Csárdás

A week or so ago I decided to bail out of the Round the Island Race. Birth of baby is feeling imminent and a few people we know from anti-natal classes have been early. I thought I should be a bit closer to home rather than find myself the other side of the Isle of Wight should something happen. Of course, nothing did happen, but there you go. In the end there wasn’t much wind anyway. Almost half the yachts retired. So I think it could have been a bit slow and frustrating.

Just looked at the results and am really pleased to note that there are three Hanses in the top 4 of division 4C. First was another Hanse 371, second was our friends on Grey Goose, Hanse 400, who came to the Hanse Rally the previous weekend. Really chuffed for them - that’s an excellent result. The Hanse 370 show boat, Rock Hopper, with the Hanse team on board came in 4th. Shame they couldn’t get 3rd, but hey, 3 Hanses in the top 4 is quite a result and great PR for Hanse.

In some ways glad I bailed out because for some evil reason Island Racing Club gave Csardas a handicap that put us in division 4B - one division ahead of the other guys and would have seen us competing against 40+ footers. I think that’s because we carry a larger genoa and large spinnaker. In the light wind conditions we would probably have done alright but would have been penalised on handicap and it would have been nicer to be in the same division as the other Hanses. Still the point is moot as I bailed out altogether anyway!

Instead we had friends for the weekend and I spent Saturday at home flying a radio controlled plane with 6 year old Sam .. until Chris nose-dived it and wrecked it. Ho hum.