Frostbite Rally 27/28 February 2016

Published 00:00 on 5 Mar 2016

Originally we had 19 boats registered for this event, however, despite the weather in the week leading up to the event being bright and settled, the forecast for the rally weekend promised brisk NE winds of F5-7. As a result there were many people who decided not to attend and of the remainder, some made passage to Cowes Yacht Haven on Friday afternoon. This included our two single handed sailors Mike and Charles on "Nordlys" and "Wakatere" respectively. The new "island" off of Cowes entrance seems to have done little to deal with NE winds and a rather bumpy Friday night kept some of our skippers up adding extra mooring lines and snubbers (we spotted Dave from Eglantine out at 1.30 am in a T-Shirt ....and it was a proper frostbite!!).

A few more boats arrived on Saturday after a cracking down tide, down wind run from Haslar. Jem, the skipper of "Nemo" made a superb emergency mooring in the marina after losing most of the propulsion from his engine. This later turned out to be something around the propeller which he managed to clear once safely tied up.

The now 18 people went to the Island Sailing Club and the food & service was it's usual high standard. Two main courses for the price of one and HYC providing wine for the table made for an inexpensive and very pleasant evening.

Thankfully the wind backed round to the N so a more settled overnight followed. The following morning, with the high winds not forecast to drop until later in the day, many of the boats had already decided to stay an extra night and enjoy the very settled forecast for Monday for the passage back. Those that did decide to leave made it back just fine although Andy & Sharon on their 7m motor boat "Charlotte" reported a somewhat bumpy ride for some of the passage.

The final boat list was:

Related

• Frostbite Rally to Cowes Yacht Haven (27 - 28 February 2016)

Last updated 13:22 on 25 October 2023