A light breeze is rather a mixed blessing. Very often with a light breeze in the Solent, it starts to fill in after lunch, but on this occasion, without the mid-Summer temperatures creating airflow we were sadly left without one of the vital ingredients for a nice sail. However, this light breeze presented the perfect opportunity to mingle on the dock, and gave time to meet old and new friends whilst admiring a fleet of yachts each looking like they had just been taken out of a box, brand new, and carefully placed in the water, each gleaming in post fitting out splendour.
With a light breeze, and a Spring tide, the committee boat positioned a few hundred metres North of The Shrape (a notorious are of shallows off East Cowes which is identified by a red pile).
Keeping out of the tide for the start, the fleet circled between the Committee and the shallows like gulls around a fish head. Once started, in the light Easterly breeze, and heading East, we all sailed on our depth sounders to tack over The Shrape, out of the tide and to the first mark.
After the first race, and a lazy lunch on a mooring in Cowes Roads in the sun, the process started again. Still no real breeze piping up, and we were emboldened by previous success of scrabbling across The Shrape to gain advantage.
The tide had dropped a bit now, and we were quickly alarmed by the lack of depth. Cetewayo tacked to come out to deeper water and healing slightly, she found a raised sand area near the red pile and was caught, with the tide now dropping quickly. By late afternoon she was heeling at 60 degrees in just a couple of feet of water. This is a very alarming situation if you have ever experienced it. If you need to pass through the boat, the floor is now the locker fronts, backs of the bunks and the dog house sides and windows, and EVERYTHING cascades out of the upside lockers and storage. Added to which, the sea water is across the lee deck, lapping at the cockpit coaming, a perilous flooding situation as each ship passes and their wash comes in.
For more information and results check out Cowes Spring Classics
Saturday evening, we all attended a lovely meal in The Sugar House at Sheperds Wharf. It really was very good, and all credit to Martin Nott, Mary Scott-Jackson and her team for their attention to detail. The event was supported by sponsors adding to the fun with their excellent products. It was a really good weekend, and a perfect Season Opener. Sunday races were cancelled due to lack of wind ..