COVER PHOTOGRAPHThe first trip for Wetwheels Hamble

© The Southern is published by the Royal Southern Yacht Club Ltd., Rope Walk, Hamble, Southampton SO31 4HB and distributed free to Members and other interested parties. Opinions expressed are those of the contributors and are not necessarily shared by the Editor and/or publishers. Although the greatest care has been taken in compiling this publication, the publishers and Editor accept no responsibility or liabililty for any errors, omissions or alterations, or for any consequences ensuing upon the use of, or reliance on any information given in this publication.

Royal Southern Yacht Club is the trading name of Royal Southern Yacht Club LtdRegistered Office: Rope Walk, Hamble SO31 4HB Registered in England No. 05372495

EDITORIAL TEAMChris Mansfield - CommodoreKaren Henderson-Williams - Vice CommodoreSheelagh Cohen & Pat Aspinall - Co-EditorsJohn Sparshatt-Worley - AdvertisingBrian Curtis - Art DirectorDesign & Artwork - Owl House LimitedEditorial - editor@royal-southern.co.ukAdvertising - advertise@royal-southern.co.uk

From the Commodore

Charitable Trust

Your Magazine

Lives Remembered

Wetwheels Launch

ICOYC

Sailing - What we do

RSrnYC Classics

May Regatta

Hamble Winter Series

Warsash Spring Series

Barbados Champion of Champions

Cowes/Deauville Race

One Ton Cup

Sun, Sea & Sailing

Cruising

Motorboats

Nikki Curwen

A Sailing Family

Club Miscellanea

Ladies Committee

Bridge Society

Ashore

Snippets

Programme 2016

contentsSOUTHERNthe

Martin Bedford

Capt. Rob Bird

Bill BlainWarwick Bookman

Richard Campbell-

WalterGordon Craigen

Richard Curry

Charles Davis

Patrick EdenAlastair Garrod

Chris Gilllingham

Louay Habib

Colin HallKaren Henderson-

WilliamsJudi HusseyRichard Jacobs

Dot JonesSandie Llewellin

David MeadGraham Nixon

Pat NorthPhil RileyJuanita Sharman

Anne SmithLouise Sproule

Dudley Stock

John StorkPeta Stuart-Hunt

Rick Tomlinson

Duncan Truswell

John WalkerChrissie White

Maggie Widdop

Paul Wyeth

CONTRIBUTORS

The Editorial Team would like to thank

the following contributors to this Summer

edition of The Southern.

ROYAL SOUTHERN YACHT CLUB CONTACTSOffice & Administration023 8045 0300Alan Feltham Club Secretary & General 023 8045 0301 Managersecretary@royal-southern.co.ukTim Thubron Sailing Manager023 8045 0302Management Accounts023 8045 0304accounts@royal-southern.co.ukBosun07900 872 461

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1

AN APOLOGY

I would like to apologise to John Walker

and Mike Austin for omitting their

acknowledgement for the article on

Peter Garrod in the Winter edition of the

magazine – pages 58-61, and to John for

the photographs of Peter on his yacht on

pages 58 and 60. This was entirely my

fault. Brian Curtis (Art Director)

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Traditionally Easter marked the start of the sailing season, when owners finished work on their yachts ashore, launched off and prepared for a summer of warm days and balmy breezes to bless their cruising or racing endeavours. Today, however, winter series, selection trials, better insulated yachts and better clothing keep vessels and their hardier owners in com-mission throughout the year and our Prince Philip Yacht Haven has offered easy mooring and good shore-side facilities for Members through the winter months.

Walking through local boatyards, for those who still follow the traditional pattern of life, an early Easter and less than perfect weather conspired to keep many boats ashore for longer, but as they and we prepared for a new season, we enjoyed the Fitting Out Supper and listened with interest and in awe to our guest, Nikki Curwen, as she related some of her exploits and travails whilst preparing her 21’ yacht and taking part in the Mini Transat 2015. An amazing achievement, which demonstrat-ed what determination can deliver.

The Club has always been fortunate in attract-ing really interesting speakers to its winter lecture programme and 2015/16 has been no different. Nautical and more general topics, some delivered by Members and some by visitors, have kept us stimulated and informed and as always, everyone who sails or travels has a tale to tell on their return. I am sure that many Members are planning cruises or overland trips throughout the summer and we look forward to hearing of their exploits and chal-lenges during the course of next winter.

We have seen an increase in the number of events run from the Club now that the PPYH has become more firmly established and many classes can see and have experienced the benefits of good racing coupled with state of the art waterside fa-cilities. The 2016 calendar looks busier than ever and there are already fixtures pencilled in for the 2017 season, so the Club is forever grateful to the legions of Members who voluntarily give of their

time and skills to ensure that our racing offers the best experience and enjoyment and we are always looking for new blood to join the ranks of regatta management. More and better events also offer op-portunities to attract new sponsors.

One of the more pleasant aspects of being a Flag Officer are the chances to meet aspiring new members and their families at interview, a less daunting prospect than it might sound, but im-portant none the less to allow both sides to get to see the other. Over the past months I have had the privilege I meeting really interesting and above all, enthusiastic, future members of our Club, many of whom have been attracted to the Royal Southern by the scope of its offering and the way in which we communicate what we do through written, web-site and social media. The website is the best way to keep up with everything from regattas to our popular themed evenings, offering something for all tastes.

All the active divisions of the Club are now well into their summer activities, I am happy to report a number of notable achievements. Past Com-modore, Mark Inkster, and I attended the British construction industry National Site Awards 2016 and our friends at Raymond Brown won a Bronze award for their Considerate Contractors site whilst building the PPYH.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Ross Apple-bey’s 48’ Scarlet Oyster with its Royal Southern crew wrapped up Class CSA Racing 6 with one day to go in Antigua Sailing Week. My congratula-tions to all concerned in both successes. The Royal Southern had more Members participating to-gether with support crew than any other non-island Club.

Closer to home I was delighted to be present when Dame Mary Fagan conducted the naming ceremony for WetWheels Hamble. The arrival of the boat at the PPYH was a moving and proud moment. David Mead, my predecessor as Com-modore, has led this project and to say he has been successful understates the case. Not only has he raised sufficient money to build WetWheels Hamble he has done so in an incredibly short space of time. When he launched the appeal last year I did not think that WetWheels Hamble would be moored at the Club whilst I was still Commodore. He has not done this alone but has been ably as-sisted by Dick Long and the generosity of the own-ers of Marquita and Eleanora. My thanks to them and all who donated to the appeal.

Pam and I wish you equal success and fair winds this summer.Chris Mansfield Commodore

OPPOSITE PAGE CENTRE A lively ‘French’ evening at the Club in April.OPPOSITE PAGE BOTTOM British Construction Industry National Site Awards.ABOVE LEFT Some of the prizes won by ‘Scarlet Oyster’ during Antiqua Race Week.ABOVE The victorious crew of ‘Scarlet Oyster’.LEFT CENTRE ‘Scarlet Oyster’ in full race mode.LEFT The crew of ‘El Ocaso’ led by Chris Body winning his class at Antigua Week.BELOW Dave Mary Fagan and the Commodore presenting a ‘Wetwheels’ burgee to Geoff Holt at the lunch after the naming of Wetwheels Hamble.

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‘A very sincere report, it makes being a Trustee worthwhile.’So said Brian Mead, Chairman of the Royal Southern Yacht Club Trust, when circulating a report from a successful grant applicant to the other trustees. Whenever the Trust awards a grant, it asks the recipient to report back on the experience of what they did. In this case Matt T, a disabled, disadvantaged young man set out to overcome his disadvantages and qualify as a sailing instructor so that he could pass on his success to others. Here are some extracts from his story:

Matt started sailing through the Ellen MacAr-thur Cancer Trust and was hooked from the age of 13. Come 17, after completing college and even though it was a struggle, he was still passionate about sailing so he found his local sailing club and passed his RYA dinghy levels. He absolutely loved it and went out in all weathers, made new friends and coped with the fatigue caused by the treatment he received when he was younger.

He then spoke to his senior instructor about the possibility of him becoming an instructor himself, and with support from Sail 4 Cancer he went on to complete an RYA Dinghy Instructor course.

Matt wanted to continue to sail, continue to volunteer and continue to gain further qualifica-tions in the watersport sector. He says “my parents have been wonderfully supportive but due to cir-cumstances in the past they cannot afford to cover the costs anymore”. And so he applied to the Royal Southern Yacht Club Trust and was granted funds in 2015 to help him participate in further instructor training at Plas Menai National Outdoor Centre.

‘The course took place over a 3 months pe-riod to gain RYA Start Windsurf Instructor, RYA Powerboat Instructor, RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Theory, BCU Level 1 Coach and other credentials. This allowed him to obtain the experience required to find better employment opportunities within the industry, to secure paid work and at age 19, he was offered a job at Plas Menai.

Matt says that the course gave him the ability to understand different learning styles and how to teach them, and the different responsibilities and roles of an instructor. It also gave him confidence in his own decision making, the training itself to gain the skills and the knowledge required of an instruc-

tor and how to interact with his own peer group that he missed out on in school.

‘He says, “The course was fantastic, I learned a considerable amount and I will use the skills ac-quired for my entire life. I would like to say a mas-sive thank you to the Royal Southern Trust, the organisation that made this all possible”.

Such feedback is quite humbling but does en-courage us in what we do. David D, also disabled, wrote about a different kind of success:

‘Thank you very much for the contribution that the Royal Southern Yacht Club Trust gave me to-wards servo-assist equipment for my Hansa Class boat. I have no hand function and need motors to operate the jib and main sheets, however I am able to manually operate the tiller. These systems allow myself and others with even more severe disabilities to sail independently, and to be competitive on level terms with the able-bodied. On my first time out in this boat, I won against all the able-bodied com-petition so I’m very pleased with it! This is a good start in my campaign towards the Hansa European Championships.’

Not all our grants go to disabled sailors, but most do go to a mix of disabled and young people who have a goal, whether that is to train, to afford specialist equipment or to take part in an event at home or abroad. About half of our grants are very local and others are spread a bit further. We make sure that our contributions, usually a few hundred pounds each, are significant enough to make a dif-ference to help people to achieve their sailing re-lated goals.

In the last year, we have welcomed four new trustees from outside of the club, necessary for Charity Commission reasons, and have just said ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Thank you’ to Fr John Travers and Past Commodore Colin Hall. The new trustees bring a wealth of varied sailing and local experience which has helped to widen the knowledge base of the Trust.

We could always use more funds as we are al-ways over-subscribed. We have our own website that shows how you could make a Gift Aid dona-tion or a bequest to set up a named fund within the Trust for a specific purpose. If you would like more details, please click on http://rsrnyctrust.org/RSrnYCTrust/tabid/55/Default.aspx for details.The Trustees of the Royal Southern Yacht Club Trust

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IVY GREEN

It’s already light when the 04:45 alarm sounds. We leave the mooring in good spir-its at 05:15. The bowsprit and jib are rigged and ready to go. The mainsail is up by the time we’re out of the Hamble river and it’s a gentle sail across to the start line, with a stream of other boats doing the same thing.

The starting area really is a boat watcher’s paradise. There are yachts of all shapes and sizes pouring out of Cowes. Mariquita heads West up the course and is a great sight coming back downwind, while Eleonora powers the other way, from Osborne Bay. In between is Leopard III with an army sitting on the rail. We jockey for position with a MOD70 and generally enjoy the show. The wind is already stronger and further to the West than forecast, so it’s going to be a long beat to the Needles.

At 07:00, the superstars of Class Zero are away and then it’s our turn at 07:10. We decide on simplicity and get a great start at the pin end of

the line with the majority of the fleet out of sight in the melee at the Squadron end of the line.

By 10:00 it’s wind over tide in the Hurst Nar-rows and every square foot of water has a boat on it. The wind’s up to a steady 4 and there’s plenty of tacking and ducking going on. At 10:40 we’re round the Needles and there’s time to draw breath. It’s a beautiful sunny day and we’re on a broad reach in rolling seas… time for an early lunch.

At 12:45 we’re round St Catherine’s and tuck inshore to avoid the last of the ebb tide. We’re go-ing well, but every time we think things are looking good, there’s another Shrimper in front of us.

14:55 sees us round Bembridge Ledge and we head for Ryde. We watch the boats in front of us tacking inshore at Ryde Sands, to avoid the tide. Then we watch the inshore lifeboat trying to help them get back afloat. The idea of close tack-ing a 10 ton gaffer in a crowd, against the tide doesn’t appeal and we take the Northern option. Our Port tack from Ryde, keeps us in great wind and takes us up past Lee-on-Solent. There we tack along the Southern edge of Bramble Bank before diving across for Cowes.

We rejoin the melee at Shrape Beacon and tack back out for the finish. The flood tide leaves us just short, so a last tack to starboard about a boat length before the line, which is ignored by the yacht behind us coming in on port. That leaves us both in irons a bowsprit from the finish, with the tide pulling us back. Ivy Green falls back on to port tack and we scrape around the line to record a fin-ish at 18:11:02. The sail numbers just lasted the day, but we’re out of flapjacks and sausage rolls, so we bear away and head straight for Hamble. A well earned pizza turns into a victory celebra-tion after checking the results. We’ve won our class (Gaffers Division 1) on our first attempt! We shall be back to defend our title next year.Richard Jacobs

Photography courtesy of Patrick Eden

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DPETER GARROD 1921 - 2016It is with great sadness that we have to an-nounce the death on [23] June of Peter Gar-rod, one of the Club’s oldest Members.

Born in 1921, the son of the late Air Chief Marshall Sir Guy Garrod, Peter had a peripatetic early childhood as a result of his father’s postings including RAF Staff College, Andover and Oxford University Air Squadron, Upper Heyford. He re-mained in England whilst his father served at RAF Headquarters in Iraq and was close to his father during his time at the Air Ministry.

Peter’s ambition was to follow in his father’s footsteps as an RAF pilot and learn to fly in his teens. However his vision did not meet the required standard and, with World War II looming, he de-ferred going to Oxford and went as an apprentice to the Hawker Aircraft Company in Kingston upon Thames.

