48 NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2010 Next month


the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword’ – having a blast on Joint Warrior


● Windsurfers from all three Services sail past HMS Dauntless in Portsmouth Harbour as they practise for the round the Isle of Wight race Picture: Sergeant Ian Forsyth RLC


The day of Judgement – Taranto 70th anniversary


All Wight from the knights


TEAMS from all three Services headed into the Solent for the inaugural Isle of Wight windsurfi ng


challenge. A combination of relay teams and solo windsurfers picked up the gauntlet – 20 Service personnel in all for a race which, on paper, is only 60 miles, but thanks to tides and weather conditions, was closer to 100 miles on the boards. A Navy team consisting of


Home runs – why a year in the UK is far from the quiet life for HMS Kent


WO Dave Strudwick, Lt Phil Bent, S/Lt Si Cave and PO Gav Nicholson planned to complete the circumnavigation as a relay. Phil and Si set off for the fi rst leg from Gurnard to Colwell Bay. From there Dave and Gav


would sail round the Needles to Brook Beach on the south coast. The fi rst pair would then take


over to sail past St Catherine’s Point to Yaverland before handing over to Dave and Gav for the fi nal leg past Bembridge, back into the Solent and the long haul back past Cowes to Gurnard. A second Navy team – Cdr


Gerry Northwood and AB(D) Steve Roberts – planned to complete the circumnavigation in its entirety. It was always going to be a tough


day whatever the conditions so a Force 4 from the west promised to test the fl eet’s sailing skills to the limit.


The beat to the fi rst stopover


moments – what it takes to become a petty offi cer


Senior


at Colwell Bay was, as expected, diffi cult with the added pressure that the teams knew they had to get round the Needles before the tide turned against them. As a windsurfer cannot sail directly into the wind the straight- line distance of ten nautical miles would be at least half as much again. For some this was to prove too


great a task and by the time they got to stop two at Brook Beach, on the southwest of the island, the chance of getting all the way around safely was gone. Phil and Si were caught in the light winds at Yarmouth which delayed the fi rst relay handover. Dave and Gav eventually got away from Colwell Bay but had to fi ght the tide to get round the Needles, but by the time they got to Brook, the odds were stacked against


● Cdr Gerry Northwood guides his board past the Egyptian resort of Dahab during training for the round- island race


them and they ran out of options. They were in good company, with all but one of the RAF and Army teams having to drop out as well. Those who got ahead of the tide


at the Needles now had the benefi t of the wind (which remained a steady Force 4 from the west) and the tide helping them along the south of the island. Gerry and Steve were making good progress. Despite the swell, they were able to keep their boards moving at around 15 kts in a series of broad reaches which routed them outside the St Catherine’s tidal races.


This leg – approximately 20 nautical miles – passed around St Catherine’s Point, on route to Yaverland and a well-earned rest. For most of the fl eet by this point the wind was starting to drop so a number of crews decided to fi t bigger rigs to allow them to maintain speed.


This no doubt helped, as they still had to go back up wind to the fi nish.


Windsurfi ng around the east


of the island was always going to take place in light winds towards the eastern Solent, heading back to Cowes and the fi nish. It was late afternoon and the wind was dropping as the sun began to set.


The passage back up the Solent


was punctuated by long periods of light winds with the boards moving very slowly off the plane. This was the moment that


everyone had to dig in and keep going if they were to succeed. When the wind blew, it did so


with suffi cient strength to allow the windsurfers to fi rstly get past Ryde, then on to Cowes, by which time they picked up the ebb tide to take them down to Gurnard. The fi rst entry to complete the challenge were the RAF team of Simon


Kent, Ginge


those that had completed the whole trip was clear to see. Next in were the Army pairing of Gareth Baker and Steve Williams, who arrived as dusk was giving way to darkness, which left Jon Metcalfe as the only remaining complete navigator. He was accompanied to the


fi nish with the fi nal member of the Army team of Ian Beaton, Dan Scudder and Rob Hickley – completing this great challenge roughly 14 hours after it had begun, and in total darkness! A welcome drink was enjoyed by all on the beach. Twenty windsurfers had set out on the challenge, 13 fi nished with fi ve completing the whole trip – a tremendous achievement. The event was inspired by


Ashmore,


Mark Richards and Stu Tillbury. Next to arrive was the fi rst pair of solo windsurfers: Gerry and Steve, who’d sailed for 10h 30m and covered roughly 100 miles. It was an incredible effort and the difference in appearance of


Rifl eman Craig Wood, who lost both legs and an arm to a Taleban bomb in Afghanistan. Craig was a keen windsurfer before he was wounded and he hopes to get back on a board one day.


So far the race has raised


more than £3,000. Donations can still be made via www. forceswindsurfi ng.org.uk. “The Forces Windsurfi ng Challenge certainly lived up to its name: 110miles over 11 gruelling hours, it was the most demanding physical and mental challenge I have ever completed,” said Maj Gareth Baker RE, Army windsurfi ng secretary.


Before heading out into the


Solent, 12 RN windsurfers and three enthusiastic windsurfi ng partners


enjoyed a successful


training camp in Dahab on the Gulf of Aqaba in Egypt. Indeed, with six windy planing


days out of seven it was diffi cult for the RN Windsurfi ng team not to enjoy and take full advantage of a wonderful opportunity for them to hone their windsurfi ng skills in preparation for this year’s Inter- Services competition and that Isle of Wight challenge. Each day there was a programme of racing with the races becoming increasingly ambitious as the week developed. They started with some simple slalom courses in the lagoon and gradually wound up the level of diffi culty fi nishing on the fi nal day with four cracking course races which started from Baby Bay, spanned the length and breadth of Speedy and to the shipping buoy, before returning to Baby Bay. Dahab being Dahab there


was a great deal of emphasis on freestyle and a light wind freestyle competition was held on the windless day and a proper planing freestyle competition in Baby Bay. The good news being that for those who had not competed before, the racing and the freestyle competitions helped de-mystify the competitive side of windsurfi ng and demonstrated how useful it is to improving skills across the board.


Cdre (Windsurfi ng) Dave


Strudwick kept the speed fl ag fl ying, leading the way with speeds in excess of 30 knots. With the focus on improving all- round windsurfi ng skills through racing and freestyle, speed sailing did not enjoy quite the emphasis that it had on previous training camps.


Most of the team had a go and enjoyed clocking up some respectable speeds along the strip.


‘He hath loosed


Published by Navy News, HMS Nelson, Portsmouth and printed by St Ives (Roche) plc.


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