Round the Island race 2021

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Tuesday 6th July 2021

The Island Sailing Club put on a spectacular 90th anniversary party for the 2021 Round the Island Race. The huge fleet of over 1200 boats showed how much people love taking part in this event. On the water there was everything from flat calm to 25 knot gusts, fog and sun, and as with every Round the Island Race, nothing compares to the sight of the fleet stretched out around the stunning Isle of Wight coast.

There was an excellent turnout of X-Yachts in both the IRC & ISC classes, with some notable silverware won by “Red Five” the Xp 38.  Congratulations to them, and all owners and crew that participated in this super event.

Some comments from our owners;

Well, that was a great RTI! Expecting zero breeze, even talk of parking it. The start was very light with trucking tide so finding wind and timing the start was a challenge. But then the breeze did pick up and a great beat to the Needles. Missed the Varvasi, most fortunately. We kept off!
The 2nd leg to St Cats with a reach in the rain and mist. At St.Cats, a very well known race boat went aground. I was most surprised at this and I wonder if she caught an uncharted depth / pinnacle?
St Cats to Dunnose freed off further and prepped the kite. At Dunnose, popped the kite up to Bembridge ledge with the only kite run for us we did not have an asymmetric.
Bembridge back to Cowes. The most tactical part of the course. Lots of boats, lots of adverse tide, playing cat and mouse with Ryde sands. A few boats went aground, not us…the only raised voice of the day was mine when I saw the depth go to 0.0…it was a false reading but sent my heart racing!
The breeze filled in by this time and it was a truly wonderful sail back to the finish line that we crossed before 4pm. Back to Hamble, put boat to Bed, home before 7pm

- La Nef IV - X-332

Red Five, in her second RTIR, with a new friends and family crew, faced the challenges of the July weather, race planning and general excitement about the day with fortitude and a big picnic. All delighted to take home a class five win and a 12th overall in the ISC Rating system. A good day out. As we like to say, how do you spell fun? W. I. N! 

- Red Five

A fantastic first RTI for yacht xSabio and her young inexperienced crew. Delighted with our performance in Class 4 (3rd place) and some fantastic match racing with “Dash” the new X4⁶ in Hamble made it a really memorable day.

- xSabio - X4⁶

Bit of a baptism of fire, having only had the yacht a few days and sailed her a total of four hours before the start of the race which was probably the worlds toughest test drive! We made a few schoolboy errors, dealt with a few new yacht niggles, and had a wonderful duel against fellow X4⁶ X-Yacht xSabio. We raced for 7.5 hours and 15 seconds separated us at the end – enormous fun!  Dash is everything we hoped for and was a pleasure to sail.

- Dash - X4⁶

A great days racing had by all after a very timid start in 0.9 knots of wind and 1.5knots of tide our timed drift was not optimal! A lovely battle to catch the 2 gorgeous X4⁶’s to the needles and it took a brave close look at the Varvassi funnels to get pass them both. Some interesting tactics going offshore on the reach to St Catherines where it looks like we made some further gains even though the wind did not head as much as forecasted. The downwind leg to Bembridge was fun and we opted to stay to the starboard side of the rhum line for more wind but not certain that paid off. The fetch to the finish was exciting and a constant battle for clear air and keeping in shallow waters. minX finished at 14:28.55, 2nd for line honors in Black Group and 9th on handicap, just pipped by 3 minutes on corrected by the X4⁶’s, well sailed by them both.”

- MinX - Xp 44

Copyright - Paul Wyeth