In the summer of 1941 he read an advertise-ment for people with flying experience to join the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), a civilian organisa-tion to ferry repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, transatlantic delivery points and active service squadrons. His eyesight was not a problem and Peter took his first ‘officila’ solo flight in a Tiger Moth on September 2 1941. By the time he left the ATA in October 1945 he had flow 68 dif-ferent type of single and twin engine aircraft, most of them solo or as the sole pilot. He considered that flying big aeroplanes alone was perfect training for his single handed sailing career.

By now married to Ros, Peter took up his de-ferred place at University College, Oxford where

he read economics before re-joining Hawkers, re-searching projects on re-arming and maintaining British and American aircraft, flying after repair and advanced landing systems. He subsequently joined Unilever where he remained until 1980 when he “No longer felt minded to wear the corporate cloak’.

He bought his first boat, an 11 Plus dinghy, which he sailed out of Abersoch on the Llÿn Penin-sula. Bitten by the sailing bug he subsequently had a 14ft Leader and in 1965 a Macwester 26.

In 1971 he celebrated joining the Royal South-ern by buying a 32’ Westerly Renown at the London Boat Show Described by Yachting Monthly as a ‘safe, steady, all-weather cruiser’ it was a descrip-tion that could have equally applied to its owner. He was still sailing it until a few days before his death. In 1980 he and Ros moved south to Winchester and his sailing aspirations were transformed. As might be expected of an ex-pilot and data manage-ment pioneer his cruising logs were meticulous and provide an insightful record of the past 44 years sailing. Although he sailed with the family Peter always enjoyed single handed sailing and estimated that 80% of his sailing had been single handed ris-ing to 100% in recent years.

Peter did not restrict his activities to sailing and was Commodore of the Air Transport Association and was their standard bearer at the Cenotaph Re-membrance Ceremonies. He also attended local remembrance functions on behalf of the ATA and was at the ceremony of remembrance for the Battle of Jutland and the Somme on Hamble Quay on the Sunday before his sudden death.

Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time.

For further information on the extraordinary life of Peter Garrod see the article in the Winter 2015 edi-tion of The Southern

MIKE ROTHWELL1932- 2015Past Rear Commodore

Mike was born and brought up in Northum-berland. He studied dentistry at Durham University and, on qualifying in 1956, moved to Portsmouth. He met Angela at a party in 1957, proposed to her after three weeks and they were married six months later. This was followed soon after by three children arriving in quick succession. Mike had a dental prac-tice in Fareham and in 1963 the family moved to Hillhead where he bought his first boat, a Jacqueline dinghy built by Tom Robertson. At the same time he joined Hillhead Sailing Club where he became a keen racer and was also in-volved in the building of their clubhouse. The Jacqeline was followed by a GP14 and then an Albacore.

His first “big boat” was Mist Of Meon, a Jag-uar 27, and her maiden voyage was to be the fam-ily’s summer holiday, bags packed and ready to go. Unfortunately the boat filled with water on being launched and the holiday was delayed whilst the builders put it right! This was followed by a West-erly Renown ketch in which he raced to France fre-quently with JOG.

Mike and Angela joined the Royal Southern in 1976 and Mike continued his love of racing par-ticipating in both Club and JOG events, winning Solent Points Class 2 in Roundabout, a classic S&S one tonner. He also had one of his worst experi-ences on Roundabout when returning across the Channel. He lost the rudder but managed to sail the boat back to Gosport where he, and his crew es-pecially, were very glad to tie up to the first available mooring – from which they were then told to move!

Roundabout was followed by a half tonner, Starkers, and then a Sunfiz 40, Jagory, which he sailed to the Mediterranean. After a three month holiday aboard, Jagory was sold in Mallorca and,

on coming home, Mike decided that there was more to life than dentistry and sold his practice. His waterborne exploits then took a different turn as he bought a Nelson (but did not like motoring) followed by a motor-sailer but was not struck with its performance. However, he just liked being on the water so finally he had a Windy followed by a large Rib. He had success too in these later years with cruiser races and winning a Predicted Log race with the motorboaters.

Sailing was only part of his activities as he was interested in all sport, having run for Northumber-land in his youth, played cricket for Portsmouth Bohemians and golf with the Royal Southern. He was also a keen artist.

Mike served on various committees and was elected to the Managing Committee where he served on the House and Finance Committee. He also served two years as Junior Rear Commodore and one year as Senior Rear Commodore in the early nineties after which he stepped down for fam-ily reasons. He was famed for two poems which he had learned at school and which he was apt to recite at the Club at any given opportunity. Mike was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2004 but continued to be as active as he could.

He last visited the Club only a week before he died and will be much missed.

MAUREEN PEPPER

We said our final ‘Goodbyes’ to Maureen at a Thanksgiving Service on Monday 6 June that brought back so many memories of her and what she did for the Southern.

We remembered her laugh and smile, her un-wavering positive approach and how she and Donald achieved so much for the Club. In the days before the vote to construct the ‘New Build-ing’ Donald worked hard on the doubters, who he called the ‘flat earthers and dinosaurs’, while Mau-reen charmed them, successfully, over afternoon tea at Hard Cottage. Donald had to retire early as Commodore due to ill health, but he and Maureen still supported the Club, always helping others in the pursuit of happiness.

We didn’t know some of the other parts of Muareen’s life that were relayed by family members at the Service – for instance that Maureen was still surfing into her seventies, always the enthusiast.

Maureen brought so much joy to us all and we remember her with great affection.

May she and Donald rest together in peace and happiness.

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WETWHEELS HAMBLE THE STORY

Wetwheels provides the opportunity for dis-abled and disadvantaged people to access the sea in a safe, stimulating and rewarding way through specifically modified, fully accessible powerboats. It is a successful concept devel-oped and pioneered by disability sports am-bassador Geoff Holt MBE.

The startThe Wetwheels Hamble journey started in June

2014 when it was agreed by the ball committee that the proceeds from the RSrnYC Charity Sum-mer Ball would go towards the building of a Wet-wheels Hamble boat to be operated from the Royal Southern. Just over £30,000 was raised at the ball and it enabled planning to start for the building of the boat. Funding for the disabled facilities in the Prince Philip Yacht Haven was donated through the Royal Southern Yacht Club Charitable Trust.

A year later the fundraising campaign was of-ficially launched at the Club and in early August, a mere 44 days later, a party was held to announce that 75% of the target has been reached, sufficient to instruct Cheetah Marine to schedule the build-ing of the third boat for launching in the Spring of 2016.

This was made possible by generous dona-tions from Club Members and the owners of two magnificent classic yachts the 160ft Eleanora and 125ft Mariquita. Eleanora accepted a match racing challenge from Mariquita who offered places on

board to the top 25 bidders, raising thousands of pounds for Wetwheels Hamble.

John Caulcutt, co-own-er of Marqiuita and long time

friend of Geoff Holt said “We were delighted to help by challenging Eleanora to a match race, with places on board being auctioned off to raise funds. All of the yacht clubs on the south coast combined on the initiative, which shows the strength of Wetwheels and the trust in Geoff.

The boat The Wetwheels boats are all designed and built

by Cheetah Marine in Ventnor, Isle of Wight and Suzuki are the official engine suppliers. Wetwheels boats have to satisfy a number of different criteria; firstly and most important they must fulfil the goal of Wetwheels to provide the opportunity for dis-abled and disadvantaged people to access the sea in a safe, stimulating and rewarding way through a specifically modified, fully accessible powerboat. In addition when not fulfilling their primary objec-tive they must be able to earn money to contribute towards their running costs of some £30,000 an-nually.

The Cheetah catamarans fulfil all these objec-tives and more. They provide more space than in a monohull of equivalent length and are extremely stable. Due to their symmetrical planing hulls they have a soft ride in head seas and can cruise in calm or rough weather at intermediate speeds, maintain-ing a level trim with excellent fuel economy. This means that they can be customised to take wheel-chairs and are excellent workboats for a number of functions, such as spectator, committee, press boats or chartered for pleasure use - such as going sea fishing and the proceeds are put back into the charity so they can take more disabled people out.

ConstructionConstruction of Wetwheels Hamble started on

24th November 2015.Construction is divided into two main stages:

firstly fibreglass work, laying up and bonding of mouldings, fitting of internal bulkheads, deck, su-perstructure and ring decks. The second stage in-volves the unique fit out of each craft depending on the specification and includes fitting of engines, electronics, specialist equipment, stainless steel and metalwork as well as the final internal and deck configurations.

Moulding the hull and super-structure

Mouldings are carried out in strict temperature and humidity controlled conditions ensuring correct curing temperatures for resins and gels. Isopthalic gelcoat is backed with a first layer of powerbound matt with vinylester resin protecting the whole struc-ture form osmosis. The skin is complimented dur-ing main layup by a combination of chopped strand and multi axle cloth.

Structural integrity is maximized by combining the shell structure with a series of internal ethafoam bulkheads. These are encased and bonded with glass fibre to create an extremely coherent structure.

The final phase of the hull construction, which is critical to the buoyancy of the boat, is fitting a closed cell honeycomb deck directly onto the top of the bulkhead and bridgedeck. The result is a se-ries of internal compartments running up through each of the hulls. These sealed compartments are responsible for the substantial buoyancy found in Cheetah Catamarans, far in excess of that required for the boat’s displacement.

Ancilliary mouldings and wheelhouse struc-tures use a PVC single cell foam core composite construction. Weight is reduced without compro-mising strength surpassing traditional boatbuilding materials.

Fitting outFitting out the Hamble Wetwheels boat fol-

lowed the basic criteria laid down by the Wetwheels Trust although this is being continually modified in light of experience gained from previous years op-erations.

The Hamble boat had the addition of a railed roof area with ladder access and interior fold down tables to allow chartered use as a regatta Commit-tee boat. Other additions included a diesel fired heater, extra wheelchair tie down points and a forward wet locker for life jacket and wet weather gear stowage. The sophisticated instrumentation, donated by Raymarine, enables the boat to be eas-ily controlled by wheelchair users or those with dif-ficulty with manual dexterity.

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NamingWetwheels Hamble, was officially named by

Dame Mary Fagan DCVO, JP, on Saturday 14th May with over 100 invited guests present. Fol-lowing the pontoon naming ceremony, everyone gathered in the Club where past Commodore and Wetwheels Hamble CIC Director David Mead, welcomed the guests. Dame Mary said she was thrilled to be naming another of Geoff’s Wetwheels boats having launched the first one - Wetwheels Solent - four years ago at the Southampton Boat Show. Then, in a complete surprise to the assem-bled gathering, she read out a personal message of support for the Wetwheels Hamble initiative from the Club’s Patron, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. This received warm applause.

In recognition of this milestone occasion Geoff Holt spoke passionately and very movingly about how his vision for Wetwheels began and where it has got to today. He concluded :-

“Today is obviously a special day for everyone involved but it is also a tremendously moving day for me. We have come a long way and it makes me incredibly proud to see this, our 3rd boat on the water, especially knowing the lives she will enrich over her life time here on the river. The Hamble is very special to me for a number of reasons and I just know that the whole community will benefit from her presence here.”

The futureWetwheels Hamble CIC (Community Interest

Company) is responsible for operating the boat and fund raising: to pay for the boat in full (ap-proximately £25,000) and on-going operating costs of some £30,000 annually.

A programme of events for the disabled and disadvantaged in the local community is being planned. We are also looking forward to welcom-ing, in the very near future, injured Service person-nel to Hamble to enjoy the “Wetwheels Experience” on the new boat. This is being arranged under the auspices of Battle Back which exists to ensure the seriously injured have access to the same opportu-

nities in sport and adventurous training that are available to the able bodied.Currently qualified skippers and crews are operat-ing the boat on a voluntary basis but our objective is to employ a full time local skipper. The boat can be chartered when she is not fulfilling her primary role (usually at the weekend) and this income can be used to defray costs. She will also be available to be used as a Committee Boat.David Mead and Dick Long

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22

2016 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OFYACHT CLUBS CONFERENCE

ICOYC MISSIONThe Council’s mission is to

foster closer relations at Flag Officer and General Manage-

ment level between leading yacht clubs around the world in

order to improve the quality of the yachting and other services they provide to their members. The council shall also promote

a proper awareness of the environment and responsibility

towards it.

The 2016 ICOYC European Conference was held at the Royal Malta Yacht Club from 15th – 17th January. It was attended by delegates from seven European yacht clubs and one from the United States. The Royal Southern is currently the only UK Members of the ICOYC and was represented by Past Commodore David Mead and Rear Com-modore Sailing Graham Nixon.

The conference was opened on Friday 15th January by Godwin Zammit Commodore of the Royal Malta Yacht Club. Gero Brugman, Vice President – Europe ICOYC then gave a short re-view of the last Commodores Forum and requested agenda items for next Commodores Forum to be held in September at the Royal Danish Yacht Club. I suggested sailing for the disabled. With the Prince Philip Yacht Haven and Wetwheels Hamble this is a subject on which the RSrnYC is able to make a substantive contribution. Following the Friday af-ternoon session the delegates and partners dined at the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

Saturday’s sessions included presentations from the various Clubs on:-• Youth Sailing and training programmes• Inter-Club co-operation and exchanges • Club management – Voluntary vs Employed

management• Encouraging great member participation• Communications with Members and competitors

All of these were followed by a lively and thought provoking discussion.

Following the conference wrap-up and a quick change back at the hotel there was a guided tour (in pouring rain) of Malta’s old capital, the fortified city of Mdina, which was founded some 4000 years

ago followed by dinner at Medina, a restaurant in an 11th century building within the walled city. A fabulous experience.

On Sunday morning in chilly but sunny weather the delegates enjoyed a tour of Valetta and St. John’s Co-Cathedral with the Commodore and Members of the Yacht Club. The hospitality and friendship extended to the conference delegates by Members of the Royal Malta Yacht Club was quite superb with a very professionally organized conference.I can’t wait to return!David MeadPast Commodore

TOP The ICOYC delegates outside the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

CENTRE RIGHT Past Commodore David Mead with Godwin Zammit, Commodore of

the Royal Malta Yacht Club in Valetta.RIGHT A bust of Sir Winston Churchill in

Barrakka Gardens on Malta.NEXT PAGE St. John’s Co-Cathedral

in Valetta.

