Home / News / Yarmouth extended weekend rally June 11th/13th 2025

Yarmouth extended weekend rally June 11th/13th 2025

Published 01:00 on 15 Jul 2025

Two-day weekend rally to Yarmouth, 11th-13th July 2025

Yarmouth has been a popular rally for a number of years, for good reason. It has some interesting history, a very old castle, a pier, numerous hostelries offering good fare, walks, and bus services that connect with Newport and the rest of the island. And it is not only Haslar Yacht Club that know this, as the bustling harbour was full, as were the moorings outside.

We had initially been restricted by the harbour authorities to just 7 boats as there were two other rallies, one from just across the Solent by the Royal Lymington, and another from Cobbs Quay in Poole. Never have we seen so many power boats! In setting up the web site, however, Jem had left numbers a little flexible, shall we say, and our Commodore was quick to sign up and also persuade the harbour master to allow 8 boats, while Graham Armitage asked for a booked berth, making a total of 9 and 21 people. We all landed up together, mostly rafted alongside, and three of us on fingers.

But I am jumping ahead. The 4 motor boats set off from Gosport at the turn of the tide on Friday: Vin Rouge was there first to grab a prime berth, followed by Minalto and Cornell, along with Kiwi who had spent the night in Newtown hoping to get there before them! There was a scrum at the entrance to the harbour, stemming the ebbing tide, with boats attempting to jump the queue, as the berthing masters sorted us all out and directed us to our planned berths. But where was Bonito? It was Colin on Seatangle who had responsibly been monitoring channel 16 who knew that she had answered a Pan Pan call to an Island Packet with no engine off Lymington, eventually bringing the yacht to a mooring off Yarmouth. Seatangle and Tikla had also lurked in Newtown, but had delayed their arrival in Yarmouth, preferring to swim, walk the dog, and watch the removal of a sunken yacht near the entrance. Bonito rafted outside Sea Tangle, while Blue Moon and eventually Nemo (who were delayed by activity called work) rafted outside Tickla.

We all scrambled over Sea Tangle at 6pm to enjoy drinks and nibbles on Bonito, then set off in various directions to find food. Later that evening we were entertained by extremely loud music from a nearby mobo, marred by the occupants attempts to sing along out of tune. Nobody was very amused, and it is said that it eventually stopped at 3 am.

Saturday provided an opportunity for R&R, either in town, by bus, or in our case walking the west bank of the Yar to the Red Lion in Freshwater, and down to the bay beyond. We must mention the weather the entire UK being the centre of a high pressure system with extreme temperatures exceeding 30C, thankfully a little cooler in Yarmouth. Steve and Vizma walked the east bank of the Yar, and after a swim walked back along the west bank, reporting that the eastern path is more scenic, but less shaded perhaps?

That evening we made our way to the Royal Solent Yacht Club, arriving early enough for a drink on their deck overlooking the Solent with the pier to the west. At 1930 we were summoned inside where the RSYC events staff had superbly prepared individual place labels and menus, decorated with the Haslar burgee, so that there was no chance of getting someone elses chosen meal. The food was equally good. Afterwards we returned to the deck to watch the sun go down over Lymington.

The next morning there was an early exodus to catch the tide. Bonito set out anticlockwise to return via the south coast of the island, while the light easterlies veered and strengthened to F4 to give the sailors something to beat against returning to our home ports.