15th June: Round the Island Race
The first start in the 2024 Round the Island race was at 06:00 with further starts up to 07:20. The Country Park opened early (05:30?) , probably because Solent Rescue wanted to be on the water, and I arrived at 05:35 and opened the NCI Stone Point station and switched on all the radios, although I did not tell the Coastguard until the second watchkeeper arrived just before 07:00.
Initially the weather was overcast with heavy rain squalls limiting visibility, one squall coincided with the start of the first race. The wind started as force 5 to 6 westerly but soon increased to force 7. No doubt beyond Hurst and around the south side of the Isle Wight it would have been a good force 8. I imagine conditions at the Needles and over the Bridge would have been very rough.
Because of the weather a number of the classes, mainly of smaller boats, had been cancelled and many entrants decided not to start. According to the race web site only 154 boats finished out of 939 entrants with 418 boats retiring. That suggests only 572 entrants actually started.
At Stone Point we saw many boats motoring back from the west Solent, presumably having decided conditions at the Needles and beyond were going to be too extreme. That even included Jolie Brise which I expect was being crewed by students from the school.
In fact the radio traffic suggested that there were fewer incidents than usual, testifying to the sensible judgement of those sailing and those who retired. At Stone Point our only action was, at the request of the Coastguard, to look for a liferaft which had been lost from one of the entrants.
We did see it some 3 nm to the southwest of the station. It was on a constant bearing but if the wind was bringing it nearer its progress against the current was slow. The bright orange canopy was easy to see and a number of boats reported it before Solent Rescue deflated the canopy and towed it back to the Beaulieu River and landed it near Gypsy Lane.
The first boat over the line was a catamaran, Highland Fling 18, which had completed the course in 3 hours, 39 minutes and 5 seconds.
At the end of the watch at 12 noon I went over to Calshot Tower to collect a new Union Flag for NCI Stone Point, and then went on to the Palais des Vaches to see their special wartime exhibition.