26th July: Fastnet from Shieldhall

Berth 110 position

SS Shieldhall is the largest operational historic steamship in Europe. I became a supporter last year so when I saw that she would be viewing the start of the 100th anniversary Fastnet Race I booked a ticket. She is kept at berth 110 which is sandwiched between the King George V dock and the start of the DP World container port… berths 201 and 202 which can accommodate the larger post-Panamax container ships. At the moment ABP are allowing Shieldhall to use as a car park a small area of land with around a 5 minutes walk to 110 past the edge of the container port.

We got out to the central Solent just before the multihull start at 1120.  At first I was disappointed at our viewing position with lots of spectator boats between Shieldhall and the race starts, similar to the view from Stone Point.  However after the second start, the IMOCA’s, we started to steam westward and because the wind was fairly light we caught up with the multihulls off Yarmouth.

Lepe Country Park

We were scheduled to go on and view the Needles but, given the circumstances, they decided to turn back eastwards and view the race fleet going past us.  This involved Shieldhall doing a number of turns port and starboard to try to give way.  We must have been the last thing the competitors wanted to see!

Once the race fleet had passed we had time in hand.  I had gone onto the bridge and the Master was deciding to go into Osborne Bay to view the House before taking the North Passage back to Southampton Water.  Unusually we had a Southampton Pilot on board for the whole trip, a bit of a jolly!  Motor Gun Boat 81 from the Portsmouth Historic Ships passed us off Lee-on-Solent and we saw a couple of cruise ships come out before reaching Southampton.

Below are some general photos of the trip.  Photos of competing yachts are in a separate gallery, as are a few photos of Shieldhall’s Engine Room.