evenly matched with Andrew Tibbitts’ 435 Mythos the smallest and Michael Geary’s 49 Shakura the largest. In Class 1 the spread was much greater and when they started ten minutes later, the new Oyster 82, Starry Night, with her 10ſt draſt had no option but to go
east of the Brambles Bank to the Island shore and even then her progress was hampered by the close attendance of one of Her Majesty’s destroyers. Meanwhile Ross Applebey’s Oyster LW48, Scarlet Oyster, with a shallower draſt was able to beat westwards past the Brambles Bank and take advantage of the better tide to reach the top mark off Cowes with a healthy lead. As Scarlet Oyster was turning for the downwind leg, so the leading Class 2 yacht Kite Runner (Nick and Dee Flower’s Oyster 45) was also at their mark to the east of Cowes. As more boats made the turning marks so the wind faded and aſt er due consideration the course was shortened to enable lunch to be taken. Whilst the boats were anchored in Osborne Bay, below Queen Victoria’s Island retreat, the wind relented and strengthened so by the time the aſt ernoon race started there was a brisk 15-18 knots blowing up the Needles Channel, champagne conditions that allowed the larger yachts to stretch their sea legs. Both classes shared the fi rst reach and beat to Gurnard, a cardinal mark to the west of Cowes. T e next leg took them past the Green at Cowes and the Castle (the Royal Yacht Squadron headquarters) on a fi ne spinnaker run towards the east before reaching across to the fi nishing line near the entrance to Southampton Water, and the mouth of the River Hamble.
Back at the Royal Southern for the day’s prize giving, the club’s Event Organiser Colin Hall, who owns the Oyster 53, Boysterous, awarded a bottle of fi ne wine to the Committee Boat team to ‘aid their recognition of fl ags to be fl own’ as the IRC 1 fl ag had been initially fl own for the IRC 2 start! Prizes were presented by Fiona Pankhurst, Raymarine’s Head of Corporate Marketing, to the class winners. Scarlet Oyster laid down her marker by winning both Class 1 races, whilst honours were even in Class 2 with Kite Runner winning in the morning and Martin and Pam Smout’s 46 Marela taking both line and handicap honours in the aſt ernoon.
T e day sponsors for Wednesday were Pelagos Yachts. A mid-day start for a race that would take the competitors westwards to a fi nish off the Royal Solent YC committee boat at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. But with Tony setting the course nothing was quite so straightforward. ‘It was strange to beat past a mark knowing we were having to come back to it later in the day’ was one crewmember’s recollection of the day. Aſt er four hours of racing Starry Night took line honours in Class 1 but Scarlet Oyster had hung on to fi nish only two minutes behind and her lower handicap enabled her to take the class win. In the other division Marela again took both line and handicap wins but by less than one minute from the class scratch yacht Kite Runner.
If Wednesday had been a late start, the Lewmar sponsored Round the Island Race on T ursday had everyone up by 06:00 for a 07:00 start from the Royal Solent YC start line. T ere was always enough wind, but it was those tacticians that made best use of their motoring time allowance that reaped the greatest rewards, especially as the yachts approached St Catherine’s Point at the south of the island. Bill and Denise Cartlidge’s Oyster 46 Penrose III, which was built in 1986 and the oldest yacht entered this year, joined Class 2 for the fi rst time. However, it was Peter Martin’s 45 Little Morten that had the privilege of reaching the Needles fi rst. A lead she was to keep in Class 2. Starry Night fi nished the course in just over four hours, almost catching the fi nishing committee boat out. Kite Runner, using very little of her motoring allowance but enjoying the day immensely, was the last boat home, fi nishing just before 14:00. T e competitors could not have had a better day for this race.
At the RAF Yacht Club that evening Commodore Robin Clarkson welcomed all the visitors and fondly remembered his own participation in the fi rst Oyster Week with a new boat and 50 knots across the deck in Cowes Yacht Haven!
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