Marine Industry Regatta rides again

I remember being very pleased when I heard Ross Wilkinson was pushing the Marine Industry Regatta hard.

At the time, it was just what the event needed and it seems to have worked.

When we started the regatta it took a while to settle down into a regular event. But, once it got there, we had some excellent fleets.

I remember one year when we had 41 boats out. An exceptional event.

And others where we had laughter all the way. I remember one start where Mr Webster hit the pin end precisely.

He then called for a tack, which meant Lorraine Curtis had to make the trek from the disappearing high side to the new high side.

Unfortunately, on the way across the stern deck, Ms Curtis grabbed the Dan Buoy, expecting it to take her weight as she skipped daintily across the aft end.

It didn’t…

Luckily, Alan Morgan was steering a Zodiac safety boat right in our wake, so he saw Lorraine perform her nose dive into the Solent.

Mr Morgan and his crew fished her out and deposited her back on our boat, which we had thrown into a tack to slow down so we could welcome our errant hand back on board.

We found enough dry clothes to make Ms Curtis warm and dry and I think she recieved a prize of a crate of beer to take home that night…