Round The Island Race 2009

by Neil Denbow
(London UK)

If there is one phrase that will stick in everyone's mind for the CitiSail weekend of the 2009 Round the Isle of Wight race it is: "Grind!, Hold!, Ease!", First Mate Eleni Isaias certainly made sure that the crew well and truly knew what trimming was needed to keep the spinnaker flying.

On Thursday evening the crew met at the Banana Wharf bar and restaurant ,rapport was built as each crew member arrived, with Deborah Liew being the last to the bar and JC Maerten arriving late at the yacht.

Once onboard, Deborah set the standards for the required level of cleanliness by issuing the soap for the heads and the crew began sorting out arrangements, with Neil Denbow managing to bag the saloon's triple berth all to himself, although he would end up paying for that later with the incessant bleeping all night long from the navigation systems.



Friday morning started with the arrival of Norman Stabler shortly followed by skipper Ed Broadbent with bacon sarnies and the crew was complete. All loose items were stowed away, Water Venture was made ready.



Race positions were agreed and we practiced our tacking, gybing and spinnaker work. It is safe to say improvements were made and processes agreed between the foredeck and the 'pit:-

Helm : Ed Broadbent
Main : Gareth Mitchell
Halyards : Deborah Liew
Winches : David Noble, John "Grinder" Quinn & Norman Stabler
Trimming: Eleni Isaias
Foredeck: JC Maerten & Neil Denbow

With two ripped sails needing to be replaced for race day, final preparations were made before a welcome evening meal taken in the Hamble RAF Yacht Club to give the required sustenance for race day. Many thanks to Ed for the wine!



Race day started with a shower breaking down on a soaped David giving a little light relief from the air of anticipation and rain, we made ready for the sail down to Cowes for the start.

Water Venture made an excellent start off the line and for hours in there were never more than 10 yachts in our class near by and we were over taking many from earlier start times.

With the turn to the east at the Needles bringing out the Spinnaker, there were a few tweaks being made to the gybing process as guy lines became entangled, after a few revisions and discussions between Neil, JC and John we were sorted. That was until the Bembridge East Cardinal, or rather Mother Nature's decision to turn off the wind thereby causing havoc. Whilst Skipper Ed gave neighbouring yachts the benefit of his experience close up, the crew dropped the Spinnaker and raised the Genoa in a vain hope of some wind, the pack getting denser, fenders were deployed and moved as necessary to prevent any collisions with Water Venture and Gareth, off the transom, pushed off a nasty looking bow sprit. We later heard not everyone had been so lucky.

Having lost a lot of places in the delay we were back under way tacking west toward the finish line, but we were still not done, another ripped Genoa. This time the tear was smaller and repaired 'on the fly' by Eleni and JC.



Water Venture crossed the line 34th in class 1A of 55 (147 in total class) and 394th overall of 1,735.



Once rafted, the crew showered and some well earned refreshments were taken aboard (thanks to Gareth) before a BBQ at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and Ed's review of the day and individual appraisals of the team



Sunday was a nice breakfast ashore at the Duke and a leisurely sail back to Hamble for disembarkation



A fantastic weekend and a good result but could have been much much better if it were not for the chaos, and other inconsiderate skippers, at Bembridge East Cardinal.

Looking forward to 2010!