RYA Annual Sail Cruise - Success again for Channel Rally

10:52 PM Sat 13 Jun 2009 GMT

'RYA Sail Cruise route' .

The twenty strong fleet of yachts taking part in the 2009 RYA Sail Cruise - from Gosport in Hampshire UK to France and the Channel Islands - made, for several of the boats, their first Channel crossing to arrive safely in Cherbourg on Monday evening.

Sponsored by Hamble School of Yachting, in association with Yachting Monthly magazine, the annual RYA Sail Cruise event gives sailors of all ages and experience the perfect opportunity to broaden their sailing horizons but naturally is particularly appealing for crews embarking on their first channel crossing, providing the reassurance of sailing with more experienced crews.

Unlike almost all other 'group' activities in the world, a sailing rally does NOT involve any herding - in fact, quite the opposite - each skipper is 100% responsible for all aspects of their sailing, no matter that their experience is at the minimum to undertake the cruise.

The idea is not for a group of boats to travel from port to port 'follow my leader' style. There is always a range of different boats in the fleet, which sail at different speeds and have different levels of performance in different conditions, making this an unviable option.

As stated, each skipper remains solely responsible for their vessel and crew, leaving him or her free to decide what speed to sail at and how close proximity he or she wishes to be in with the rest of the fleet. That skipper must ultimately make the decision of when to leave, what course to steer, when to make correction and the pilotage needed to enter the destination harbour.

A general briefing including an overview of the passage and suggested departure and arrival times are given to the skippers before each leg.

The boats are encouraged, however, to remain within VHF range of the rest of the fleet, which sometimes means that smaller or slower yachts need to motor-sail on the longer legs.

In the rally just completed, yachts from across the South coast congregated at the Royal Clarence Marina, Gosport last Sunday before heading off, bound for Cherbourg in fine weather.

The crossing went well for all but one of the fleet, 'Blue Bat', a Sadler 32, who unfortunately encountered a large tear in their sail, but repairs were quickly underway on arrival at port.

However it was a rainy welcome at Cherbourg leading to a sightseeing day getting soaked but luckily the sun began to creep through the clouds just in time for the Tuesday evening party, giving crews the opportunity to share stories of their crossing.

First timer, Annette Madison crewing on board 'Stardust' a Moody 36, hailing from Bideford in Devon said: 'We've never crossed the channel before and really wouldn't have wanted to do it alone. We wanted some support for the first time so the cruise was a perfect choice for us.'

After its rest day in Cherbourg and a quick check of the weather, the fleet then headed off to St Peter Port, Guernsey, before heading on to Braye in Alderney, and then finally they crossed the Channel again to arrive home on Saturday.

For all information about RYA and future events, go to their webpage.

by BW Media