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. Financial assistance and scholarships are available

We would be delighted to

show you around the school.

Booking is not required. Wilton Road, Southampton SO15 5UQ

www.kes.hants.sch.uk

023 8079 9216

registrar@kes.hants.sch.uk

WHAT WE DO

SAILING COMMITTEE

Bill Blain, chairman of Sailing: “We’ve estab-lished the top yachting programme in the country, but there is always more we can do to support members on the water. Lets see everyone out there, participating in our events, flying our burgee and the blue ensign.. And if members spend more time on the water it will quash this dangerous heretical drifttowards the depravity of Golf I’ve observed in some members.”

A yacht club is about being on the sea, and the Sailing Committee of the Royal Southern Yacht Club is at the very core of our activities. Collectively we wear many hats, but our primary role is ensure the Club’s on-the-water programme and facilities are the best in the country for our members and visiting yachtsmen and women using the Club.

The committee is responsible for the Club moorings in the PPYH and our pontoons on the East side of the river. We run the launch service to Member’s yachts moored on the river, oversee the car-park and the dry berthing for sports boats. We

also set the Club’s water-based events and sched-ule, ranging from the Club’s yachting racing pro-gramme which includes the major regattas each month during the summer, and a host of other power and sail events including rallies, cruises and offshore races.

Over the years, the Club has built and main-tained our reputation as the premier keel boat and motor boat club in the UK. Through out profes-sional Sailing Manager, Tim Thubron, and our Race Management Team we have established a reputation for attracting and running regattas that are second to none. Our four summer club regattas are among the most competitively contested events on the Solent - with all levels of race experience and ability on the race courses: from modern ultra-fast 40 footers, a full IRC race fleet, club-class handicap racing and sportsboats.

Our sailing team are there to help all our mem-bers and contestants find their level of racing, and we can also help you find crew! We’re also one of the top venues in the UK running external events - for instance, prestige events such as the Oyster Cup, the 6-meter cup, J-Cup and the X-Yacht re-

PRINCE PHILIP YACHT HAVEN

gatta are all regular contests at the club. Next year the club will host the prestigious J-80 Worlds, one of the most active international sailing champion-ships in the World.

Sub committees of the main committee include Cruising, Motorboats, Race Management, Youth (which runs Splash Week), and the Academy for younger adult members. The subcommittees have the responsibility for managing programmes for their membership groups. For instance, many Club racers move-up to join the race management team and the Club is well served with fully qualified race officers.

Many racers who spend most weekends charg-ing round Solent buoys find themselves relishing gentle cruises around the English channel and fur-ther afield with friends from the Club. Many events, such as the Hamble Scramble and Yarmouth Race are designed for families to participate. The petrol-heads of the motor boat fraternity will always be happy to welcome sailors from wind-driven idiocy to the attractions of heading in a straight line from point to point without all that tacking nonsense.

Few other yacht clubs can claim the sailing success of the Royal Southern in attracting young families. Splash Week is one of the most colour-ful events of the summer with young kids learning the joys of messing about on the river, turning into mud monsters and taking their first steps towards racing.

As kids grow up they have the option to be-come Academy members, The Chair-person of the Royal Southern Academy also sits on Sailing Committee ensuring the club is relevant to younger adults and maintaining their interest in sailing down the generations.

Members of the Sailing Committee take re-sponsibility for nurturing all the on-the-water ac-tivities of the Club - and don’t hesitate to ask them what’s happening, why, when, where and how you get involved. Elections to Sailing Committee are held as part of the AGM each year. Bill BlainChairman of Sailing Committee 2015-2016

CruisingThe Cruising Committee, chaired by Maggie

Widdop, represents the largest single section of Royal Southern members. As such, the programme of typically 25 events we organise each season embraces a wide variety of outings catering for all tastes:

Mid-week & weekend rallies to favourite So-lent harbours & beyond, Monthly Ladies Afloat days out, organised extended charters to world-wide destinations and of course our unique family Cruiser Races - 3 days in the Solent in May and the longer West Country or N/France event later in the summer. Perfect, diesel-fume free relaxed fun out-ings for all concerned. Oh, and we do not discrimi-nate against golfers.

Race managementJane Windsor of Race Management comments:

“Race Management comprises a team of dedi-cated, friendly volunteers who regularly turn out to

deliver the Club’s racing programme of events. We are the engine room, working to ensure we have the best people and correct resources to run the great events we are being asked to host. From the expe-rienced race officers, marklayers and other roles afloat, to the shoreside results and protest teams, race management at the Royal Southern is a key reason so many choose our Club to run their event. We also offer regular training for those new to race management and constantly seek to welcome new members to the team.”

MotorboatsAndy Short, chairman of the Motorboat com-

mittee describes his role as: “representing the Club’s proud history in power-boating and making sure our motorboat members are involved in lots of club events. Last year we arranged a number of very suc-cessful rallies and also the superbly attended Tra-falgar Dinner in the Officers mess of HMS Nelson in Portsmouth.” All members of the club are very welcome to get involved in our events and learn the joys of getting there faster in a straight line!

Royal Southern AcademyJack Neale, chairman of the Academy com-

mittee says “Representing the interests of the clubs 18-25 the division, the Academy committee works hard to deliver exciting racing and training op-purtunities whilst maintaining the overall viability of the Academy. The recent Academy winter and frostbite series’ attracted a variety of entries from within and outside the club, catching the attention of Doyle Sails, culminating in a new sponsorship deal for the Academy.”

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Sailing Committee is at the core of the Club’s activities

on the water. The members of the committee and its various sub-committees work closely with the Club’s Sailing Man-

ager, Tim Thubron and the club bosuns.

SplashOur local doctor, Dr Mark

“Tommo” Tomson runs the youth committee. He says: “My aim of being on the sailing com-mittee is to make sure that the youth of the sailing club get good representation and that we con-tinue to promote youth sailing within the club.

The big week of the year is Splash week in August which is a great combination of messing around in boats and racing, as well as building camaraderie with fellow junior sailors.

While sailors have enthused about beautiful yachts for centuries until quite recently they were also ruthless about moving on to the latest idea and discarding what went before. Many fine yachts were simply broken up to re-cover the lead from the keel while others ended their days in mud berths or creeks.

Nowadays it’s different and while yacht design and technology advances at a fast pace, a deeper appreciation of our yachting heritage has devel-oped. Some owners have a mission to preserve the very best of that bygone era while others prefer to combine classic style with the benefits of modern boatbuilding technology and design, a concept known as ‘Spirit of Tradition’.

So what does ‘classic’ mean when applied to yachts? Essentially it comprises both aesthetic beauty and provenance; a multi-faceted set of qualities including hull shape, sheer line and other design details, fine workmanship, and the ultimate qualification, that of being the creation of one of the great yacht designers who helped steer our sport towards where it is now, arguably the second golden age of yachting.

What makes a yacht a ‘classic’?

HAMBLE CLASSICS AT THE SOUTHERN

The Royal Southern Yacht Club is hosting a weekend regatta over September 24th/25th dedi-cated to classic yachts, International Metre classes, classic dayboats and gaffers, plus their modern counterparts, the Spirit of Tradition yachts.

The Hamble Classics Regatta aims to build on our yachting heritage and enable the beauty

of these boats to be appreciated by more people by offering racing to the broadest range of classic boats, to include those who wish to attend purely for the joy of the occasion and others who want to show off the speed of their yachts in racing. To de-liver that we have club member Stuart Childerley as Principal Race Officer arranging this full range of on-the-water activity, and with courses to suit each type.

To encompass the wide scope of yachting at the Royal Southern, Members with classic style power-boats are also invited to take part in the fun. Some will have a dual interest including Andy Short and Andrew Webster who will be competing in the 6-Metre Class with their yachts Nancy and BobKat II.

Asked about the new event, Andy Short, the reigning Classic 6-Metre British Champion, commented: “My classic 1932 Sparkman & Ste-phens, American built 6-Metre Nancy will be racing in the Hamble Classics and I am hopeful we’ll see big turnouts of all types of classics, including some elegant powerboats, my other passion!”

Ashore there will be a full social programme beginning on Friday lunchtime as yachts and dayboats arrive in the river. In the evening com-petitors will be welcomed at an opening reception before racing starts on Saturday, followed by the Hamble Classics dinner and race-day prize giving. Sunday will see the conclusion of racing and at the afternoon prizegiving the winner of the Concours d’Elegance will also be announced.

With its long heritage of yacht ownership and now with its superb Prince Philip Yacht Haven fa-cility, plus a fine collection of marine art and yacht models, the Royal Southern is the perfect setting for a classic yacht regatta.

Expressions of interest and racing preferences will continue to help us with the planning, and all members whether they intend to be afloat or ashore are invited to sign up for more information at: http://eepurl.com/bJbAgD. The Notice of Race and online entry are available on the club website. If you need more information contact Tim Thu-bron, Sailing Manager.

TOP ‘Classic’ Metre Yachts racing by Paul Wyeth.CENTRE LEFT A ‘Classic’ Fairey Spearfish Motor boat. Photograph by Richard Cambell-Walter.ABOVE A ‘Classic’ 8 Metre. Photograph by Paul Wyeth.OPPOSITE PAGE The 125’ ‘Mariquita’. Photograph by Jonty Sherwill.

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SPINNAKER DANCES...The weather gods smiled on the opening Summer Series event, with the Harken May Regatta happily coinciding with Caribbean conditions; bringing bright sunshine and a re-spectable sailing wind, which attracted over 70 competing boats.

The racing had extra spice as Saturday formed the first of a six-part programme constituting the IRC Solent Region Championship 2016, while the whole regatta was part of selection trials for the RYA Commodores’ Cup.

The weekend began with delayed starts thanks to an initially light and variable Solent breeze which could not compete with a robust Spring tide. Thankfully the wind soon settled down to a reliable 15 knots which allowed a full programme of races.

On the Black Line, IRC1 saw three winners from three starts, with Alice (Simon Henning), La

Reponse (Andrew McIrvine) and Cobra (Michael Blair) sharing the honours.

IRC2, meanwhile, demonstrated you don’t al-ways have win it to be in it as Phil Elford’s Bengal Magic led the class by virtue of three second places ahead of race winners Xcitable and Jiraffe. Annie Kelly’s Blackjack II took a firm grip on IRC3 with three straight wins, followed home in each race by Richard Sparrow’s Only Magic. Polly (Ben Meak-ins) emerged as the early leader in IRC4, two wins helping to secure a single point advantage over Crackajax (Richard and Ursula Hollis).

Over on White Line the ever-competitive J70 class saw Allan Higgs’ ESF Energy take two wins and the class lead ahead of Patrick Liardet’s Cos-mic. Hamish Wilson’s Mischief took a clean sweep of first places in the XODs on Saturday.

Sunday proved to be a classic late Spring day with - vitally - a steady and stable breeze that al-lowed race officers to complete a full sailing pro-gramme. As per the race instructions this triggered a single race discard - a relief for a number of com-peting racers.

One to see an abrupt reversal of fortune was Michael Blair’s Cobra, which was able to ditch a 13th from Race 1. A win and a succession of podi-ums saw the Mills 40 take Class 1 by three points from fellow Cowes-based yacht La Reponse with Alice coming third overall. Also benefitting from the discard was Michael Lewis’ Jester, which took the Mixed Sportsboat class with five bullets to count after dropping an atypical eighth place.

In Class 2 Bengal Magic threw-off her runner-up tag with three straight bullets for a comfortable overall victory ahead of Jiraffe and Xcitable, who were tied on points with the J-boat getting the nod thanks to Saturday’s two wins.

Class 3 was again dominated by Blackjack II which added a further three wins on Sunday to complete a clean sweep. ‘It was a great weekend for us - we got the boat going well and we didn’t make any mistakes,’ said Blackjack’s Andy Howe.

‘It was exactly our conditions and everyone per-formed. As for the weather it could have been a dif-ferent country, and the windward-leeward courses we were given were ideal.’

ROYAL SOUTHERN YACHT CLUB

MAY REGATTA

UK

RAC

ING

ESF Energy also carried on as they finished on Saturday, posting another first and two seconds to take the J70 class after seeing off a determined challenge from Cosmic.

‘It is always competitive racing in the J/70s and we had a really great weekend,’ said ESF skipper Higgs. ‘Jalapeno were coming on very strong and the guys on Cosmic kept us honest all through the weekend.’ The ESF team are gearing up for the J70 Europeans followed by the Worlds in San Fran-cisco, but calendar commitments permitting will be back in the Summer Series later in the year.

In Class 4 Polly continued her strong weekend with another two wins and a second to finish com-fortably ahead of Olly Bewes and George Beevor’s Magic and Pete Rouse’s Voodoo, Crackajax taking a day off.

A burgeoning Cruiser Class saw victory for the Six-metre Erica, which was on her first racing week-end. ‘It was our first time out and a great work-up opportunity to see how the boat works,’ said main-sheet man and tactician Charlie Hatfield.

‘The Southern was very accommodating to have us in the fleet and it was a great opportu-nity for us to work the boat up for other regattas through the summer.’

Mischief, meanwhile, added a first and a sec-ond - trading places with Andy Hamlett’s Satu - to take the XOD class.

The next Summer Series event was the June Regatta over the weekend of June 18 and 19, sponsored by North Sails and Aston Martin with the Saturday evening party sponsored by Bar-bados Tourism Marketing Inc.

The overall Summer Series is also sponsored by BTM Inc, which this year will present a Champion of Champions Tro-phy in addition to its usual prize of flights and hotel accommoda-tion for two on the island during Barbados Week in January 2017.

GARMIN HAMBLE WINTER

SERIES

For the first time in many years the weather gods allowed the full programme of two races to be sailed on the first weekend of the Gar-min Hamble Winter Series. As ever there were a lot of Royal Southern Members amongst the seventy??? boat fleet and at the end of the first weekend they were well represented amongst the leading boats.

