POND LIFE GOES ROUND THE ISLAND 2002

This report was e-mailed to the class association just after the event, and we thought it may give WCA members a bit of light Winter relief. It can also replace our exploits of 2001!!  
(Sorry Colin I thought it so entertaining I've left it on - The Webmaster.)

I own "Pond Life" .and together with the normal suspects went Round the Island for the first time this year. Other 707 had been round many times, but all were based on the South Coast, so here we go!!

The five of us decided which events we would travel to this year and decided that we would go to the Scottish Series again and then the RTI should be good fun. So following the Scottish Series we planned our foray south. Thanks go to the Royal Southern Yacht Club in launching and finding pontoon space for us at short notice and the Travel Lodge for putting up with the Trailer! (we don’t get organized until the last minute!), That left us to find a way around the Island. "Keep it to the left" seemed good advice, but we needed a bit more, so we dutifully followed Bob Fishers notes in Yachts and Yachting and bought Wight Hazards and a Chart, these arrived on the Thursday before we trailed down on Friday, so not much time for detailed risk analysis! Once we had worked out which way up the chart was meant to be we decided that if we followed some of the Southern Boats we could not go far wrong and put the chart away again!!

On the day of the race we set of early from Hamble to make sure we found the start line and decided that closer to the Cowes shore would be ok as from there we could see one end of the line. That turned out to be a bit crowded (over 1800 boats started) so we went about a third of the way out and started on Port. Filled with enthusiasm and having checked the wording in the insurance policy we kept our air clean most of the way up the beat towards the Needles, Staying towards the  Island shore, and crossing over to Hurst Castle, through the tidal race there. We located a competitor about 75 yards in front and followed them through past Goose Rock and the Varvassi and realised that there were only four other 707 spinnakers in front. Out of the 33 class entries

The ride down the back of the Island was great, we stayed off shore, surfing and planning most of the way to St. Catherines light house. We arrived just inside the headland in an attempt to catch the back eddy, stay inside very close to the shore (checked the policy again) inside the race and off again rock hopping towards Sandown Bay and Bembridge ledge, the next turning point, On to the Forts stayed to listen to the music for a while and watched a few very expensive yachts bump into this massive marker then we went sand hopping up Ride Sands!! Gains were to be had close in so we stayed in and switched the echo sounder off!

Norris Nadgers close to the finish was just like Windermere, shifting and varying wildly in strength, but by then we were fourth and trying not to loose concentration. We were convinced one of the 707 in front had been mentioned on the vhf as accepting a penalty so we may be third and kept the pressure on.

The finish itself was straight forward enough and we even managed not to bump into the Barge afterwards. Now which way is Hamble??

An excellent race enjoyed by all of us, but what do you do if it is calm??

We looked forward to some après yachting with other 707 owners at the Royal Southern, but could find no one, do you think they drink beer down there??

Best wishes to all the 707 that made it round and commiserations to those that did not.