A great day of sailing with the Old Carthusian Yacht Club at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes
A report by Year 13 pupil, William
On Sunday 23 June at 7.00 am a rather bleary-eyed group of Carthusians, teachers and parents left for what was to be an incredible day of racing with the Old Carthusian Yacht Club (OCYC) at the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS), Cowes. The day started with a pre-match tea and coffee to hopefully wake us all up, which was served in the pavilion in the club with beautiful views over the Solent.
At around 10.00 am, the racing began. Teams of four battled it out to win the coveted ‘Baden Powell Trophy’ between the New and Old houses. The dinghies were J70 racing boats owned by the RYS so were fantastic to sail. The weather was reasonably calm so didn’t allow us to heel the boat enough to dunk the railings, or lose any crew, but provided us with enough wind to have a decent race.
Lunch was on board, allowing for a quick turnaround for some more racing! The afternoons racing proved to be incredibly tense with a double circuit race and lighter airs, allowing for more tactics. Having decided not to use our spinnaker, I suffered as I had to lean right out port side to reach for wind in the jib as everyone else sailed past (not a fun sight)! At this point it became apparent that the new Houses had a bit more guile this year and they ended up winning the Baden-Powell trophy.
Afternoon tea followed in the club, followed by a tour of the club and Lord Michael Briggs’s beautiful early 20th Century Yacht, ‘Mikado’, which was amazing.
A quick hop on the ferry and a bus ride home took us back to School. Thank you to Mr Reynolds and Mr Troy for organising such an amazing trip!