As autumn progresses to winter it is normally time for the thermals to be dug out but the second weekend of the series saw unseasonal sunshine and warmth to accompany the racing. The fleet experienced some close racing in conditions rang-ing from a steady 12 knots to a shifty, frustrating 6 knots. These shifts and wind holes turned fleets on their heads and favoured crews with their eyes out of their boats. Nonetheless, the race team, led by Stuart Childerley, fitted in two races for each class in the bright sunshine.

The third race day of the Garmin Hamble Win-ter Series rounded off a successful weekend of rac-ing – not to mention a marriage proposal… The wind was decidedly fluky for Sunday’s racing, but the race team got all fleets away after a short post-ponement. The wind started at around 10 knots, easing through the day to a minimum of 3 knots of Northeasterly, but the race team fitted in two races to leave competitors smiling as they came off the water – despite some large shifts that meant no position was set in stone until the final tack to the finish line.

Coming at the end of a week of pessimistic weather forecasts, it was little surprise to both com-petitors and the race committee that the scheduled start time of the fourth race day was marked by a flat calm, two hoots and an AP. But it was a day of surprises - firstly that the end of British Summer Time would be marked by blazing sunshine, and secondly that a light southeasterly breeze would fill in at around 1230. This came as a particular shock to the boats that had decided that there would be no racing and who had started motoring home re-sulting in a few hurried U-turns and high engine revs as they tried to make it back to the startline in time.

After a week’s break, the event resumed along with an ominous forecast that predicted a building and veering southerly breeze. So it was with cau-tious sail plans that many boats ventured out to the racing area, where the committee boat was on sta-tion at Wilson Covers buoy. An eerily black cloud gave the impression that the wind was shortly to increase, but with wind instruments reading only 10 knots at start time, the bolder sailors changed to a full rig before their starts. The wind held off until the later starters were at the top of their first beat, whereupon it began to increase, reaching 22+ knots in some gusts.

Racing was cancelled for week six amid 35 knot gusts, and week seven saw winter arrive with some very low temperatures. The conditions of a strong tide running across the race course and a patch breeze turned most fleets on their heads, with many of the overall leaders scoring their worst results yet as discards, and others taking advantage of the windshifts to make big gains both on the water and overall.

This turned out to be the last week of racing as the final week had to be cancelled due to adverse weather forecast. At the end of the series were Roy-al Southern boats and Members were well repre-sented on the podium in all classes.

Big Boat 1 3rd Dusty P Richard Patrick

IRC 0 2nd JourneyMaker II Louise Makin

IRC 1 1st Fast-Tack Puma James Wilkie (Academy)

2nd Old Mother Gun Philip Farrands

IRC 2 3rd Eat Sleep J Repeat Paul Ward

IRC 4 2nd Polly Ben Meakins

Impala 1st Polly Ben Meakins

3rd Two Frank Samantha Flint

J/80 2nd J out of the box Yannig Loyer

SB20 3rd 6a Vision Homes Peter Noe

Sportsboat 1st Midnight Cowboy Stephanie Merry

MEET THE FAMILYThey come in all shapes and sizes

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Available in sizes 15, 20, 35, 40, 46, 50, 60 & 70

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Visit www.harken.co.uk to meet the rest of the family and find out more information about Harken winches.

Harken_Winch_family_R_S_Jan2016_A4.indd 1 12/15/2015 1:20:56 PM

All photographs for the Helly Hanson Warsash Spring Series & Crewsaver Warsash Spring Championship on Pages 24, 25, 26 & 27 with kind permission of Ian McLuckie, Warsash www.iainmcluckie.co.uk 01489 575288

HELLY HANSEN WARSASH

SPRING SERIES

CREWSAVER WARSASH SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPGlorious sunshine heralded the first Sunday of the six-week Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series on March 13.

In a shifty and variable breeze several race rusty White Group competitors were caught out by the strong easterly going tide and were over the line at the start of race one. Racing was tight but after three races the Royal Southern’s Patrick Liardet was leading the combined White Group with his J/70 Cosmic.

The wind was similar though the sun was ab-sent for the second week of the series. It may have been chilly but the competition remained hot with different winners coming to the fore in the Black Group classes. Racing in the White Group was also tight, and although Jester and Jenga managed to pull away from the pack the rest of the top half finished just seconds apart.

The third instalment of the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series was overcast with winds of 9-13 knots from the south east. Leaders in the series were beginning to emerge with Betty taking over at the top of the Combined White Group and serious competition amongst the classes in the Black Group.

Day four of the series on April 10 saw a SE to ESE wind of 19-24 knots gusting to nearly 30, combined with a big spring tide, which put paid to White Group racing and IRC4.

In IRC3 a ‘white sails only’ policy served Huw Philips well in Malice and he beat David Greenhal-gh’s J/92 J’Ronimo by just three seconds.

The following weekend saw the start of the Crewsaver Warsash Spring Championship, with 110 boats competing and 50 race starts over the two days. New to this year’s championship was the Fast40+ class with 10 light displacement boats competing as part of the 2016 Fast 40+ circuit.

A NNW dominated with a grey and cold Sat-urday’s 10 knots giving way to welcome sunshine but very light airs on Sunday, leaving Spring Series competitors searching for breeze.

40 41

The forecast 5-10 knots shifted around 105 de-grees, resulting in the first - and in the end the only - race of the day for White Group to be APd. In the Fast40+ class Mike Bartholomew’s Tokoloshe II finished the weekend in second place, as did Roger Bowden’s King 40 Nifty (incidentally the former Tokoloshe I) in IRC1. J’Ronimo, meanwhile, had moved to the top of IRC3. In IRC4 Paul Ward’s J/88 Eat, Sleep, J, Repeat was fourth and he com-mented: ‘Courses were all very good and the four race format is exactly what we need to get the boat handling sharpened up at the start of the season. ‘With the wind up and down and swinging around there were a lot of decisions for the race team and from what we could see you got them right and gave us all a really good and challenging day on the water.’

Peter Bateson, Series Chairman, added: ‘The competition in some of the Black Group classes has really heated up. The points are really tight be-tween the boats and so it’s all to play for as we head into the final races of the Spring Series.’

The second of the two Crewsaver Warsash Spring Championship weekends, and the final day of the Spring Series, came with a bitter wind chill, sunshine and cloud, shifty winds and competitive racing. Gusts of up to 20 knots became a challenge for the competitors, with numerous big wind shifts and broaches a feature.

In the White Group Jon Powell’s J/80 Betty scored a hat trick by winning, once again, the Spring Series and Spring Championship in the J/80 class, and finished overall leader in the White Group Combined results. Other White group series winners were Cosmic in the J/70 class and Flutter (Aron Wellbend) in the SB20 class.

Black Group Series winners were Jitterbug (J111 - Cornel Riklin) in IRC1, Sunrise (JPK1080 - Tom Kneen) in IRC2, J’Ronimo in IRC3, Stan the Boat (Sigma 33-Toby Gorman) in IRC4 and Just So in the J/109 Class.

The Royal Southern was well represented in the over 100 boats that participated in the Champion-ship and the Spring Series and congratulations to those with podium honours.Phil Riley

Spring ChampionshipBlack GroupFast 40+ 3rd Tokoloshe II

Michael Bar-tholomew

IRC 1 3rd Nifty Roger Bowden

White GroupJ/70 3rd Gill Race Team

Ian Wilson SB20 2nd Whyaduck

Tom Clay

Spring SeriesBlack Group IRC 1 2nd Nifty

Roger BowdenIRC 2 2nd Fast-Tack Puma

James Wilkie 3rd Eat, Sleep, J,

Repeat Paul Ward

IRC 3 1st J’Ronimo David Green-halgh

J/109 3rd Jynnan Tonnyx Owain Franks

White GroupJ/70 1st Cosmic

Patrick Liardet

Amazing Barbados

Even before we left the UK’s shores the hospitality of the Barbados Marketing team was great and, leaving Gatwick Airport on a very chilly January morning to head for the sunshine of Barbados, we could hardly wait.

On arrival the fantastic hospitality continued as we were met by a member of the Barbados Tourism Authority Marketing team and whisked to the front of the queue, like VIPs, to go through passport control and out into the sunshine. We were met by Winston, our driver and set off to the hotel with a wonderful running commentary from him on the passing scenery.

We reached our destination and the hotel was gorgeous. We were welcomed with a rum punch and discovered that our room overlooked the beach. The location could not have been better, set right on a beautiful stretch of beach sandwiched between the yacht clubs with the Barbados Sailing Club on one side and the Barbados Cruising Club on the other where the Barbados Sailing Week festivities were well under-way. We wasted no time in joining in as the sun went down.

There is so much to do in Barbados and we had a wonderful time travelling all around the island in our little hire car getting very lost but around every corner was another amazing view and another fantastic beach.

A trip to the Mount Gay distillery was an abso-lute must of course, but, as an added bonus, part of the prize meant that we were guests of Mount Gay on their 80 foot yacht, The Ocean Phoenix, for the Round the Island Race. This was a great experience. 20 knots of breeze all day made for a amazing day on the water - the sun was hot, the beers were cold and once back in the marina the rum was flowing. This was just the start though as we then joined the Mount Gay post-race party on the beach – what a night that was!

Our last day had arrived but we still had to take a trip to the famous Oistins. On Friday night in Barbados the big thing to do is go to the fish fry at Oistins with excellent fish, lobster, chicken all cooked and served in the open air markets and followed by dancing the night away.

Winston picked us up to take us to the air-port and we flew home to a very cold and rainy England but brought back loads of great memo-ries. What an amazing trip, what an amaz-ing place, what an amazing PRIZE!! Annie Kelly & Andy Howe

The superb prize for the best performing sailors in our Summer Series Regattas

was again presented by Barbados Tourism Marketing.

Winners of the ‘Champion of Champions’, Annie Kelly and Andy Howe,

describe their prize - 2 return flights, a week in a beachside hotel and taking part

in the 2016 Round Barbados Race.

PREVIOUS PAGE The beach outside their hotel and inset Annie & Andy aboard Ocean Phoenix.TOP LEFT The hotel on the beach.TOP RIGHT Andy with his week’s supply of rum at the Mount Gay distillery.CENTRE RIGHT Dinner at ‘Lobsters Alive’ restaurant.LEFT Ocean Phoenix, the Mount Gay 80 entrant in the Round Barbados Race and below - Andy at the helm.ABOVE The Race Team celebrate at the Yacht Club.LEFT Party

18 19

COWES DEAUVILLEThe best laid plans The one minute signal had sounded. Thirty

four boats were waiting to cross the start line outside Cowes Harbour at 10.30 precisely, the start having been brought forward to ensure that the fleet made it though the lock gates at Deauville. Then the Red Funnel ferry decided to leave the harbour. Discretion was the bet-ter part of valour - the yachts held back until it had passed so there were no incidents and the fleet got away towards Portsmouth - albeit slightly delayed.

The weather forecast was good for a gentle sail to Deauville - sunshine with a light easterly wind, force 2 - 3, for the next 24 hours. Reality was slightly different.

The morning saw sedate but steady progress out through the forts, in bright sunshine, with shorts and tee shirts the order of dress. However, the wind got steadily lighter through the day and by the time the fleet reached the northern traffic lane, around 22.00 hours, it had died to less than 2 knots, with poor visibility thrown in for good measure.

The IRC and Figaro fleets struggled to con-tinue under sail, as use of the engine meant instant disqualification. The airwaves were soon filled with anxious VHF calls from yachts to commercial ships bearing down on them at 18 knots and AIS proved its worth yet again, as it enables the yachts and ships to ‘see’ other and predict if there is any

risk of a collision. Happily, there were no reported incidents and the fleets struggled on. Those in the Sail & Power class are allowed to use their engines for up to 50% of the time, and these boats quickly switched to engines to get them safely through the traffic lanes.

After a few hours the light easterly wind re-turned, allowing the competitors to make good progress towards our destination, with everyone back under sail. But once inside the Seine Bay in the early hours of Saturday morning the weather gods decided to confound us yet again and the wind died completely. To add to the misery, the fleet was blanketed by thick fog.

With little chance of navigating through the busy shipping lane at Le Havre, to reach the fin-ish line, a number of boats retired at this point and resorted to their engines. The Sail & Power class had no such reservations and simply used the rest of their allowed 50% of engine time to reach the fin-ish. However, finding the finishing buoy in less than 50 metres of visibility, was no easy task.

By now we were all far too late to make the lock gates - somewhat ironic given the change of start time - and anchored outside Deauville to sleep while we waited for the next high water. Thus I maintained my unbroken my record of never hav-ing been able to make it through the lock gates on schedule.

When, in the early afternoon, we did eventu-ally get through the gates into the inner harbour the sea was still glassy smooth and the whole town shrouded in the thick fog. Happily the sun soon broke through, the skies cleared and Deauville was bathed in warm sunshine. As ever there was a warm welcome at the Deauville Yacht Club and dinner on Saturday night was superb and he prize giving ran as smoothly as ever.

In all, 14 yachts finished under sail alone while 6 finished in Sail & Power, and 14 boats retired.

Congratulation to Hot Rats who thoroughly deserved the trophy for first Royal Southern boat home and a creditable 3rd overall in IRC with Sauté Moutons in first place and Teresa Whelan’s Xarifa in second.

Congratulations also to Graham Nixon on Magic for winning the sail and power division and to Brian Mead on Wishful Thinking for sticking it out for the longest crossing trophy.

If you haven’t done a Deauville race you are missing out on an excellent destination with some-thing for everyone at the other end.

Photo: Patrick Roach.

The Best Racing in the Solent Greatly discounted entry to Royal Southern Regattas

25 Cruiser Events, Motorboat Rallies and Fun Days

Prince Philip Yacht Haven with 64 Walk Ashore Berths

Large Outdoor Terrace and Quarterdeck

Mud free access to the water via a floating slipway for dinghies

Direct access to boats afloat for disabled sailors

47 Moorings by ballot 20 RIB Berths by ballot 21 Dry Berths by ballot 4 Clay Pigeon Shoots 5 Rounds of Golf 3 bars and 2 restaurants 12 En-suite Bedrooms Bosuns and Club Launch available 7 days a week

20 Wednesday Lectures Discount on food & drinks & restaurants with Membership cards

20 RYA Training Courses Club Balls Numerous Dinners, Suppers and BBQs

The Best Clubhouse on the South Coast

And most of all, 1700 friends to share it all with!

