PW_1_2022

Sports

Yacht Racing in the Solent with the Met Police Sailing Club Stewart Hall , Hampshire Branch “You there fellow! Move away, Move away …. I say you are the overtaking boat, make room or I will protest most loudly!” So shouted the man with the big hat, who was skippering the yacht we were catching. Racing downwind, our skipper Ged growled back with his eyes, and knowing we had not breached the rules, we sailed on. “They were bluffing” said Ged afterwards. Y ou might be asking how a 56 year old retired detective ended up racing in his first regatta, against 17 other yachts in

the Solent, for the Police Sailing UK offshore cup. Well, it all started in 2019, when I decided to complete my yacht sailing Day Skippers course. I joined the Metropolitan Police Sailing Club, which is based at Mercury Marina in Hamble and completed my course there. I went on a couple of member days, where an experienced skipper takes you out as crew. Ged was skippering on one such day, and there was talk about the Met putting some yachts into the NCA Griffin Regatta. I volunteered and was put onto Ged’s yacht. The Griffin regatta committee extend invitations to law enforcement agencies, who each charter a Beneteau 37 yacht. The nine races are organised by the IOW sailing club in Cowes, with the regatta also hosting the PSUK offshore challenge cup. “Yikes!” I said to myself as I read all the rules. Well, I started reading them and then stopped and watched a YouTube video instead. We had a training day on one of the club yachts, and it was great to meet everyone. I learned that apart from Scott, Owen and I, all the crew were race hardened. I volunteered to navigate, which in practice means getting a compass bearing and figuring out the tide direction. Other jobs had stranger names. I began trimming, while Scot was grinding along with Pete the Chef. Rog and Jenny worked the spinnaker. Owen chewed gum whilst helming. And Ged was the skipper.

Race Is On As I soon learned, yacht racing is all about the start. We nervously circled the start line, waiting for the course to be given over the radio. Once under way, the yacht became a flurry of activity; pulling up the spinnaker halyard, locking off the red rope, sorting the tack line and working the main. All the jargon became second nature. Then, I made my first mistake. I opened the locking clutch which held the spinnaker aloft, forgetting to put the rope around the winch. I managed to slow its run before the sail could overwhelm Jenny and Roge. My fingers didn’t fare so well, carrying a nasty rope burn scar. We crossed the finish line at Cowes in second place, with no idea how it happened. The highlight of day two was a skipper wanting to kill his navigator, which considering that was one of my jobs, I was very pleased not to have made that mistake. I watched a yacht pull away from us towards a mark called RORC, making me doubt my own calculations, although no other yachts followed. I soon heard the skipper who had gone off alone, broadcast over race radio “I protest most loudly! All of you have gone past the wrong mark! Why have you not gone round RORC?” Race control replied “because that is not a mark in this race“. There was a slight silence, until the skipper said, “ok I’m going to kill my navigator!” Everybody’s boat rocked with laughter as we bobbed up and down.

The next day’s racing started a little late, messing up my carefully calculated tide times. We did come in fifth though, prompting a celebration with Chef Pete’s lunch of homemade scotch eggs. Races came and went throughout the week, and we grew stronger as a team. At the end of the week, we did rather well, finishing fourth overall. It was a pleasure to compete, and it really is about taking part and not winning. The crew of our Yacht, Mon Ami, included five currently serving police officers from the Met and two retired ones, of which I was one. If you want to come sailing on the Solent, please think of joining the Met Police Sailing club. You may even sail with me. Here’s the link https://mpsc.london/

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POLICE WORLD Vol 67 No.1, 2022