The Westerly Owners' Association - South Coast Group

Lymington Race to Poole and Fitting Out Supper

The earliest Easter for 150 years meant that fewer boats were in the water in time for the rally. A big stationary low pressure over Europe and a similar stationary high pressure west of Ireland resulted in sustained fresh northerly winds and temperatures struggling to make 6°C over the bank holiday weekend. Our daughter, who has not sailed with us for some time, decided to come along, as she felt the ‘endurance element’ of the weekend would be good practice for her planned climb of Kilimanjaro later this year.

Our run down from Hamble to Lymington started from the shelter of Swanwick, but before we had reached Warsash, it was apparent there would be no shortage of wind outside. With a following force 6 wind, we decided to give the No 2 jib its first outing in more than 10 years and the spring ebb guaranteed us a quick passage to Lymington. The run was chilly but fairly comfortable and we arrived at the Dan Brown pontoon in the late afternoon, to find we were the first boat there.

The Rally!

Unknown to us at the time, the East Cowes contingent were having trouble leaving Cowes. The Northerly wind which was gusting force 8 at times, and the additional fetch was creating 5ft waves in the entrance, and they very sensibly returned to their moorings.

After calling round, it was apparent no-one else was going to join us on the Dan Brown pontoon, so we made our way up to the additional shelter of Town Quay.

In contrast to the miserable day, we had a very convivial evening for the fitting out supper at Lymington Town Sailing Club, where we were joined by everyone coming (sensibly) by road. The meal was good and we were more than a little reluctant to leave the warmth of the Club for the cold boat!

The slightly better forecast for Saturday proved incorrect: the wind stayed at near gale force through the day, and only eased towards the evening. The continuation to Poole was obviously cancelled and the Cowes boats were again storm-bound in port, which prevented them from joining us. We also decided it would be better to stay put and do some maintenance.

Sunday arrived with less wind but heavy rain and sleet. We decided to cut our losses and head back to the Hamble. We started motoring in heavy rain but opposite Newtown, the sun came out and the wind had backed to NW 3/4 which gave us a fair run as far as Calshot, and allowed us to dry out the mainsail. Out of the icy wind, it was quite pleasant. As a final sting in the tail, the wind freshened to force 6 and headed us again, as we motored back into the Hamble.