Solent Area Poole Rally 30th June - 2nd July 2018

A number of Solent Gaffers arrived during the Friday afternoon and evening and anchored in South Deep. Carefully arranged weather for the weekend enhanced the barbecue held on the beach just around from Goathorn Point. The barbecue was timed to coincide wth low water so that all attending benefited from an ankle deep Poole Harbour spa treatment mud pack getting to shore.Of course there are always some who wanted the full treatment package and decided to lie down in it.
The next initiative test involved getting the portable barbecues to smoulder consistently, resulting in a little poaching of space on the hotter barbecues. Tim, in true presidential style, came to the rescue producing the Rolls-Royce of portable barbecues on a stand along wth a pack of instant light charcoal.  'Just put a match to the pack and it will light the charcoal inside'  announced Tim.  Instructions were followed to the letter and the pack was lit, flared up like a Wrecker's beacon and promptly went out.  Back to the portable Barbecues....
A most enjoyable evening was had by all in a perfect setting.

The following morning, Jeremy Retford took a flotilla of dinghys around the islands of the harbour with commentary outlining some of the history and events that have taken place within the harbour.  For those who had'nt managed to dislodge the mud pack from the prevous eveing, the shower of spray coming over the bow of the dinghys took care of this.

The afternoon saw 3 boats race in Poole Bay.  Mark Woodhouse aboard Sleuthound was the race officer. The race was postponed whilst entrants were confirmed and then the postponement was lifted with the customary smoke and noise.  This confused the entrants completely and Charlotte Elizabeth, clearly fired up with competitiveness, could wait no longer to get going and decided that starting on the minute gun was preferable to waiting for the start gun !.  Passager, not wanting to be left behind, followed suit, and  Satelitte, with more accurate time keeping waited for the correct sginal but were heading away from the line when the start gun was fired.  The Race Officer, clearly frustrated, called over the VHF that Charlotte Elizabeth and Pasager were over the line and could either go back and start correctly or take a time penalty.  Charlotte Elizabeth opted for the time penalty and Passager, also going like a runaway horse, followed suit.  Satellite, by this time, had worked out which way to go and set off at a cracking pace.  The course took boats down towards Bournemouth Pier and back along the Bar Buoy via several race marks where the Race Officer shortened the course before anyone could decide to do their own thing again.

Everyone went into the Poole Quay Marina for the Saturday night where the gaffers moored and made the marina much more interesting to look at instead of the usual array of white plastic.  Supper was taken in the nearby Banana Wharf where the Race Officer announced that after the handicap corrections and time penalties were calculated, Satelitte was deservedly the winner of the afternoon race. And beautiful she looked too !

Boats departed on Sunday morning with more favourable weather conditions than was originally forecast.

Our thanks go to Jeremy Retford for organising the harbour tour and also the Saturday evening at Banana Wharf.  Thanks also go to Mark Woodhouse as our Honorary Race Officer who set an excellent course despite several attempts to disrupt it by the competitors.

•   Solent OGA 60th Annual race [docx 18KB]