One Stella too many (Continued)

The Clarion crew were an organised lot and had a house booked and agreed to let us have a basement room at a very reasonable rate. They gave us directions and after some interesting discussion between skipper and Bag Puss over the location of the house we headed off up the hill. That hill every morning proved to be the walk of shame. Basically the format was from that day forth we never really remembered walking up it of an evening, but every morning it was the walk of shame. Hung-over and somewhat dishevelled we would walk down desperately in need of coffee and some form of breakfast before the days racing.

Sunday was a down day and so this was spent mostly wandering from pub to pub. This definitely proved to be my downfall as I started to feel very flu like and really wasn’t in any sort of a state to go racing next day.

Monday dawned blowing old boots and as we headed out at 10:30 for the start I was feeling decidedly rough. Lacking any energy and struggling to stand up on a very wet foredeck wasn’t the best place to be and a mistake with the kite highlighted this crewman’s shortcomings. That said we managed a fourth in class and had I been a little more on the ball I’m sure we could have added the race to the overall trophy haul.

Tuesday was ladies race and unsurprisingly there wasn’t a queue of ladies lined up requesting to race on a little old Stella especially as there were classic big yachts everywhere to pick from. Late in the day Bag Puss cleared a fur ball and went off to find us a lady. When he returned he had in tow a certain quarter ton cup racer and so Ladies Race was a go go go. Louise turned out to be an excellent helm and it was great to have another person onboard who really knew her stuff. A great race unfolded despite the near gale blowing and we were doing very well and very much in first place on handicap until approaching the line off the Royal Yacht Squadron when we fell into a complete calm. We stopped dead and watched the boats in front of us race away unaffected by this wind hole. That’s racing I guess, but having raced a flawless race it was very frustrating to watch the lead fall away and so we had to settle for third place.

Wednesday was cancelled due to horrendous weather. This was not good. All that happened was that the wind got Bag Puss lit up and before I knew it we were sat in a pub sinking ale. We were joined by a certain east coat sail maker who after each glass of wine insisted he was leaving. I think a fair bit of wine was consumed and I don’t really remember much but I sincerely hope I didn’t order a new suit of sails!

Thursday was the day all came good - Round the island race. Again yours truly was feeling like death although by now I couldn’t work out whether this was down to the ale or flu or even both! Anyway, this was it and this really was the big one. Again Bag Puss went off hunting and came back with crew which given the weather conditions was a great result. James proved to be a top guy with a good understanding of the Solent and this proved a real asset to the Skipper. Round the Island is a long race and with a force 6 blowing is no fun in a small boat. That said the skipper was completely ‘dialled in’ and I don’t think we put a foot wrong. The BCYC sent us around the Americas Cup route and so we went round the island clockwise and it was a long old beat. We took a huge amount of water over the decks – there was such a confused sea as it was a lee shore and the sea was bouncing back off the island creating the strangest conditions I’ve ever seen. At one stage whilst sat out on the rail I looked down and there was nothing there. It was as if we had launched off a wave and were flying through the air. The other interesting thing during that stage of the race was the fact that I floated more times than I can remember whilst sat out on the rail. There was so much water my entire lap was engulfed in water – not fun for five hours! Rounding the Needles was a great experience as it was my first time round. We went close keeping in mind that you have to imagine the lighthouse laying on its side in order to avoid the wreck that lies off the Needles just below the water. Safely around it was time to fly the kite…..this was a step too far! After no time at all after hoisting the kite we broached and it all got very lively. Bag Puss was coming back from the foredeck and I remember looking at him thinking Bag Puss is stood on the mast…but still not looking overly animated!

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