Round the Island Boat Race 2014

The Round the Island Boat Race 2014 was the slowest race on record! I was also the calmest race on record. More than half the fleet of boats retired from the race before they reached the Needles Lighthouse. The first boat home took 10 hours, 11 minutes, and 53 seconds to complete the RIBR, starting and finishing at Cowes.

The first boats sailed at 0630, with each of the various groups/class of boats leaving in ten minute intervals. The boat wishing to record a finishing time had to complete the course by 2200 in the evening. 1536 boats registered to start the RIBR2014, 373 completed the course before the cut off time. 1163 retired, or may no declaration.

All the boats are raced in groups/classes of boat and in order to know who is the overall winner their is a handicapping system depending on the size and sail area of the boat. So, each boat has a Start Time, a Finish Time, an Elapsed Time, thus giving the boat their Finishing Position for the race. Finally, the Corrected Time is calculated based on the handicapping the boat was given, thus giving the boat their Overall Position for the race.

e.g. Start 06:30:00 Finish 16:41:53 Elapsed 10:11:53 Corrected 11:22:52
Finish Position 1 Overall Position 196

Normally, the RIBR is a good spectators competition to watch from the various vantage points around the island. However, this year the bystanders were all of an equal mind that this years race was not so much who will win overall, but who would be able to limp over the line this evening. Generally, there is great fun and games and the boat hurry around the Needles Point avoiding the wreck just off the Lighthouse. In years pasted some of the more shallow drafted boats have been able to thread the needle, by passing between the nearest two needle rocks, but this year they had a lot of boat blocking the way.

The wind speeds were very light for this year’s race, because it took so long to sail, by means of tacking or zig-zaging their way to the Needles Lighthouse, that by the time they had reached Hurst Castle Spit the tide had already turned and they were hardly moving forward, because of the strength of the currents that flow between the mainland and the Isle of Wight.

During my time here at Quarr Abbey, I have become a regular at the Fishbourne Inn and thereby met a gentleman who was sailing in the RIBR2014, crewing on the sailing boat K9407Y Squirrel. This boat came in second overall winning the Fidelis Trophy. Squirrel also won the JP Morgan Asset Management Family Trophy - for the first family crewed boat across the line. Start Time 08:00:00, Finish Time 19:08:14, Elapsed Time 11:08:14 Overall Position 2, Corrected Time 10:23:28, Finishing Position 2. Their Group Position 1.

Choosing a blip to represent today’s race has been difficult, but I think a shot of the general “car park” effect or boat yard off the Needles, was in the end the only image that could be uploaded. For me the Needles Lighthouse has always been a landmark that I witness from Barton-on-Sea cliffs as I grow up and if there were any yacht races around the island, then it was always seemed more spectacular than normal.