Brings many benefits both on and off the water.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE SOUTHERN...

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C E R C L E D E L A V O I L E D E P A R I S R O Y A L S O U T H E R N Y A C H T C L U B

THE ONE TON CUPOn 11 October 1898 Mr Mantois, vice-pres-ident of the Cercle de la voile de Paris, an-nounced the creation of the International One Ton Cup. It had to be raced on the Seine River at Meulan, home of the CVP or in Cowes if owned by a foreigner. The yachts had to have a tonnage certificate of one ton at the most ac-cording to the Godinet rule of 1892 and it was

From 1907 the CVP decided to have Cup contested in international 6-metre yachts, a then brand-new rule ratified by the representatives of the European Nautical Authorities during the London congress in 1906. From 1920 to 1923 four cups were contested in 6.5m SI a French rule known as the ‘Chemin de fer’ rule since the yachts could be carried on standard flat railway wagons, favoured the number of challengers. It reverted to 6 metres in 1924.

In 1965 this trophy moved into the world of ocean racing, and from there into the RORC and IOR ruled racing circuits. More recently, in 1999, the Cup was presented to the Corel 45 Class. Win-ners of the Cup include many legends in the sport such as Syd Fischer, Harold Cudmore, Henrik Soderlund, King Harald V of Norward, and Rus-sell Coutts.

The TrophyThe trophy is widely recognised as a master-

piece of art nouveau style. It was designed in Paris in 1897 by the master silversmith Robert Linzeler. who had succeeded Jules Piault as silversmith to Napoleon III, and was made in 1898. It is solid silver; weighs over 22 lbs (10 kgs) and is nearly 2 ft high (57cm) and 2 1/2 wide (81 cm -including handles).

In addition to being recognised as a master silversmith Robert Linzleer was also a celebrated yachtsman who represented France in the 1900 Olympics winning 2 silver medals.

One Ton Cup 2016The hosting of this event and the realisation

of getting the magnificent One Ton Cup trophy to the UK has been made possible through the sup-port of a number of organisations and individuals, especially Cercle de la Voile de Paris for recogniz-ing the profile of the FAST40+ Class and agreeing that this is an event worthy of such a trophy, and Hamble Yacht Services who will be the Presenting Partner for the event.

As well as hosting the event the Royal Southern has a direct interest in the competition as two of the competing boats, Tokoloshe and Invitctus, are owned by Southern Members and other Members will be crewing on a number of boats.

FAST 40+ ClassThe FAST 40+ Class represents the modern

day One Ton race yacht, light displacement race boats, with IRC TCCs of between 1.210 and 1.270. This narrow band of high performance race yachts is designed to deliver fast, close inshore racing.

Robert Greenhalgh, Class President, came up with the concept in 2014 and, after engaging the commitment of a number of interested owners and

sailors, this year the class will host a fleet of 14 race boats competing at the highest level over a circuit of 5 UK based events. The race boat owners hail from 7 countries – UK, Ireland, Scotland, USA, South Africa, New Zealand and Germany – and the fleet is growing quickly in competitor numbers and profile.

Robert commented, “The owners of this excit-ing class take their racing seriously – we are already experiencing incredibly close and exciting inshore racing in this size of boat and it seems to be ticking all the boxes. To secure such a significant trophy as the One Ton Cup to be our showcase trophy for 2016 is sure to add pressure and focus to the racing – this is THE trophy to win this year.”

Traditionally the One Ton Cup regattas con-sisted of inshore racing, a coastal race and a proper offshore race. Reflecting the changing times and demands of race circuits today, the Fast 40+ One Ton Cup will be raced between 16th and 18th Sep-tember hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club and will consist of 8 scheduled races over the 3 days with event rankings for each boat being multiplied by 2 for the overall 2016 Race circuit results. The courses will be a mixture of windward – leeward and coastal courses sailed in Solent Waters, each race lasting between 60-90 minutes.

Peter Morton , owner of Girls on Film, added his thoughts, “I have seen a new lease of life in-jected back into the Solent racing scene through the Fast 40+ Class since 2015. Close racing, pas-sionate owners and competitors who reveling in the competitive scene, a good onshore social scene and all run by a professional organisation – and now with the addition of this slice of history to win, what more could we want!”

Race Circuit YachtsGirls On Film

Otra Vez

Tokoloshe

Invictus

42 South

Jubilee

Rebellion

Zephyr

INO

Keronimo

SUN, SEA & SAILINGYou know how it feels after a long, wet, cold and miserable English winter. Well… Antigua Sailing Week is just the (gin & ) tonic you need. This April, Royal Southern Members chartered 3 boats for the event: Scarlet Oyster (an Oyster 48 led by Gordon Cossar), El Ocaso (J/122 led by Chris Body), and Kadans (Sun Odyssey 509 led by Frits Janssen). The first two were racing in CSA classes 6 & 5 respectively while Kadans was in CSA Bareboat 1.

Why AntiguaAntigua has warm steady winds, a complex

coastline of safe harbours, and a protective, nearly unbroken wall of coral reef. It would make a per-fect place to hide a fleet. And so in 1784 the leg-endary Admiral Horatio Nelson sailed to Antigua and established Great Britain’s most important Caribbean base at English Harbour, most of which still remains to this day. In fact there was even the discussion that the “Admiral’s Inn” would make a really good Caribbean Club House for the Royal Southern. For nearly fifty the island has hosted its Sailing Week attracting competitors from all over the world. Last year the Royal Southern donated the Inter-Yacht Club Challenge Trophy, which was promptly taken from us by Royal Guernsey YC.

Our MissionThis year we set out on a mission to win it

back. Gordon Cossar led the charge with Scarlet Oyster, a 20 year old cruiser/racer with an enviable racing record, normally based in Lymington. The majority of crew had accommodation ashore, therefore keeping the boat weight to a minimum, for better race performance. Chris Body’s team on El Ocaso followed the same philosophy, rent-ing a house in English Harbour and, somewhat A

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surprisinglym, provided Scarlet Oyster’s greatest competition for the Challenge Trophy.

Frits Janssen had the party boat. His team opted for the charter of a 50 foot Sun Odyssey, fully air-conditioned, so they could live aboard in English Harbour, the epicentre of the day and night-time festivities. The bareboat classes are predominantly live-aboard and, without spinna-kers, the racing is less hectic, although the boats being one-design means the racing is no less intense.

The RacingThe water around Antigua is extremely deep,

several miles in parts, so difficult to lay buoys. Fortunately the south coast runs mainly east west, in line with the predominant wind direction. So windward / leeward courses are usually set, by the race officer – in our case Stuart Childerley, another Royal Southern member.

After three days of racing on Tuesday evening both Scarlet Oyster and El Ocaso were both comfortably leading their classes and were two of the top three yachts in the regatta overall, with El Ocaso recording six straight bullets and Scarlet Oyster a single point behind. The next closest boat was the Brazilian team on “Ventaneiro” with 9.5 points.

ABOVE: 50’ Sun Odyssey ‘Kadans’ – The Royal Southern ‘Party’ boatPREVIOUS PAGE TOP AND BELOW ‘Scarlet Oyster’ a 20 year old Cruiser racer chartered by Gordon Cosceu and RSrnYC crew.PREVIOUS PAGE BOTTOM Chris Body’s RSrnYC team on ‘El Orcaso’.BELOW: Hiking out on ‘El Orcaso’.

A Lesson for AllAfter a very long and spectacular lunch

at “Catherines” on Pidgeon Beach on lay day Wednesday, the El Ocaso crew were not on top form on Thursday morning. Two crew members taken ill in the heavier conditions just before race 7, thus missing the start by three minutes, causing them to record an uncharacteristic 5th.

Chris Body comments: “One of my daughters had real problem just before the start of the race. She not only felt sick, but her hands started clamp-ing up (she couldn’t open her fingers) and when her lower lip started quivering, we thought she must be having some sort of fit or even a minor stroke. I have never experienced this before, but knew we had to get her ashore quick. We radioed the committee boat and they sent a medical rib over to us immediately. I didn’t even realise there was such a thing on the race course, so all credit to the organising team. When she got ashore, the medics gave her oxygen and mineral water after a time she made a full recovery.”

“One very interesting thing came out of this episode which I want to share with everyone planning to sail in the heat, and that is that we learned that the symptoms were due to “extreme dehydration”. We were drinking loads of water, but the medics identified that we were drinking the locally produced water which is “purified” (distilled) and according to them is useless as it is completely devoid of minerals and salts. I must admit, it hadn’t even occurred to me to look to

see if bottled water is “purified” or “mineral”… so one to watch in the future and a top tip: buy the more expensive Evian (or similar) and take loads of sachets of Dioralyte to add to your drinking water”.

Back of the racecourse on Thursday… and both Scarlet Oyster and Ventaneiro revelled in the slightly heavier conditions and both brought home two firsts, pushing Scarlet Oyster to the top slot with El Ocaso dropping back to third Overall. On Friday’s final race, El Ocaso returned to form with another first with Scarlet Oyster also winning while Ventaneiro slipped to 3rd.

However it was not all about the boats. Chris Body commented “My racing highlight of the week was seeing a hump backed whale, as big as our boat, which popped up just before the start of race 3, almost touching the end of our boom and really putting us off our stride. The social highlight was bumping into Fritz and team partying hard at the local night club at about 2am after the main prize giving… and really going for it!”

Both El Ocaso and Scarlet Oyster won their respective classes for the week and the final over-all scores for the week were: 1st: Scarlet Oyster (9 points) and 2nd: El Ocaso (10 points). Ventaneiro was third, while Kadans finished with 32 points and was 5th in class.Scarlet Oyster also won:1st Royal Southern Inter-Yacht Club Challenge1st British Yacht - Fletcher Trophy1st Racing Charter Yacht - Hinckley Cup And the big one - 1st Class A Overall – Corum Cup

In summary, a really strong performance from all the Royal Southern teams who all revelled in the racing and worked even harder on the party-ing.

Graham Nixon, Rear Commodore Sailing said “Would I recommend the event – absolutely; apart from the fantastic sailing and parties we have to must defend our trophy. Also Antigua is such a stunning island there’s plenty for non-racers - snorkelling and other water based activi-ties, walking, golf, painting, lazing by the pool and, it goes without saying, shopping and partying.”

The 50th Sailing Week takes place from 29 April to 5 May 2017 and no doubt it will be awe-some. The race and party schedule are already planned - for further details see www.sailingweek.com. If you are interested in racing or just want to come for the rum punches register your interest with Tim Thubron or watch the newsletters or Royal Southern website for further information.

ABOVE ‘El Orcaso’ recording 6 straight bullets in their forst races

TOP Great blue water sailing on ‘El Orcasa’ABOVE The victorious Royal Southern Team celebrate ‘Scarlet Oyster’s’ win.CENTRE RIGHT A brief downwind respite for the crew on ‘El Orcasa’BELOW RIGHT ‘El Orcasa’ celebrating their clash winBELOW LEFT The crew on ‘Kadans’ - a creditable 5th in classBOTTOM RIGHT A great performance by the ‘Scarlet Oyster’ team

LEFT on ‘Batfish V’ Bill Blain gets time to practice on his chauter - or is he piping Annette aboard!

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The cruising season is now in full swing with a number of events having already taken place.

Midweek Rally to the FollyThe first mid week rally of the season to the

Folly got off to a metaphorical flying start on Tues-day 19th April with turn-out of 12 boats, far more than usual for this time of the year. Sadly there were very light airs on the Tuesday so most of the boats motored but an intrepid Mike Austin on Up to Speed had a spinnaker run the whole way from Port Solent.

Several members of the Golf Society partici-pated in the rally but it was literally touch and go for Noj and Chrissie White as they dredged their way through the mud banks to get in an hour after low water. Was SX Girl trying to say she wants to stay out with the racers?

At the Folly there was First and Standard Class berthing as Bill Cartlidge, on his maiden voyage in Penrose IV, took a first class berth on the walk ashore pontoon - his excuse was that the heater wasn’t working so he needed power - and was joined by Bill and Judy Nutt. Their excuse was that they were keeping him company. The rest of the boats moored on the standard class, powerless pontoons.

All were reunited for an excellent pontoon party under a cloudless sky at around 1800. Pontoon par-ty nibbles are going from strength to strength and there was such a fantastic spread that most people wondered why they had booked dinner. However, 20 of us made it to The Folly .

Wednesday dawned bright and clear but the wind had piped up and with a dodgy forecast for the rest of the week most headed straight home.

2016 Solent Cruiser RaceThe May Bank Holiday weekend saw the So-

lent Cruiser Race. After a week of unseasonably cold weather the forecast did not look too good.

The start line for the race to Beaulieu was Cor-onation Buoy and eight boats crossed the line in sunshine with a gentle breeze from the northwest. The course took the fleet on the east side of the Brambles after rounding Royal Southern and RYS. At the penultimate mark the wind strengthened and an ominous black cloud hung over Lymington and at the finish line with was gusting up to 30 knots but luckily the heavens did not open.

On Sunday the start was at 1000 hrs but with the tide ebbing quickly some competitors left quite early, as they were worried about getting over the bar. It was a gate start and some of the competitors were confused about this kind of start and were the wrong side of the committee boat Degree of Lati-tude. After rounding the first mark, Craftinsure, the next leg was downwind, through the Etchells fleet near the Brambles. The last leg was upwind up tide through Osborne Bay to finish at Royal London off the Shrape. The Harbour Master at Shephards Wharf somehow managed to fit everyone in the south basin. Rather than a chilly pontoon party

there were drinks at the Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club where the Ducks of the Day were presented to Ayaya for not flying a motoring cone and Degree of Latitude. Everyone then enjoyed supper at the Is-land Sailing Club.

