Round the Island Race in an RS400

The Rooster sponsored RS400 of James Downer and Paul Tyson goes round the Isle of Wight © Martin Glasbey

The Rooster sponsored RS400 of James Downer and Paul Tyson goes round the Isle of Wight © Martin Glasbey

I was sailing in the obligatory Round the Island Race on Saturday, it's one of those events that you have to do at least once in your life. As I set off in the sportsboat fleet I was amazed to see how much Rooster Dinghy Equipment was on show; aquafleeces, semi-dry tops, buoyancy aids, hi-fits on all sorts of sportsboats and keelboats. To my amazement, there was our sponsored RS400 dinghy sailing Round the Island as well! Even more Rooster Gear on show :-) We finally passed James and Paul halfway down the Island, I only managed a quick whistle to attract his attention.

James contacted me after the race to tell me his story:

After a few drunken talks and a debate on how to raise some money for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance Charity the idea of sailing round the Isle of Wight was put forward to us. That was it, the challenge was set and we both decided that to make it more fun we would race around the Island anti-clockwise in our RS400 dinghy with another 1,800 keelboats at the same time!

So on Saturday the 20th June Paul and Jim set off from Gurnard at 0700 to start with class 0 at 0730, which was incredibly exciting and hectic. But a lack of wind and foul tide for an hour led to slow progress which didn’t really get any better until we drifted to Yarmouth where we met a nice 10 knot Westerly to get us out of the Solent.

The back of the Island was just the most amazing sailing. With the boat planning down long seas and peaking with a top speed of 17.5 knots, along with the option to cheat the tide in the shallows, we were flying and making very good ground on all of the boats around, catching and overtaking boats 3 times our size. But unfortunately off of St Catherine’s as the fleet squeezed together we buried the bow of the 400 and managed to sail through the Kite bringing the fun to an end. The rest of the run to Bembridge was a tedious two sail run at speeds of about 6 knots, a lot less than the 12 knots we had been averaging. Still it gave us a good chance to practice our downwind wave technique, something you get very little chance to do in an asymmetric.

When we got to Bembridge ledge the wind had died altogether. We drifted around for 20 minutes until we spotted some breeze in the shallows and we were off again, although very slowly at first. At Seaview, there seemed to be no one in front of us, and an armada of yachts catching us from behind. It felt like we were winning the RTI and was an incredible feeling. It was a long slog beating against the tide up the Eastern Solent but we found some fun in racing a couple of Melges (apart from us, the smallest boat around at the time) up through Fishbourne towards the finish.

We finished off of Cowes at 1740, ten hours and ten minutes after starting, managing to beat an Open 60 who started at the same time as us by three minutes which gave us the biggest grins. It was a fantastic experience and all for a worthy cause.

In total Paul and Jim managed to raise more than £1400 for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance Charity. A life saving service that relies entirely on donations to keep it in the air.