ArchiCAD University Sailing: Solent June 2005
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ACUE Sailing Weekend in the Solent: June 17-18-19 2005 |
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We had a sailing weekend 17-18-19 June 2005. It was an incredibly hot weekend, but we managed to sniff out the wind somehow, and had more sailing than we expected, with a big surprise at the end! |
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See more about the yacht at the website: http://www.getsailing.co.uk/ Further information on ACUE events, please Email: ArchiCAD University Secretariat . Map of the
area: Southampton
and the Solent |
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Friday: The crew consisting of David Nicholson-Cole, Tom Plackett, Nicola Luck, Daphne Evans, Tim Sparks, Adam Greenland and Philip Caine joined the skipper, Graham Caulfield in the evening at Lower Swanwick on yacht Atlantis. Saturday: We cruised down the Hamble, and set sail in Southampton Water. The Round the Island race had started earlier and off Newtown/Yarmouth we encountered the largest yacht fleet that any of us had seen - part of a 1700 yacht turnout - mostly becalmed. We motored on to Totland Bay and anchored for a leisurely lunch while the race cruised past, having now got quite a good SE wind. We went ashore in the outboard dinghy for walks. Later, we sailed a circuit in the vicinity of Needles and Milford before anchoring for the night at Totland. The tidal conditions around the Needles and along the Shingles produce very interesting surface effects on the sea. Sunday: From anchor we sailed towards Milford again, and then across towards Studland for lunch. While the wind lasted, we had a good Spinnaker run, but the wind gave up off Bournemouth and we motored the last few miles to anchor in Studland for lunch. We motored back, picked up the same wind again and beat to windward all the way past Hurst castle to the Solent. We motored up the Solent, picked up more wind at Calshot and sailed the last section up Southampton Water. We could have sailed on into the Hamble if it wasnt for the RIB incident - where we had to down sail and rescue the people out of the water. |
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| Above, Round the Island race | Below, the Runaway rib, being tamed by the RNLI | |||
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Atlantis rescued 3 people from Southampton Water who had been thrown from a high speed rib on the evening of Sunday 16th June. The RIB went into a tight left hand turn at about 30knots and instead of banking like a speedboat or motorcycle, it rolled outwards like a car, throwing all the occupants clear. They were all very lucky to have suffered no apparent injuries. The rib was left circling at full throttle endangering all vessels in the vicinity, and could have circled back and chopped up the people in the water (as reportedly happened at the Southampton Boat Show a few years ago). It took many attempts and forty minutes to bring it under control. First the harbourmasters boat trailed ropes and fenders around it to snag the prop. Three times, it cut the rope, retained the fenders, but continued charging around in circles, dragging fenders. The full sized RNLI lifeboat turned up and three times it pushed itself into the orbit of the runaway rib, to provoke a collision, so that it could be boarded. The first two times, this resulted in nasty crunchings as the RIB hit the large steel hull. On the third attempt this worked, the surprised RIB hesitated briefly, and a very brave RNLI man jumped into the cockpit and got it into neutral. |
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You can download a movie of the RIB capture from http://www.getsailing.co.uk/ its a 20min WMV file.
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Email: ArchiCAD University Secretariat for further information