May Bank holiday Monday had typical bank holiday weather - drizzle and wind. Luckily it had been forecast the previous evening and a short course with an earlier start had been agreed so it was a fast down wind sail back to the finish at Bald Head.

It had been a fun weekend enjoyed by both experienced cruisers and newcomers. Ayaya was first again for the 3rd year consecutive year (Note to CRO - we must sort out their handicap!) and Keith and Di Jones won the Sailing Prize with a new Dizzy Di.

Mid week rally to Beaulieu“Early sun on Beaulieu water lights the underside

of oaks”The weather did not match John Betjeman’s

poem ‘Youth and Age on Beaulieu River’ when the hardy bunch of mid week ralliers sailed round to Bucklers Hard. In spite of the weather 12 boats went to Bucklers Hard bringing around 30 people to a very lively pontoon party. Although we had been hit by wet weather in the afternoon it cleared by 6 and once again the ‘starters’ for dinner were excellent. The absence of the water taxi did not de-ter the crew of Mog from taking their own dinghy ashore for dinner while the rest of us ate on board.

On Wednesday morning it was pouring with rain and there was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm

to get the ensigns up on time. Eventually the rain cleared and there was an exodus before the next lot of showers.

“Tree-roots pass’d and muddy beaches” – another reminder of the poem as we went very quickly down the river on the ebb tide.

To hear John Betjeman read the whole of Youth and Age on the Beaulieu go to www.poet-ryarchive.org/poem/youth-and-age-beaulieu-river. It is not only a poignant reflection on youth and age but captures the spirit Beau-lieu albeit in the sun not the rain.This report provides just a taster of the cruiser events and a wide range of cruising events at which motor and sailing boats are welcome, is planned throughout the sum-mer - check the programme on the website or contact the Sailing Office for further in-formation.Dot Jones and Maggie Widdop

MOTOR BOATS

The Motor Boat Committee has a schedule of events for 2016 to include all levels of activities; from on-shore fam-ily oriented fun days, to longer distance rallies spanning the scope of members aspirations.

The Motor Boat Open Weekend will be early in September and there will be activities for all ages. Families are especially welcome ashore and afloat. September is clearly the month for classic boats at the Royal Southern. In addition to the Hamble Classics event which co-incides with the Septem-ber regatta we are welcoming the Classic Motor Boat Association to promote the lovely old boats that are our heritage to take part in the Motor Boat Open weekend. Motor Yachts are an integral part of the Club’s heritage. Many Members own classic motor boats and some are privileged to own boats that formed part of the little ships fleet, taking part in the Dunkirk operation.

The start of the Season day on 19th March was a good opportunity to show people in the Club our activities and there was a lot of interest in our plans for the year. Several Committee Members were present to inform new members of our activities.

Martin Bedford is organizing several Solent based rallies and these will include some advice, by professionally qualified instructors on caring for and the handling of motorboats. As some of our older Members can vouch even if one is a very experienced yachtsman the change to a motorboat is a big learning curve given the different handling characteristics of sailing and motor boats. The Committee is also planning that we link up with some of the sailing rallies where we can.

The first event was a rally to Yarmouth from 30th April to 2nd May and it was a huge success despite somewhat chilly weather. Dinner at the Royal Solent was excellent and the new feature of professional instruction and guidance, this time on diesel engine maintenance was well received and much appreciated by all who participated..

A further Rally to Cowes took place on 11th -12th June, again ably organised by Martin. Future rallies are to Bembridge in July 5th- 7th, and Poole August 27th - 29th. RIB events on 3rd July (Cowes) and 20th August (Christchurch) are also on the cal-endar. There will be full reports on these events in the next edition of the magazine and on the Club website.

Following our very successful Trafalgar Night Dinner last year the Motor Boat Committee is or-ganising a “Last Night on the Pond” event, with music from the Last Night of the Proms. We will all be able to join in Land of Hope and Glory and the more adventurous may even dance to the Sailors Hornpipe. We plan a Club supper and it will be a low-key, informal event for all to enjoy.

As ever the end of the year will see the best party of the year at the Southern the Motor Boat, RIB, Golf and Shooting Society Christmas Dinner on December 3rd. A great way to start off the Christ-mas Season

All photographs taken at the Yarmouth Rally and the Royal Solent Yacht Club by Dianne Ward.

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Academy Member Nikki is a second genera-tion Southern Member who has been progressing through the ranks of professional sailors

In November 2015, I completed the Mini Transat, my biggest and greatest achievement to date. The Mini Transat is a solo transatlantic race in a 6.5m boat (21ft), with no communication, and only a basic GPS and paper charts for navigation. It really was back to basics.

Setting off from Douarnenez, in the NW of France, Brittany on 19th September, I sailed down to Lanzarote, with a pit stop there before starting leg 2, finishing in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean in the middle of November.

The total trip took 25 days, 12 hours, 25 min-utes and 27 seconds. With well established trade winds the weather conditions were near perfect, however nothing is completely perfect, and I had my fair share of problems in the race. Just one hour after the start of the second leg, I snapped her bow-sprit in half, managing to make a repair and con-tinue on with the race. Only later to be plagued with major autopilot problems. Battling through all my issues, just finishing the race the race was a huge achievement. Of 26 starters in the prototype class, I finished 12th, out of only 14 finishers.

WHAT NOW?Having finished the race and sold my boat I

searched for the next adventure to fuel my need for adrenaline. Now based in Bournemouth, I’ve been doing lots of coaching, both privately and for the RYA, UKSA run British Keelboat Academy. Thor-oughly enjoying passing on any advice and pointers to those who will listen.

Celebrating 39 years this year the race is ranked amongst the 10 most difficult endurance races in the World alongside the Marathon des Sables and the New Zealand Coast to Coast and June I took part part, competing with an all ladies teams.

Teams of five, comprising three sailors and two runners, set out in yachts from Barmouth on the West Wales coast and sail to Caernarfon in the Me-nai Straits, where the runners leave the boat and run to the top of Snowdon and back. They then proceed to Whitehaven on the coast of north-west England, where the runners cycle to the foot of Scafell Pike then run to the top and back. Finally they sail to Fort William in Scotland where the run-ners scale Ben Nevis and return to the yacht. In to-tal the team must sail 389 miles, climb 11,176ft run 72 miles and cycle 72 miles.

The first team to complete the race wins the tro-phy. Achieving a good enough start to gain the help of the Menai Strait tidal current after the Snowdon run can save several hours. There’s no handicap system for the boat, the results are quite literally first across the line wins. Which may sound quite simple for boat choice, take a big boat, go faster and win. However that’s not quite the case, due to

NIKKI CURWEN - ADREN-

ALINE JUNKIE?

THREE PEAKS YACHT RACE

the geography of where we are sailing, there are a number of places, which only allow access at cer-tain tides. Therefore having a boat with a shallower draft can reduce your total time quite substantially.

One other novelty factor of the race is that although engines are restricted to emergency use rowing is allowed and is a common occurrence when entering ports and in light winds. Our boat a J120, Aparito Digital Health, was equipped with rowing seats and oars, one on each side of the boat, so with two rowers and a helmsman it took all three sailors to manoeuvre the boat.

At 1041 on the 15th we crossed the finish line to ensure the team became the first ever all female team to take line honours in the thirty nine year history of the Three Peaks Yacht Race and beating Dee Caffari and fellow Club Member Libby Green-halgh.

TEAM MAVERICK – INFINITI YACHTS DSS 46FT

This year see’s the launch of a new boat, and a very exciting one at that and I am thrilled to be part of its team.

Maverick is a 46ft fully carbon, canting keel, dss foil, racing machine! The boat has just arrived in the South of France having been built in Turkey in the Infiniti Yachts yard. Designed and built by Hugh Welborn the owner of Inifiniti Yachts, using their DSS foil system, similar to that of Wild Oats who triumphs most years in the Sydney Hobart Race.

The plan for the boat is to compete in all the big 600’s, first basing in the Med, including the RORC Middle Sea Race, and at the end of the year the RORC Transatlantic. Finishing in to the Carib-bean, ahead of the 2017 Caribbean season.

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The Greenhalghs...

David and Judith Greenhalgh aren’t merely active sailors themselves, they also have three rather famous sailing children; Peter, Robert and Libby. Gael Pawson takes a look at what turns a family into a family of sailors.

a true sailing familyHow do you introduce your kids to a sport you

love, without putting them off? How do you plant the right seeds and nurture them so they grow? This is something that Royal Southern Members David and Judith Greenhalgh have undoubtedly got spot on. Not only are they continuing to enjoy sailing as part of a busy and active retirement, all three of their children – Peter, Robert and Libby have gone on to enjoy the sport both as a hobby and as a professional career. Why?

A shared passionThe whole family story starts with sailing – it

was even through sailing that David and Judith met. David had started his sailing life on the Norfolk Broads aged 12-13, Judith took it up in her late teens. ‘It was just the odd bit until I suppose I met David... then I did more.’ Judith recalls.

Then a friend of Judith’s bought an old sailing boat and was looking for crew. ‘It was a clinker built 35ft ketch,’ recalls David. ‘We went off on this boat across the Channel, around the Channel Islands and came back again… it leaked like a sieve,’ they both laugh. ‘Anyway we learnt a bit about offshore sailing.’ They later got asked to race on more modern boats out of Newhaven, in the Solent and then from Brighton Marina.

Warm and funThe children started sailing when family

moved to Sri Lanka – at which point Peter was five, Robert four and Libby two. Warm weather and plenty of opportunities to enjoy the water were probably some of the key ingredients in giv-ing the children a taste for the sport.

‘We had three dinghies out there an Enterprise, a GP14 and a Water Wag,’ explains David. ‘We also had a windsurfer and a tiny little dinghy with an outboard… they chugged around with the outboard a lot and we took them sailing in the dinghies.’

‘I don’t know what the boys were doing,’ adds Judith, ‘but Libby would often come sailing with us in the Water Wag and just sit in the boat and sing all the way round.’

Safe waters‘We sailed the Water Wag in Colombo har-

bour,’ David explains. ‘The others we used to sail on Lake Bolgoda; warm water, lots of weed, but it was great fun.’ They returned to the UK three years later and David returned to bigger boat sail-ing. Meanwhile, Judith bought a Topper. ‘I used to take the children to Piddinghoe at the back of Newhaven, a very small pond which was where we had the Topper and the Mirror and then an Optimist… Peter was never very keen on the Optimist. He would windsurf and Robert and Libby would do a bit fiddling about - you could walk all the way round at Piddinghoe so it was fairly safe there. ‘Then we started to go to Weir Wood and we bought a wooden Optimist so we had two.’

They had fond memories of some of the good instructors along the way. ‘David Bridle [at Weir Wood] was great, he used to put them on a string push them out, never a sharp word or anything,’ recalls David. ‘On a lake it’s so much easier than pushing off onto the sea and you learn so much more nice and gently without any pressure. Most of their sailing early on was on a pond.’

VarietyRobert recalls how the sport grabbed him:

‘Sailing was challenging and competitive.’ Once his interest was captured, he didn’t get a chance to get bored. ‘We always had a lot of variety of sailing boats and conditions/locations.’

Robert adds: ‘We started just messing around in boats - with no pressure to race - it was our choice to take it to the next stage.’

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Judith explains: ‘We had two Toppers, then we had a Mirror, then an Enterprise…’

‘I used to sail the Enterprise a bit,’ adds David. ‘Eventually the two boys had a go… they did the Bloody Mary in this awful old Enterprise and they came third – that was their first step towards recognition.

‘They then had the Graduate – they decided they must have a Graduate. They had lots of must haves, David laughs. ‘I suppose we spoilt them,’ he muses. But the young Greenhalghs didn’t have the newest kit, and David encouraged a practical approach. Boats needed to be fixed.

‘We sailed loads of different boats when we were young. They were all really old, cost about £50 and we spent hours sanding them back and painting them,’ recalls Libby.

Each child as an individualAs any parent knows each child is an indi-

vidual. Peter, the eldest, went his own way from the start, developing a love of windsurfing, but later finding his way back to dinghies.

For Robert, the Optimist was a draw. Libby too went into Oppies, but was initially not so competi-tive. She even turned down Rob’s newer boat at one point. ‘We sold it,’ says David, ‘but I told her if she changed her mind I’d buy her a new one… she did.’

Supported but not pushedRobert got into Optimists in a big way. It was

the time of the legendary Jim Saltonstall. ‘They got in the squads – first Robert then Libby, we used to take them down to Weymouth – we used to do serious amounts of driving,’ says Judith.

‘Peter had to come as well in the Oppie days,’ says Judith. ‘He would windsurf or often drive the RIB. We used to take two Oppies and if Libby wanted to sail she could, she didn’t have to.’ Eventually Rob moved into the 420 and he then teamed up with his brother.

Libby explains: ‘Initially I wasn’t a fan of Optimist sailing I used to refuse to do the organ-ised sailing with the group and preferred to sail by myself down the other end of the pond. Eventually, I guess, that just changed. ‘I remember two key moments. One was when I won a new sail. Then doing an end of season event and com-ing second overall… that’s when it all changed.’

Judith recalls, ‘I remember standing with Libby once witnessing someone shouting at his son ‘Why didn’t you do this? Why didn’t you do that?’ and the chap saying ‘I’m never sailing again!’ I don’t think we pushed them. It was just what came along naturally.’

‘You can’t push them, you have to just let them get on with it and try all the different things,’ agrees David. ‘Obviously trying to make all three go in one direction meant that one wasn’t so keen, but it’s surprising how, once they were in their late teens, they were all locked in.’

Independence and freedomOne thing that strikes me about the

Greenhalghs is that they encouraged their chil-dren’s independence. ‘Libby used to go sailing on her own up at Weir Wood while the boys were away sailing. I used to take her up on Saturday morning, pick her up in the evening and drive her up again on Sunday,’ says David.

‘They were a good group of people at Weir Wood,’ adds Judith, ‘so you could leave them and someone would keep half an eye on them.’

