March saw the return of HOEOCA putting forward a race team in the Prometheus Round The Cans event, however, racing activities had started a while before this. In his new position as RC Racing, Stuart Jones had made sterling efforts to promote HOEOCA’s racing interests, and after discussions with the stalwarts of this section of the club, circulated an expression of interest survey in an attempt to gain an insight to member’s desire to take part in racing events.

Stuart’s efforts paid some dividends not only in making contact with previous racers, but also by the fact that for the March event, we had a new tranche of racers with Roger Stoney taking on the role of skipper and his daughter Naeve taking on First Mate duties, both new to HOEOCA. Simon Maycock and Thijs van Rens also added to the list of newbies and the crew of eight was then made up of racing stalwarts Mark Parker, Stuart Jones, Slawek Glegowski, and myself, Paul Russell.

Previous discussions aroud our racing ambitions incorporated the opportunity and desire for crew members to take on new roles, be that helm, foredeck, strategy or even washing up in some cases! As a group we decided to firstly be competitive and tailor our crew change plans to how we were placed in the event, as with only three other yachts competing we had hoped to qualify early for the November finals.

After a crew bonding meal on Friday evening, kindly supplied by Roger, we hit our bunks keen to get racing on Saturday morning. We awoke to ideal sailing weather, sunny with steady winds around 10-15 knots with few gusts, however, the forecast for Sunday was a deteriorating picture, with gusts approaching 30 knots and heavier seas.

For the first race, Stuart Jones took the helm and we secured a 1st place which buoyed the whole crew as we contemplated the much coveted November Finals placing. It became clear that the race Committee was setting shorter courses giving the option to complete five races on Saturday due to the deteriorating weather picture. As always in the shorter races, quality spinnaker handling is key as the kite needs to be hoist, gybed, dropped and re-packed in minimal time giving the packers a good workout to prepare for the next hoist, often just 10 minutes away. Given our first race performance, it was decided to make no changes and we all maintained our positions for race 2. The HOEOCA yacht came a creditable 2nd and it was noticeable that other yachts took routes closer to the Isle of Wight coast than some further out who ended up heading tide albeit with stronger winds.

We had often discussed that the crews who made fewest mistakes won races, especially when handling the kite. In race 3 we had an issue with the spinnaker pole and jib sheet getting entangled and whilst this was sorted by using the lazy jib sheet to allow a re-rig, the time lost resulted in a fourth place. We hoped that this would be our discard race.

Race 4 saw Thijs take the helm and it was noticeable that both the tide and other yachts' intentions had strengthened as the racing became very much closer and verbals increased. Taking weather and tide changes into account, we felt we did a much better job in fetching the mark, a decision which paid dividends as we recorded another 2nd place.

Race 5 saw Slawek take the helm under our policy of crew rotation and experience gains. Unfortunately another equipment mishandling issue resulted in a small tear in the jib sheet and we recorded a 4th place despite pushing hard to gain a place further up the leaderboard.

By now the crew were tiring after a longer day than normal racing, and so welcome respite in Cowes was sought.  In Cowes we were able to swap our jib sheet with the committee boat before an onboard dinner and then heading off to The Anchor to watch the England v France rugby match. The Anchor holds special memories for all of us for varying reasons as its always a stop on our about Cowes wanders, however for myself, Mark and Stuart it was more poignant since the loss of Alistair Kingham, a long time HOEOCA member, and keen supporter of both the Round The Cans events and The Anchor's Doom Bar product!

Sunday started with a calm around Cowes, however within a few minutes of departing the wind was gusting 22-25 knots and the sea state was noticeably choppier. The decision about spinnaker/no spinnaker was made for us when the committee boat radio’d that all racing would be with one reef in the main and no spinnakers.

Race 6 started again with Stuart at the helm, however as we approached the line, another yacht in close contention decided to “shut the door” on us by not giving any water despite the fact that our yacht had another encroaching yacht to starboard and it looked like we were about to collide with the committee boat. Only Stuart's sharp action to tack avoided a major collision. Whilst we came back round and entered the fray, in the conditions faced it was difficult to catch up with the fleet and make progress and so another 4th place was recorded.

It was becoming clear that some of the other skippers would take a more aggressive position as they themselves considered that a November Finals place was achievable.

Race 7, and the last of the weekend, had Roger on the helm, but the weather was deteriorating by the minute as gusts reached 25-27 knots and Prometheus were keen to get racing concluded and their boats back into Port Solent safely, and so another short course was set. HOEOCA started well and continued to make good progress in 2nd place. We rounded the mark well and set off on the downwind leg in good contention, despite all the yachts being in very close proximity to each other. Yacht Yachtmarket misjudged badly their entry around the mark and collided with the port channel marker, causing a huge noise as they tried to bear away as their stern hit the channel marker, which I believe can weigh up to 11 tonnes of steel, resulting in a huge red stripe now to be emblazoned on its stern. All yachts continued competitively towards the next mark and it was genuinely nip and tuck between the three leading boats. HOEOCA were comfortably ahead at the mark with the water rights to round the mark, however with Hyde Sails to our left and Marlow Ropes to their left it was a hugely crowded mark. After our repeated calls for water, Hyde then called on Marlow, but what happened next is a little unclear. Hyde reported that Marlow did not acknowledge their call, and in fact suddenly luffed them, resulting in a glancing impact between the stern of Hyde and the bow of Marlow. This sudden course change caused Hyde to luff us too quickly to take action and therefore struck us on the rear quarter. Although by the racing rules all four boats should have retired, we continued sailing and finished second at the next mark where the Committee boat had shortened the course.

We sailed back to Port Solent with the actions of the other yachts the talking point all the way in, and that one of the yachts had a professional skipper at the helm whose actions at the mark were questionable at best. On arrival in strong winds, our berthing was not helped by the Prometheus team not taking charge of allocating suitable mooring spots, and in fact changing them mid manoeuvre. However smart work by our bow crew prevented any further incidents.

One of the many big learnings from this “bumpy” weekend was the value of the Collision Damage Waiver offered by Prometheus. Although it has increased in recent times from £1,000 to £1,800 this as a maximum liability and even at a cost of approx £150 per day proved to be an invaluable investment. Roger made a case to Prometheus which a New York Divorce lawyer would have been proud of which eventually (and rightly!) saw HOEOCA exonerated from any additional damage costs, but the word along the grapevine is that a couple of yachts who did not take the damage waiver option now face a crew payment liability in excess of £5,000!

All in all this was another fabulous and eventful racing weekend despite the actions of other skippers which earned the terms “selfish and reckless”. The joy of the Round The Cans events is its Corinthian spirit, centered on exceptionally high standards of sportsmanship, fairness and amateurism, where integrity for the love of the event is prioritized over winning, Prometheus would do well to get this spirit back into their handover process.

As a final note, I would ask all those at HOEOCA with a desire to either try or to continue to take part in racing events to support Stuart in his endeavours to re-vitalise the racing side of HOEOCA. These are fun weekends and offer the chance to sail with new club mates, and to have great fun both on and off the water.

Look out for the next Prometheus Roubd The Cans event and get your name down early so plans to compete can be made early…… you wont regret it.

Paul Russell