Round Sheppey - Awesome Race!

Last Saturday was the annual Isle of Sheppey Round the Island race. It was fab!! Force 5, flat water (apart from one very lumpy bit!), planing for four hours, excellent organisation, great spot prizes from Y&Y.

Add it to your to do list for next year!

Nice to see a couple of Alto's in the top twenty and two of our guys did well, Tom in his Contender got a very respectable 16th considering he had a bit of a pitch pole towards the end we understand. Richard Holmewood won the Sailboards as well.

I can't believe it's been five years since Steve and I went round without a kicker in a Gusty force five, it's a tough old race 3 - 4 hours of just about everything you can think of to deal with, Waves, Shifts, Gusts, Tide, Running aground, having to capsize to get under that bloody bridge, funny I had it in my mind on Friday to have a go on my board to see what sort of time I'd have done it in.

Definitely one you should do at least once in your sailing career, there's virtually always some sort of drama, broke my boom last time I tried it..

It was a tough old race this year with big F6 bits, the gusty conditions making it tougher in some ways than 2010........The reach up the swale into chop, I thought the boat was going to break, planing from wave to wave bang bang bang.

Bit of a cock up with the results though, PC failure I understand. Waiting for results is not really an issue and entirely understandable  but they cocked up the prize giving as well. My friends were announced as the Slow fleet winners, they were awarded prizes (P&O stuff I understand) They knew (like most of us who are advancing in years) that they were never likely to win anything at an open again, they were absolutely chuffed...... They were contacted on sunday evening to be told they hadn't won, they had come second, a mistake had been made........The Helm was gutted, he's having to send the prizes back.

All in all though a great weekend.

Edited by transient - 09 Sep 13 at 2:12pm

we were moored up between the bridge and Queenborough watching everyone go by; could not believe how far in front that winning Dart was.. but they are World /european champions I'm told.

It was good viewing as the gusts came  and boats flying through with the kites up.

Noticed same paddle boarders going by and we were trying to work out if they were in the race; looks like they were by the results ! How do you get a PY for a Paddle board ??? Guess they were hoping for a flat calm !!

We had 26 knots of wind indicated at times when we were sailing back and I imagine most would have been on the final leg out of the Medway and back by then