Gins Farm Rally 14/15th September 2019

Published 01:00 on 17 Sep 2019

10 boats from Haslar Yacht Club made the long and arduous (!) trip to the lovely Beaulieu River for the weekend of the 14th/15th September. Most of the boats arrived through the early part of the day on the Saturday, with Magenta having arrived on the Friday.

The Royal Southampton Bosun did a great job of accommodating all the Haslar yachts, bar one, on the pontoon and once the boats were all settled the Haslar battle flags were raised. The boats and the flags looked great in the sunshine, we could all pretend it was the start of the summer with the season in front of us, rather than September.

As the fleet was greeted with the wonderful sunshine it allowed various boats to unpack their toys. There were some bikes on one boat allowing the immediate countryside to be enjoyed. Getting the bikes ashore was somewhat hindered by the boat being moored alongside a classic yacht with excessive standing rigging, various lines and a cover clipped all round to its guard rails making moving round or getting on or off very challenging, never mind while carrying bikes. The puzzle was eventually solved by the bikes being attached to the spinnaker halyard and swung ashore.

A one (wo)man kayak was also launched and briefly used by two (wo)men. The kayak did not have the required amount of buoyancy for two so a democratic decision was taken to use the kayak in turns. Whilst the kayak was on the water, it was inspected thoroughly by the harbour seal who came to play and keep the kayak company. Clearly the seal is a fan of Haslar YC as he stayed for a while and gave us all the once over.

The standard pontoon party was held in the early evening and we were treated to a fantastic sunset after which the fleet retired to the yacht club for dinner as the coolness of the evening without the sun reminded us it was autumn after all.

Thanks to Jeremy's foresight in bringing with him several copies of the food orders, the meals were delivered quickly to the correct diners. Royal Southampton Yacht Club were very impressed by our organisation.

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny again and the fleet departed at various times depending on ongoing plans.

Thank you Jeremy for organising.

Boats in attendance: Magenta, Lacewing, Aquitaine, Blue Moon, Nemo, Freeway, Navigator, Princess Tasha and Nordlys Trollinger

To see more pictures of this event look in the photo gallery.

Related

• Beaulieu Rally September 2019 (14 - 15 September 2019)

Last updated 13:22 on 25 October 2023