The best vantage points to watch this sea racing spectacle are at the narrowest part of the Solent at Hurst Castle or on Hurst Spit, or from Milford on Sea beach, where you can see the racers sail past The Needles and out across Christchurch Bay. Now with this big build up I suspect you are waiting for me to tell you how I was dragged in the sea by a cephalopod as I was trying to walk along Hurst Spit, or how I had been a senior crew member on the winning yacht. However, whilst probable, neither would be true. In fact, I missed most of the race boats coming through, as I was preparing for a Sunday lunch at the Westover Hall. No special occasion, other than my wife thought it was a good idea for her to have a day off cooking, and our friends like any excuse to eat out.
Thankfully, our good neighbours did a fine job in keeping an eye on the Fastnet Race activity for us. The first casualty they spotted was a 40ft Princess cruiser motor yacht called ‘Don't Ask’ registered in Poole. The name ironically proved somewhat apt. Apparently ‘Don't Ask’ very nearly came ashore on Milford on Sea beach, before it temporarily got its motor going again for a brief stint. Seastart (a sort of marine AA owned by local man Nick Eales) got to it when it was anchored about 100 yards out in front of the bowling green. (See picture.) The bowlers ignored it of course - very British. After some pumping out, it limped off towards Keyhaven in a cloud of black smoke. It is unknown whether the captain & crew had sufficient qualities of gin on board to survive through their ordeal.
The second stricken vessel was a 30-40ft cruiser with its spinnaker wrapped around its hull & problems with its jib. (I also have problems with my jib’s, mainly because my wife likes to give me regular rabbit punches there when I am not looking.) After about a half hour of struggling, it got help from the lifeboat, who eventually managed to tow it to safety.
Still not out of the Solent, one of the Fastnet competitor yachts then got into trouble, making Strontium Dog the 3rd casualty spotted off of Milford on Sea. It seems it drifted in from well out before the Yarmouth lifeboat came on the scene. Strontium Dog was also towed by the lifeboat. (separately of course.) To assist the general mayhem, the wind force was at 6. So, all in all, an average afternoon in Milford!
Whilst all this was happening we were eating too much with our friends. Well, I say eating too much, but the truth is that my friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, (Colin) is an extremely bad influence, and he had insisted we had a couple of drinks in the bar before eating. After a couple, and pleasant catch up with our great hosts, David & Christine, we wandered (not in a straight line) to the formal, but extremely relaxed One Park Lane Restaurant. We had a great view of the race from the window, but I was chatting (my wife seems to describe this more as ‘talking nonsense’) so much I forgot all about the Fastnet Race. Originally we had planned to have the twelve pound something Sunday roast, which has always been great value, but a few a la carte dishes caught our eye. A fine onion soup with homemade rolls soon arrived along with a bottle of wine, then delicious surf & turf, followed by more wine and a delightful deconstructed Eton mess. The Westover kitchen team certainly know how cook! Suitably refreshed in all areas, it was now time to go home. But, other plans soon took over, as we boys ordered cheese and port. The wives had matching faces of complete distain for their red cheeked husbands. In spite of missing the beginning of the race we had had a great lunch, and for some reason the walk home was longer than the walk there. I suspect that after this outing it was a bit optimistic to expect to stay awake to watch any afternoon Fastnet action. So, if any happened in the afternoon you have my wife and anonymous friend to blame for it not being reported.
A few days later, and in a vain attempted to recover any small remaining credibility I had as a local reporter, I decided to do some ‘after the event’ research. I discovered that the remaining competitors in The Fastnet Race descended on the finish line between 0000 and 0200, and that only 105 boats, or just over one third of the record-sized fleet, crossed the finish line. I have no idea what day this was on, as the website was not clear, and deciphering the ‘sailing speak’ was too much for a mere occasional sailor like me. So, it might have been anything from one to six days, which was either really fast, or really slow, absolutely no idea!
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PS: Mike Collison took a more grown up approach to the Fastnet Race, by deciding to miss Sunday lunch and watch the race properly. Mike's impressive Fastnet photos are below.
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