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Marchwood Rally - 6/7 August 2022

Published 18:25 on 1 Sep 2022

This was my first trip to Marchwood Yacht Club and I have to say it was marvellous. Tucked right at the top of Southampton Water, MYC is a real working club run and maintained by its own members. Thats the charming thing about the Club, and it works! The Club motto is If it needs doing, do it and that sums up their approach; they built the pontoons and the piling barge themselves, they have their own boat lift and, for instance, the refurbishment of the gents showers was being done by their own members.

Our trip there came at the end of a lovely sailing holiday exploring the length and breadth of The Solent. We arranged to stay in Gosport on the Friday night before the rally and it was lovely to catch up with so many HYC members both in Haslar and Gosport Marina.

Its fair to say that the winds that weekend were light and variable so most, but not all, of us had to resort to motor sailing, which was fine. The navigational instructions issues by MYC were very accurate and helpful. As we approached the Clubs pontoons we were guided in by Club Officer Of The Day Bruce Cowen and his wife who found all of us a berth and there was no need for any of us to raft up.

It was great to see some new faces; Gareth and Isabelle David have been HYC members for many years but hadnt come to any recent rallies so it was good to meet them and say hello. We were also glad to see Steve and Lynne Holliman back from their travels to the Med via the French canals on their boat. In total we had 8 boats with 19 people.

The new HYC flags, banners and feathers were strung out on our boats and looked very impressive. Our evening then started with the traditional pontoon party enjoyed by all in the pleasant evening sunshine, a good opportunity to chat to each other. Then it was off to the MYC Clubhouse for some pre-dinner drinks and when things got a bit busy it was great to see one of our group, Alan Fisher serving behind the bar. It turns out that Alan and Linda used to be members of MYC and its a Club tradition that everyone mucks in and helps.

The evening was shared with quite a few MYC members who were a very friendly bunch. Our evening dinner was very pleasant and the catering staff there did a very good job. After the meal we gathered on a few of our boats for late evening drinks and chats and all Ill say is that we have some really fascinating people in HYC: the life stories we heard on board Nemo were wonderful!

Ann woke up with a start at 6am the following morning: a massive container ship was being pushed into position by 3 tugs for unloading on the other side of the water. The noise down below was really quite loud as you can imagine. After breakfast we took a lovely walk up the bank of the river to the marshes which are a popular spot for birdwatching.

Marchwood is a very different place than our normal rally destinations and I hope we go back soon as it most enjoyable.

Jem Nicholls