‘Then Peter passed his test and promptly wrote off the car,’ recalls David. ‘They both got out alright, fortunately, but once they were driving it was great – they were off and away.’

‘They used to take our old camper van off to Lake Garda and Scotland and goodness knows where. All three of them used to go off up to the Midlands… once they came back via the Dartford tunnel and hadn’t got a penny between them to pay for it!’ The stories are endless; of the boys driving to championships in cars that were barely roadworthy, winning but needing to park up a hill to get the car stated again; of the camper van breaking down and Judith driving to meet them, swapping vehicles in order that they could catch their ferry.

As Peter puts it, as parents David and Judith gave ‘Total support with nil involvement.’ Which, he points out, ‘is very rare these days.’

The next generationPeter now has children of his own, I asked

him for his thoughts on introducing them to sail-ing. ‘For the young ones it is constantly forgotten that the most important rule of all is to have fun,’ he says.

‘If it means going out sailing for five minutes (learning nothing) and then spending the rest of the time playing on the beach or just jumping off the boat that’s fine.

‘I do try and engineer it so they have fun near or on the water and I always encourage them to invite their friends. Often waterskiing or just river trips in our little tender go down well.’

The Greenhalgh childrenPeter Greenhalgh Born 1976

Peter started off windsurfing, then went into 420s with his brother before moving through various classes to the 49er. After school he did a Maritime Studies degree at Southampton. These days he is a professional sailor on the Extreme Sailing circuit, having won the series four times.

Robert Greenhalgh Born 1977Cutting his teeth in Oppies, Rob moved

through classes, teaming up with his brother in the 420 and later the 49er. His list of titles is impressive, from winning the Volvo Ocean Race, the International Moth nationals, 18ft Skiff and International 14 worlds.

Libby Greenhalgh Born 1980Libby talks of growing up trying to compete

with her brothers. Oppies led to 420s and 470s. She followed her first degree with an MA in Meteorology, leading to working as a professional meteorologist with the British Sailing Team. More recently, she was navigator onboard Team SCA in the Volvo Ocean Race.

An annual Youth Week and Friday evening ses-sions are run by parents for children aged 4-18 through-out the sailing season. The events are open to chil-dren and young people of Members and guests of Members.Splash Week is a busy, hectic, colourful, fun week with lots of adventures all based around the Royal Southern Yacht Club and the surrounding waters of the Hamble River. Splash Week 2016 runs from August 15-19.

YOUTH SAILING AT THE SOUTHERN

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SOUTHERN MISCELLANEA

Take a close look at the flag on this page. It is the smoke-stained, battle-scarred ensign of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, the flagship of the

then Rear Admiral John ‘Sandy’ Woodward, Flag Officer First Flotilla who commanded the navy during The Falklands Conflict. Admiral Wood-ward donated his ‘battle flag’ to the Club after becoming a Member in 2002. The flag is not cur-rently on display due to its size.

It is one of the many items which have been presented or given to the Club over the last 179 years since the Club was founded. In the follow-ing pages we have listed some interesting artifacts which help decorate our Club House and how we came upon them.

The other flag of note owned by the Club is on display outside the Yeoman Room. This was the racing flag from the previous Royal Yacht Britan-nia, owned by King George V and given to the Club in July 1936 when it was still based in Southamp-ton by King Edward VIII and Queen Mary. There cannot have been that many gifts made by King Edward during his reign which lasted less than a year. King George was patron of the Club from 1910 until his death in January 1936 and Britannia was scuttled after his death as he had commanded.

In recent times we have added a further link to royal yachts when some Members got together to purchase a piece of the taff rail from Her Majesty’s Royal Yacht Britannia when it was decommis-sioned. This is now mounted at the centre of the upper bar. It was given ‘so that any past commo-dore desirous of a drink could go to the front of the queue by standing at the rail and rubbing it.’

When the new building was commissioned it was hoped to furnish it with things that told the story of the river, hence the large picture covering the wall at the top of the stairs of Luke’s Boatyard which is in where the boatyard had been. There are several watercolours of the river and of Hamble painted by Gregor Robinson which are on loan from the Robinson family. Some of the seascapes were painted whilst he was at sea.

The three large brass table lamps are made

from shell cases and were given by Anton and Audrey Skill-

man. The brass bell in the upper bar which is used to announce dinner is marked Trinity

House and was given by John and Lorraine White and the brass bell in the Members’ Bar was given by David Arnold at the same time.

At the top of the stairs is a photograph of T.S.M.Y. Adventurer (the Cable and Wireless pic-ture). This was taken just after it had established a new 74 day world speed record for global circum-navigation under power. In the picture HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was at the wheel. It was given to the Club by John Walker who had been on board.

There is an exquisite tiny painting by the side of the upper bar painted by Ellen MacArthur, as she then was, of Le Poisson in which she completed the Mini-Transat Single Handed Race in 1997. She was 13th out of 52 entries, the youngest competitor and one of only two girls. Ellen gave a lecture to the Club as soon as she arrived back across the Atlan-tic and donated the picture as a thank you for help which the Club had given her. The following day she started her round the world campaign.

Outside the Yeoman Room there is a portrait of Robert Wright, a vice commodore in the Club’s earliest years. He built the original Club premises in South-ampton which were never actu-ally owned by the Club. This pic-ture used to be full body length. The story is that the picture was stored in the attics of the old cot-tages during the war along with all the Club port. At that time the Club rented the old cottages as a separate clubhouse from the Southampton premises which was more in danger of being bombed. The American soldiers, who became ‘members’ at that time found the port and drank it. At the end of the war it was dis-covered that damp had got into the bottom of the picture and in order to save the good parts the bottom half was cut off and so Robert Wright has been legless ever since.

All the models and trophies in the Yeoman Room were given by the Aisher family, com-memorating many successful years of racing. The mahogany table has been in the Club for many years and has always been used by the main com-mittees and for small private dinners. Before the new building was erected it stood in the old com-mittee room which is where the offices now are. It may have originally been made for HMS Maure-tania but there is no proof. Until recently it had a set of chairs which came from the Mauretania but these are delicate and have had to be repaired sev-eral times and so are not now in general use. In the sideboard there are copies of Hunts Yachting Magazines from the nineteenth century (and there are also more in the bookcase outside the offices). These old books have proved valuable as a histori-cal insight to yachting regattas and on occasions they have been used to answered questions about who won what!

Another link to the Mauretania is the small square table in the corner of the Members Bar. This was acquired at an auction of the ship’s goods by Kitty Lovell, mother of Past Commodore Tony Lovell, who was Honorary Sailing Secretary for a time. The copper bowl on top of the table and the tea urn on the windowsill were given by another Honorary Sailing Secretary, Rex King.

The story is that Rex was so incensed by a white plastic bowl used for flower arranging that he gave the copper one on the basis that it should always remain there. Rex was brought up on the Cardigan Estate. One day the Estate’s chimney sweep was asking for payment and was told that there was no money but that he could go to the kitchens and take whatever copper he wanted. Rex’s father overheard this and told Rex to ‘get a wheel barrow’. A deal was done with the chimney sweep who preferred to have cash and the King family had the copper. The then Earl of Cardigan was commodore of the Club from 1847- 1868. Rex King was in The Royal Artillery and was also instrumental on the gift of the brass ashtray in the Bar from the Royal Artillery Yacht Club. It is made from the bottom of a shell case and weighs 3.16 kilogrammes.

There are also large brass port and starboard lanterns in the Bar and we would like to hear from anyone who knows of their origins.

The older barometer on the windowsill, made by Short & Mason and presented in 1904 by Ed-ward James, recorded the readings for the lowest recorded barometric pressure for 125 years at below 950 millibars. The reading is framed and dated 25th February 1989. The newer barometer is by F Dar-ton & Co Ltd and takes a larger size of paper which has been difficult to source.

The side table and gong have been in the Club for as long as anyone can remember and probably came from Southampton. The secretaire on top of the table used to be kept full of Club letter head-ing and envelopes for the use of Members. How communication has changed. Who would use this now?

There are various half models in the Members Bar including British Steel given by Chay Blyth, Morning Cloud presented by the Trustees of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation and Lion-heart presented by the late Past Commodore Mike Richardson and his wife, he being vice commodore in 1980 at the time of the America’s Cup Chal-lenge issued by the Club. Lionheart sailed under the Club’s burgee and as well as being owned by Members it was skippered and partially crewed by Members as well. There are several other half mod-els which all came from the Southampton prem-ises. Of note is the model of Magic, first defender of the America’s Cup in 1870.

Our links to the America’s Cup were marked re-cently by the limited edition print by Marc Berthier, official artist to the Royal Yacht Squadron. As part of the celebrations on the occasion of the 150th an-niversary of the first America’s Cup race in 2001 the Royal Yacht Squadron held a dinner to which were invited the Commodores of all the yacht clubs round the world which had participated in an Amercia’s Cup challenge. Each Commodore was presented with a signed limited edition copy. Our is 22/300.

The clock on one side of the bar was given by Past Commodore Ron Rogers, a stalwart member of the ‘6 o’clock club’, who always preferred that bar, but dis-liked the existing clock which never kept proper time for very long.

BY the door into the river Room is a framed poster advertising the Club’s summer regatta on 24th and 25th July 1857. It was the only annual regatta that the Club held at that time. On the first day there was a prize of 50 sovereigns for a race for yachts of any rig or tonnage belonging to a royal yacht club, and another of 25 sovereigns for cut-ters, yawls and sloops not exceeding 12 tons. In the first case the entrance fee for non members was two pounds and in the second it was fifteen shil-lings. It appears that members did not have to pay an entrance fee at all. On the second day the larger yachts raced for Her Majesty’s Cup, long gone, but there was also a race for ‘boats not yachts belong-ing to the Port of Southampton not greater than 22 feet. The prize money was 16 sovereigns which was to be shared between the first five boats.

There are two very pretty pictures of Hamble dated 1906 by Irene M Herbert, both featuring the old cottages which form part of the Club and show-ing a nearly empty river. These are not the only wa-tercolours of the Club as there are several others in various parts of the Club, notably one painted from the Warsash side if the river and dated 1894 which angs outside the offices.

As a change from paintings there is an em-broidery of the Club in the hall-way made by May Herbert. It includes leath-erwork , a silver sundial above Sundial Cottage, a fluffy magnolia tree and a ting commodore’s burgee at the top of the mast.

In the Library/Chart Room there is a chart chest which came from the old Southampton Premises which is full of charts for the use of Mem-bers, although they are not to be removed from the room. They are no longer kept up to date and some will only be of interest out of curiosity. Most of the books in the room have been given by Members, some written by Members, and most can be bor-rowed.

The dark wood table and chairs are an early example of Ercol and were given by Lucian Ercol-ani, the son of the founder of Ercol furniture. He was a wartime bomber pilot, decorated 3 times for gallantry in operations over Europe and in the Far East before becoming chairman of the family firm. He was a Member for many years. The table and chairs used to be called The Commodore’s Table. They were in the old dining room which was de-molished to make way for the new building and this was where Members would be invited to join the commodore for dinner.

The trophy cabinet at the top of the stairs be-tween the old and new parts of the Club has been in use for over 50 years. It was built for a different po-sition in the old dining room by John Evans, who was commodore from 1962-64, with timber donat-ed by Captain Brian Roberts who owned Pascall & Atkey, the chandlers in Cowes. Captain Roberts was a very frequent visitor especially at lunchtimes.

At the foot of the stairs to the Upper Bar there is a small cannon. There used to be two of them until one vanished during a very rumbustious powerboat week end some years ago. Only the wheels of the gun carriage were found near the end of the car park. It was hoped that the cannon might have been discovered when the riverbed was dredged during the building of the Prince Philip Yacht Ha-ven but this was not to be. We would love to have it back if anyone knows of its whereabouts!

Part way up the stairs is a half model of Ran 11, a Judel Vro-lifk 72, presented by Niklas and Catherine Zennstrom in 2013. In this yacht Niklas won the Fastnet Race in 2009 and 2011 and also won his class in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in 2009, to-gether with the Mini Maxi world championship in 2010,2011 and 2013.

There are many pictures around the Club which have been given by Members and these can be enjoyed by all but there are some which are a bit more ex-clusive such as the cartoons in the gents toilets by John Goode and the lovely watercolours in the ladies toilets by Naomi Hall and Lizzie Davys.Pat Aspinall

BRIDGE SOCIETYThe Club has a thriving Bridge Society which runs two sessions a week on Tuesday evening (7.00–10.00 pm) and Thursday afternoon (2.00–5.00 pm). All standards of players are welcome, the only criterion being that you let the organiser know at least two days before-hand that you wish to play to ensure the num-bers add up. You do not need to have a partner to sign up and Members can bring guests, sub-ject to Club rules.

Both sessions play play Rubber Bridge in a friendly atmosphere, with tea and biscuits on Thursday afternoon and easy access to the Club bar on Tuesday evening. The main convention used is ACOL.

The charge is £1 per person per session with a small charity donation by the losing pairs of 1p per 100 points. This covers all the costs as well as partly financing a number of suppers which are held dur-ing the year. Non-playing partners and guests are welcome at the suppers to come and join in the so-cial side of the evening.

For those who would like to play but either have no skills or very rusty ones courses are held when there is sufficient demand. They are arranged by Judy Greensmith and run by professional bridge teachers who teach Standard ACOL. Over thirty people took the last course which was held in the autumn of 2014. The graduates of that course have flourished at the bridge table and most are still playing regularly and as a result we now frequently have nine tables on a Tuesday evening.

A number of people have expressed an interest in learning bridge and it is planned to run a Begin-ners Course again this autumn. If you are inter-ested in learning or have decided that it is so long

since you played you could do with lessons please let Judy Greensmith know as soon as possible so that she can make the necessary arrangements in good time. If, on the other hand, you are just a bit rusty you are very welcome on Tuesday evenings where you will be given a helping hand to get you going again.

Whatever your bridge needs are we will do our best to satisfy them; so come and join our vi-brant and enjoyable Society which provides a mind stretching alternative to the physical activities of the Club.Judy Greensmith

ContactsTuesday evening Judy Greensmith 023 8045 7046; johnandjudy@tesco.netThursday afternoon Ann Hardy 023 8056 1705; annieahardy@googlemail.com

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ABOVE Thursday afternoon sessions with tea and buscuits.

