OA SAILING WEEK THEO FORBES (YEAR 12) S ixteen Middle School boys had the privilege this year of donning the Alleynian Sailing Society T-shirt and setting off for Cowes and the OA Sailing Week. I had been assigned to Jedi Knight under the command of Graham Nicholls OA. Having never sailed a yacht before (I’d messed around in dinghies a bit) I wasn’t quite sure how everything operated, but I quickly learnt the basics – follow instructions quickly and efficiently, watch out for the boom and always take a shower on land when you can. With a cloudless sky surrounding Cowes, our first task was to make our way around to Osborne Bay in order to practise the ‘man overboard’ drill. After decorating two fenders with a hat and some rope, we threw our pretend sailor into the sea and took turns steering and using the boat hook to pull up the sailor. Such skills came in handy during the next day’s activity, a ‘buoy’ competition between the boats where we would race to pick up a series of buoys along the trots outside Yarmouth harbour. Jedi Knight was doing quite well until we accidentally hit one of the buoys. Jerry Savill’s boat Le Jouanneau were the overall winners – surely helped by the fact they had the longest boat. We awoke the next morning to the news that we would be holding a practice inter-OA sailing race. After some careful planning about which route to take concerning tides and currents, we set off. We were doing very well as we rounded the buoy outside Cowes and set off in the opposite direction towards the finishing mark. However, Graham was keen to sail close to the shore and we were all too interested in the beautiful weather to notice the
depth gauge. One encounter with a sandbank and a frantic scramble later, we managed to bring up the rear quite successfully and finish the race. After visiting the nearby Beaulieu museum to learn about the shipbuilding history of the area and its role in the Second World War, we were ready for the big event of the week: the inter-OA sailing race. We all gathered around a buoy in the Solent and as ‘GO!’ was shouted from boat to boat, began our sail. The wind was very light and despite some questionable tactics from Graham, Jedi Knight was in third place as we rounded the red buoy which marked halfway (if it hadn’t been for Le Jouanneau getting stuck behind a huge tanker we would probably have been last). However, as we turned to head back up to Cowes it became apparent that we were going backwards with a very strong tide. The race disintegrated due to the lack of wind and all of the boats claimed to be winners. That evening we were treated to a wonderful dinner at the Island Sailing Club with the OAs from the Alleynian sailing society (ASS) who had been with us all week and the president of the Alleyn Club, Brigadier Johnny Walker. All of us enjoyed sharing stories about the College with people who had been there as long ago as the 1930s. It was a brilliant trip and a huge thank you must be made to all of the OAs from the ASS that took part throughout the week, to Jerry Saville, the Commodore of the ASS, and Anthony Frankford, the Honorary secretary of the ASS, for all their work, to the Alleyn Club for helping to fund the trip, and to Miss Lofts, who organised it.
116
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker