Seven boats came out on Wednesday, it was a beautiful evening with light warm winds of 5-10 knots. 6 boats started and all passed Roger on the start line, it was an unusual sight, suddenly he was way down tide while X55 and X101 were battling it out. I saw him hanging over the boat with his head down, almost in the water. What was going on as he slipped even further back? X55 ran aground to and from Astra, too late for us to notice as we were busy trying to put up a tangled spinnaker then suddenly my first grounding in Merlin since I owned the boat! Well, all the lessons from Barry went through my mind and the oar I bought for such occasions (on JT's advice) came into play and we were off quite soon but not before X129 glided past us and finally Roger, but we overtook him again after Astra. X141 came out to play but hung about at the back. Roger came home eventually. His bottom was covered in weed, thats what he says anyway! A once in a lifetime experience for us. So X101 beat X55 who came second, 129 was 3rd and184,4th. Look out for X101 Stocker fleet!
Sunday saw the return of the Vernon cup race to Seaview and what a day that was. Raining all day, winds 2-10 knots with a spring flood tide. Six boats ventured out and I salute them all. David Palmer on 188 started like a bat out of H... and disappeared into the distant mist not to be seen again. He was going to Cowes via the finish line at Seaview!
The other five struggled to get to Hayling Island whereupon X184 called chicken first, after deciding they would never get to West Pole never mind Seaview, quickly followed by 151, 55, and finally 50. They just needed someone else to do it first! No-one knows what happened to 129 as they kept going. Alastair Shaw texted me after midday to say that he had seen 2 X boats travelling West, so I guess you can say David won the Vernon Cup and if 129 ever got to Seaview they'd be 2nd.