Three boats took to the water for our 2024 Spring Rally Thursday 6th to Saturday 8th June, including: Jus Lymin, skippered by Paul Jeffs, Magnus Tao, skippered by Peter Puttock and NickNack, with Nick and Gail Lever.
The Rally started off on the Wednesday night with the crew of Jus Lymin joining Magnus Tao in Gosport for a meal in the Great Wall Chinese restaurant. Despite the D-Day events going on in and offshore at Portsmouth on the Wednesday, we saw very little of this as Jus Lymin made her way round to Gosport Marina. All we saw was the drone light show off Southsea later after our meal.
On Thursday morning, Jus Lymin and Magnus Tao took part in a race out to the Nab Tower and back for a finish off Cowes for the Club’s Rose Bowl Challenge.
The start for the race (or more correctly, “fast cruise in company”) was between the No Man’s Land and Horse Sands Forts, with Jus Lymin and Magnus Tao crossing at exactly the same time. The weather was a little mixed with some sun and rain showers, but the wind and tide were favourable. Mangus Tao made it to the tower first, on what was the more favourable course, and in the end crossed the finish line off Egypt Point first with a total elapsed time of 4hrs55mins. Just Lymin romped over the line in 5hrs28mins.
Unfortunately NickNack couldn’t make the cruise out to Nab Tower due to prior commitments but joined the rest of us in Cowes later in the day for the evening meal.
The next day it was planned for the three boats to make their way to Lymington. After leaving Cowes Jus Lymin crossed over to the Beaulieu River and up to Bucklers Hard for lunch. However, the wind had picked up considerably over night and on leaving Beaulieu River and trying for Lymington after some back-and-forth tacks across the Solent, we resorted to using the engine to make the right course. This was OK initially but wind over tide made for a very choppy ride. It was at this point the engine lost power and eventually packed in. After some gallant attempts by Paul to get it going again, there was nothing left but to turn around and make way back to Cowes where we knew we could get a tow back in so we could sort the engine out.
Magnus Tao and NickNack did make it to Lymington, but by all accounts, it was not a pleasant trip.
Meanwhile back on Jus Lymin, once we were safely moored up, the cause of the problem was found to be a blocked fuel line,. In the sloppy seas, crud in the fuel tank had been churned up causing the blockage. At this point it was too late for Jus Lymin to join the others, so stayed in Cowes and to eat on board and generally chill. The next day, Saturday, we all made our own ways back to our home ports and marinas in conditions somewhat more pleasant than the day before.
That’s sailing for you …
As part of the purpose of the Rally was the Rose Bowl Challenge, and given that only two boats took part, once corrected times had been calculated there was very little in it between Jus Lymin and Magnus Tao. In fact looking at the handicaps for the two boats, which vary considerably between the different handicap systems, the actual best corrected time for either boat switches around but still literally within a couple of minutes or so, therefore as Commodore, I have decided to call it a draw with honours with the Challenge going to both Jus Lymin and Magnus Tao … a controversial decision, maybe yes, but one that should keep both Skippers and Crews happy.