LEFT Non-playing partners and guests are welcome at our Club suppers.

The Ladies Committee is the major fund-rais-er for the Club. Our role is to improve and en-hance the ambiance of the Club environment and each year we support selected charities. The charities this year are Wet Wheels Foun-dation, Hamble Lifeboat and we are also sup-porting Dementia UK Admiral Nursing and Macmillan Cancer Support.

The Committee has nine elected members and the Flag Officers Ladies. The members of the Com-mittee appoint the Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. Meetings are held monthly through-out the year on the first Thursday evening of the month. Each member takes a ‘lead role’ in planning and running one of the fund-raising events and the whole Committee work together as a team to run the Christmas Fayre, our major fund raising event of the year.

The Committee run a programme of well estab-lished events. There are two formal Ladies Lunches in April and October. These formal lunches are held in the dining room and have after lunch speak-ers. Members from reciprocal clubs are invited to attend and Members are welcome to bring guests. In addition to the formal lunches there are four in-formal Athena lunches on the first Friday of March, July, September and December. There is no speaker and these lunches are an ideal opportunity for get-ting to know each other. Guests are welcome.

The other standards of the calendar are two afternoon Bridge Drives in March and November,

WHAT WE DO

LADIES COMMITTEE

a Ladies Evening in June, the Macmillan Cof-fee Morning in September and the Christmas Fayre, which is usually held on the first Saturday in November. But the Committee does not rest on its laurels and introduces new events. This year these include a Dementia UK Admiral Nursing Coffee morning in March and a Gentleman’s lunch which is planned for October.

The Committee also donate raffle prizes, pro-vide delicious teas for the Bridge Drives and assist with other Club events when needed such as pro-viding ‘girl power’ for christmas decorations.

We circulate a Quarterly Ladies Newsletter keeping lady Members informed about events and fundraising in and Forthcoming Events posters. This is sent by email to each individual lady Mem-ber - let us know if you are not getting yours and we will ensure you are on the circulation list.

We always welcome help for our fundraising so if you would like to support us why not contact me or one of the

Committee members?

Carole Gould (Chair) carolegould11@icloud.comLinda Munro (Vice Chair)

lindammunro@hotmail.comNicky Gardner (Secretary)

Karen Henderson-Williams Helen Jones

Pam MansfieldStella McCue

Anne MiddletonGinny Nixon (Treasurer)

Jo Ward

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ASH

ORE Being situated on the banks of the River

Hamble, the Royal Southern Yacht Club of-fers panoramic views over the river to South-ampton Water and the Isle of Wight. With the completion of the Prince Philip Yacht Haven it provides a unique combination of facilities; a modern Clubhouse with dining and conference facilities, accommodation and walk-ashore berthing for visiting yachts, all located in a pic-turesque historic village which also happens to be a world class yachting centre.

Whilst the Upper Deck Bar with its large bal-cony is open for lunch, in the winter months the Members Bar with its unique atmosphere, open fire and friendly service adds enjoyment to those long winter evenings. Next to the Members Bar is the River Room where dinner is served from Wednesday to Saturday evenings. Offering contemporary, freshly cooked meals, the River Room has a fortnightly changing menu featuring a variety of quality, seasonal ingredients. If you have an event to celebrate special menus can be ordered in advance.

Within our 18th century cottages we have created 12 elegant bedrooms in-cluding a Master Suite. All the rooms, 2 singles, 2 triples, 4 doubles and 3 twins, have modern fa-cilities with en-suite bathrooms, free WiFi and flat screen televisions. Tea and coffee is also available in each room and Club rates include a full English or continental breakfast served in the Dining or River Rooms.

The completion of the Yacht Haven has created a wealth of new facilities for everyone to enjoy, and redesigned the way in which we use the existing fa-cilities, to the benefit of visitors and Members alike.

Fiona and Duncan Truswell chose the Royal Southern for their recent wedding reception – our thanks to them for allowing us to use the photographs

Our 200 seat Dining Room is available to Members and guests as a venue for conferences, weddings, receptions and private parties. The Din-ing Room has a movable partition enabling the room to be split into two separate private areas for smaller functions and the addition of large glass double doors provides direct access to the yacht haven and extensive Quarter Deck outside.

The River Room is also ideal for private func-tions and has doors opening onto the newly paved and spacious South Terrace. With the Members Bar immediately alongside and the Pier – covered with a marquee during the summer months – pro-viding an excellent location for evening entertain-ment, why not take advantage of those lovely long summers days and organise your party here.

In addition, the Yeoman Room on the first floor is ideal for smaller more intimate meetings and can cater for up to 20 people around the long table, or business meetings away from the office.

The Prince Philip Yacht Haven together with the associated shoreside works, which also pro-vides a large Quarter Deck overlooking the river with direct access to the Dining Room, has trans-formed the Club.

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The Yacht Haven, which is accessible at all states of the tide offers fully serviced berths for vis-iting yachtsmen in the heart of the village. In addi-tion the new Quarter Deck and the adjacent Pier is a unique venue for summer entertaining.

The variety of the facilities and their flexibility enables the Club to offer an unrivalled combina-tion of shore and water based facilities for confer-

ences or team building events, all within easy reach of Lon-

don, airports and ferry ports. For further details contact the Secretary on 023 8045 0300 who will be happy to discuss your needs and organ-ise your event.

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Dementia Coffee Morning in aid of Admiral NursesThe Ladies Committee hosted their first cof-fee morning in aid of Dementia UK on Friday 4th March. It was arranged to coincide with Dementia UK’s ‘Time for a cuppa’ national campaign and raised over £600. This will go to Dementia UK for their Admiral Nurses who help carers of dementia suffererers and their families.

The Ladies Committee members busied them-selves before the event making a variety of delicious cakes and biscuits and hunting for a range of raffle prizes. We were delighted to find that we have some ‘star bakers’ amongst us. The cakes were so good that some people came back for more! To tantalise the shoppers amongst us we had four stalls selling a variety of gifts which included cards, bags and scarfs, jewellery and humorous nautical items. The

stall holders all contributed 10% of their takings to the charity.

It was a lovely morning made better with the sun shining in through the windows of the upper bar. We were thrilled that over 60 people supported the event which provided an opportunity for friends to meet up and have a chat over a cup of coffee as well as raising money for a worthy charity.

To find out more about the Dementia UK and the work they do visit www.dementiauk.org

Athena LunchThe Royal Southern was a very busy place on Friday 4 March with two events taking place during the day. Following a very successful Coffee Morning to raise funds for Dementia Awareness, the Ladies Committee held the first Athena Lunch for 2016.

This informal event was attended by nearly for-ty lady members and friends with the lunch tables being laid in the Upstairs Bar after the remains of the morning’s events had been cleared. Laurence put on a, colourful and plentiful buffet with such

a choice of delicious dishes to choose from that it was not easy to fit all the mouth-watering items onto the very large plates. Following the buffet was a choice of cheese plate or lemon tart with coffee and mints to finish. Together with the inclusive glass of wine one could not ask for a better or more enjoyable lunch at such a reasonable price and just the way to start the weekend .

The Athena Lunch is such a good opportu-nity for lady members to catch up with friends and invite non-members to our Club - there are three more planned during the year so watch out for the dates on the Club calendar of events

Bridge Drive 10Th March 2016It’s not just playing Bridge that makes the Southern Bridge Drive such a popular event – there is so much more.

For those who have not joined us before - the afternoon starts with a warm welcome from the la-dies and the opportunity to buy Raffle tickets to win a prize in our Charity draw. Members, reciprocal Club Members and friends make up tables of four and play to achieve their best individual score.

At two o’clock on Thursday 10th March 52 se-rious and social Bridge players, male and female, took their seats at 13 tables and created an excited buzz of expectation as the cards were dealt. Tea, a delicious assortment of sandwiches and cakes made by the Ladies Committee - which has be-come the highlight of the event - was served mid-afternoon. The raffle, which £252 for charity, took place during tea and was great fun.

The final hour of play resulted in 3 players achieving final scores over 3000 points with a prize

for Jo Oakley who made the most points. Sadly nobody was successful in bidding a Small Slam or a Grand Slam. Maggie Lund won the prize for the lowest score – not a reflection of skill but of be-ing dealt rubbish cards! Jo and Maggie were both guests from the Royal Southampton Yacht Club.

Special thanks goes to everyone who gave so generously to our charity and to Helen Jones who organised a very successful event.

Do come and join us at the next Bridge Drive on Thursday 10th November.

Bursledon Regatta 2016Not able to get to Rio? Concerned about the zika virus? Don’t worry - Rio is coming to the river on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th of Au-gust with the Rio themed Burseldon Regatta.

The carnival atmosphere will begin building on the Friday evening with the Friends of the Regatta dance. The regatta, which is a popular event with all on the river costs some £25,000 to stage and the Friends raise more than half the money needed to stage it - without their help the regatta would not be possible.

Saturday morning is occupied by the serious matter of dinghy racing. The Water Carnival and fun races take place from lunchtime on Saturday and there are canoe, paddle boarding, rowing and

swimming races. There will also be a tea tent, bar-becue and bar to provide sustenance to competi-tors and spectators.

The highlights of the afternoon will be the wa-ter carnival when colourful floats battle it out to win the prize for best float and the gig racing when the 20 Burseldon gigs not he Hamble River will race for the Boatyard Sheave.

As the sun goes down on Saturday evening the festivities continue with a pig roast, torchlight dinghy procession, Son et Lumiere and fireworks. Sunday is devoted to yacht racing.

If you are interested in participating by building your own float or getting a gig racing teaming to-gether or merely coming and enjoying yourself you can find more information on the regatta website www.burseldonregatta.co.uk.

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carpets and lamps were bought; and since July new window blinds have been purchased and fit-ted in the corridor, worn curtains have been re-freshed and ‘soft close’ lavatory seats have been installed in en-suites! We are always grateful to Members who give their skills and resources to enhance the Club environment. The most recent donation from a Member is the tablecloth for the display table at the top of the stairs embroidered with the Club insignia.

The serving Members of the Committee would like to thank the three retiring ladies for their hard work over the past 3 years and extend a warm wel-come to the new Members joining us in Decem-ber. Why not come and meet the Committee and share ideas at our informal Athena Lunches?

To keep up to date with what we are doing, or become involved with the Committee, do visit our Ladies Committee page under ‘Ashore’ on the Club website www.royal-southern.co.uk.

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Doyle+44 (0)23 8033 2662

E P Barrus Ltd01869 363 636www.barrus.co.uk

GJW Direct0500 141 141www.gjwdirect.co.uk

Harken01590 689122www.harken.com

King Edward VI023 8079 9216www.kes.hants.sch.uk

Picador PLC www.picadorplc.co.uk/vauxhall

Sea Start0800 885500 www.seastart.co.uk

The Commodore, Flag Officers and Members of the Royal Southern Yacht Club would like to thank all the advertisers for supporting the Club by advertising in The Southern.

The programme is subject to change and additional events are likely to be organised. Check www.royal-southern.co.uk or Club Notice Boards for up-to-date information.

JULY1 Athena Lunch2 1113 Rib Rally to Westbourne House, Cowes2 1113 Round the Island Race5/7 1347 Yarmouth Rally5/7 1347 Motorboat Rally to Bembridge9 Opera on the Run11 Sailability13 0721 Ladies Afloat16/23 1038 Cruiser Race16/17 July Regatta. J/111 European

Championship23/24 1539 XOD Central Solent Championships28 Golf Society Meeting29/31 0841 J/111 Pre-Worlds Regatta. Taittinger Royal

Solent Regatta

AUGUST6/13 1535 Cowes Week11 Commodore’s Cowes week Cocktail Party14/19 1002 Junior Cadets and Splash Week20 1436 Rib Rally to Mudeford20/21 1436 Poole + Back Race23/25 1648 Newtown Creek Rally27/29 0824 Motorboat Rally31 1237 Ladies Afloat

SEPTEMBER2 Athena Lunch2/4 Motor Boat Open Weekend3/4 1430 Hamble Scramble6/8 1608 Lymington Rally8 Golf Society Meeting9/11 1754 Fast 40 Championships13 Shooting Society - Acorn Shoot, nr Kings

Somborne14 1121 Ladies Afloat16 Theme Night16/25 Southampton Boat Show17/18 1330 September Regatta. Bart’s Bash21 Horse & Jockey Rally24 0649 Inter-Club Youth Keelboat

Championships24 0649 Denise Cartlidge Memorial Ladies Race.

Hamble Classics Weekend. Inter-Club Youth Championship

25 0810 Ancient Mariners Race

OCTOBER2 1400 Start of Winter Series5 Start of Wednesday Lecture Series 6 Golf Society Meeting7 Athena Lunch9 1814 Winter Series12 Lecture13 Ladies Formal Lunch14 Cruiser Supper15/16 1220 Folly Rally16 1303 Winter Series19 Lecture21 Theme Night22 Aisher Dinner23 0631 Winter Series26 Lecture29 Halloween Party30 1201 Winter Series

NOVEMBER2 Lecture5 Xmas Fayre6 1549 Winter Series9 Lecture10 Bridge Drive12 Prizegiving13 1057 Winter Series16 Lecture19 Laying Up Dinner20 1629 Winter Series23 Lecture26 Annual General Meeting27 1100 End of Winter Series30 Lecture

DECEMBER1 Gold Society day2 Athena Lunch3 Motor Boat Dinner7 Lecture13/14 1017 Cowes Rally14 Christmas Carol Evening25 Christmas Day - Club closed26 0934 Boxing Day Bar

Foxer Racing27 Rib BBQ Mudeford Beach31 New Year’s Eve Ball

Date H/W Event Ports

Date H/W Event Ports

The programme is subject to change and additional events are likely to be organised. Check www.royal-southern.co.uk or Club Notice Boards for up-to-date information.

High water times are local times for Portsmouth i.e. UTC or BST as appropriate.