Southsea Marina mid-week Rally 2025 (9 - 10 Sep 2025)

Published 14:16 on 20 Sep 2025

We had not visited Southsea marina as a Club so this was a new venture for many of us. The marina is different to others in that it has a cill which rises as the tide falls to keep the water in the marina, a bit like a lock gate but vertical instead of horizontal. We chose the dates to ensure that high water was about midday giving time to get to the marina and safely enter.

In my case, I had been invited by Deb Gold to crew on her boat Sunbeam along with one of her other co-owners Zoran, a really nice guy and we all had a great time. Deb has sailed on Nemo with me many times and it was a real pleasure to crew for her on her boat. I had visited Southsea marina many times but always on land, I'd never sailed there. The entrance is quite narrow and shallow even at high water but Deb navigated our way in and we moored up very easily. It was then time to say hello to all the other boats that had made the short trip. I think many of us were interested to find out what the marina was like.

We had 2 motor boats, Bonito with Steve Derbyshire on board and Co Co with Brian & Teresa Lewis who we had not met before and it's always great when new people come on a rally. The 5 sailing yachts were Sunbeam (see above), Misty Moon with Hilary & Brain Masters, Forget Me Knot with Mary & Ken Ryan, Fruitbat with Sharon & Ian MacGregor and Blue Moon with Jonathan Clare & John Warner

Once we all berthed we had a personal guided tour of Portsmouth Lifeboat Station by RNLI volunteer Brian Masters and it was both fascinating and informative. For instance, someone asked what qualifications you needed to be accepted as a trainee RNLI crew member and the answer was "17 years old". That's the only stipulation, well, apart from being within 10 15 minutes from the station to accept the call.

There are 2 lifeboats at Portsmouth Lifeboat Station - an Atlantic 85 (B-class) and a D-class.  The Atlantic 85 is the larger of the two and has a crew of 4.  It has a top speed of 35kn and is used mainly in the Solent where a quick response is necessary and is likely to be further out to sea and may involve rescuing people from a boat.  The smaller D-class has a crew of 3 and a top speed of 25kn.  It is great in shallow water and near the beach.  Brian explained that it is not unusual for both boats to be launched if there is uncertainty in the position of the casualty resulting in the need for a search of a larger area.

After we got back to our boats there was just time to freshen up before a very enjoyable pontoon party laid on by Hilary and Brian at Misty Moon. This is always a good time to catch up on the latest adventures or even misadventures we all have! It was also a great way to get to know the new people Teresa and Brian.

After that we made our way to Bombay Bay, the on-site Indian restaurant above the café. There were lovely views across the marina and Langstone Harbour and the food was plentiful and delicious. It made a nice change to have Indian food for our rally meal.

Southsea is quite a small marina, there's not much space in the fairways and with a brisk wind blowing a few of us decided to ask for a bit of assistance from the marina staff to get out. In Sunbeam's case we were getting ready to cast off when I got a phone call from Ken Ryan, who had left a few minutes earlier, warning us that the tide was flowing into the harbour quite strongly and we might want to wait a while. This is one of the many lovely aspects of Haslar Yacht Club; there are always people who are willing to help and offer some advice. Once Sunbeam had slipped her lines Deb on the helm made it all look so easy!

This rally was good fun with a few new aspects to make it interesting too. I'm looking forward to returning at some point.

Jem Nicholls

Related

• Southsea Marina mid-week Rally 2025 (9 - 10 September)

Last updated 15:06 on 2 October 2025