The annual Round the Island Race organised by the Island Sailing Club has become a firm favourite with sailors of many a different persuasion. It is a race that is positively habit forming and has a fascination that makes people do it again and again.

The crew met for the first time on the Friday afternoon to find out positions for the race. From bow to stern these were settled to be: Mickey Westmore bowman; Andy Monk halyards and spinnaker trimmer; Matthew Tomkinson on the main; Terry Rowe was primary helm; Charlie Watson navigator and second helm. Tactics was predominantely shared between Terry and Charlie but all were included. Friday onboard finished with a diver giving the hull a rub-down. After supper an hour or so was spent looking at the course with respect to forecasted weather and tide conditions.

Saturday started with very little wind. A general one hour postponement was announced. Our scheduled 08:40 start eventually happened at about 09:50. We crossed the line a few seconds after the gun with little wind but enough to drive us to the Needles. Spinnaker hoisted and soon gybed as shown in the photograph opposite. Immediately we started to edge past other boats. Our planned tactic was to sail for clear air rather than aim for the strongest tide, so we stayed south. Occaisionally another competitor would sail past us or faster than us, but not often.

We kept continual watch for the progress of boats ahead of us and we chased what little wind there was. By the time we had sailed to Yarmouth the wind dropped to nothing and we drifted with the tide. Slowly we made our way to the Needles. Then boats ahead of us started to move, we prepared ourselves and caught the breeze when it arrived.

We didn’t try to be clever around the Needles. We avoided the rocks by a clear margin. Yes we may have lost places at that point but that was not important to us at that stage. We beat well and that is what was coming up next. The wind picked up a bit and we had a long beat to St Catherine’s. Some boats we kept crossing close paths but not many. We sailed past many a 37 footer and easily pulled clear of more than one 45 footer. We were pleased with our progress.

The changes in wind speed and direction were extraordinary. Heading up to Bembridge was faster than we thought. We lost speed as the wind died but noticed more a little further out - we sailed to it and found it.

Soon it was time to hoist the spinnaker again. Sailing close inland whilst keeping an eye on the depth kept us playing tag with several boats but still slowly overtaking some more.

Crossing the line to the sound of the horn was a disappointment. Had others beaten us? We hadn’t seen any of our class for a long time and we had overtaken many yachts that had started over an hour before us. Later we found out that the committee boat was so surprised to see us so soon that they did not have a gun prepared. What a compliment to us! Early results seemed good. Later results were even better. With a corrected time of 08:46:47 gave us four trophies including the Roman Silver Gilt Bowl for fastest ISC boat.