Royal Air Force Yacht Club

For 28 years, Jean and Jim McHugh have been spending New Year's Eve in Yarmouth, for the last two years, aboard Juno, their Westerly Konsort. This year was no exception, Jean and Jim were joined by Mike, Pat and Jack as well as a venerable collection of boats from the RAFYC for a winter rally.

On the 30^th December 2008 a number of RAFYC boats converged on Lymington from the Hamble, Cowes and Poole on a delightful sailing day with blue skies, a light Nor'easterly and barely a boat in the Solent, the fact that the air temp was down to 1 ½ Celsius was probably a contributing factor!

The RAFYC contingent arrived at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club around midday where by special arrangement we were made most welcome on their pontoon. Ione crewed by the Boas and Phillips, Juno , Chantrel - The Mitchells, Low Profile with Hamish and Robbie and Ian on Stargazer met up on a frosty Tuesday. Almost immediately electrical cables were retrieved from lockers, plugged in to shore supplies, radiators and fan heaters commenced warming up the boats - how smug we all were!

After a short warm up aboard Ione for coffee the crews headed in to Lymington for various necessities including trips to the chandlers (nice and warm), the pasty shop (very nice and warm) and the off licence (very toasty!)

Hamish was kind enough to host drinks on board Low Profile, the entire fleet climbed aboard for drinks, nibbles and hospitality that was most warm and convivial, most people were reluctant to leave, as temperatures outside plummeted and the dark blue sky was painted with bright stars on one of the clearest nights of the year. Congratulations to Hamish for contriving to get 16 people on board.

So smug were we - if you remember the electricity? Well early that evening unsurprisingly and probably deservedly, the breakers eventually popped, the heaters began to chill and as the RLYC had gone home for the night our smug smiles became replaced with extra layers of clothing. Most of the crews elected to return to their own boats for food on board or to the Mayflower pub which was open for business.

With the crews tucked up for the night on board, after walking back from the pub. The frost had covered everything in a sparkling white, thick and very slippery carpet. It would have been a quite romantic evening for any bystanders with the RAFYC battle flags flying, amber lights shining through the ports and hatches, the faint chatter of some mud waders or spoonbillsand the synchronised whistling from the lesser spotted Eberspacher.

New Year's Eve dawned grey , perhaps it was our imagination, but it seemed slightly less cold as the crews surfaced from their Polar Bear like hibernation, the first risers were Hamish and Robbie heading back to the Hamble for festivities locally, meanwhile the power breakers were reset by the bosun and with fingers crossed, heat returned for the rest of us along with warm drinks and warmed up clothing,

It was a slow morning as we prepared our passage plans for the epic trip Trans-Solent voyage from Lymington to Yarmouth. It was pretty misty and to be fair the Yarmouth pier with that visibility was not spotted until approximately half a mile or so from port. Harold Hayles was our destination as the "walk ashores" had all been pre-booked, ordinarily one of the delights of sailing in mid-winter is the lack of competition for moorings, could it be my imagination that the lovely young lady Harbour Master almost appeared to show a tear in her eyes in her eyes, just barely visible in the tiny slit through between her scarf and her woolly hat pulled down hard on her head as we turned and headed for the Hayles boat yard passing the empty pontoons.

Again we commenced the race for battle flags to be hoisted, power cables unwound and zipping up of cockpit covers to keep the heat in.

The Rally fleet was joined in Yarmouth by Serena crewed by Mark and Caroline Baker and Simon and Stephanie Paull on Whistler. Frances also arrived on the Ferry after having been at work. (Yeah really ? ) Credit must go to Tony Boas for his organization of the dinner arrangements for the evening, he had arranged a Safari supper with boat's doing mains and puds and a circulation of crews throughout the hosts. Tony's suggestion which seemed quite sensible and naturally one we all agreed with, was that we have dinner scheduled for 20:30 for mains and for the sake of our livers that we did not start pre-dinner drinks until at least 19:30.

So of course in true RAFYC fashion despite common sense, we found ourself aboard Whistler at 18:00 for drinks! Forget the Guinness Books of Records - cramming people into Volkswagens!. Congratulations to Simon and Steph. For hosting 15 people on board a Malo 34 simultaneously! What a friendly, lubricated bunch we are....

The evening was a feast, no simple on board fare! On the menu were nothing less than Sicilian meatballs, Venison Chilli and Lasagne, followed by warm chocolate sponge, Tarte Tatin and delicious fruit salads.

The evening's food was so delicious that despite the bewitching moment and the extra second being added to the leap year, many crews failed to arrive in time for the party poppers and champagne on the pontoon until well into the new year!

Eventually the siren call of party poppers and champagne corks attracted the attention of the most dormant diners and we all convened on a draughty pontoon just after midnight to watch the fireworks and our own party poppers.Thanks to the Boas and Ione we celebrated until the wee small hours!

We enjoyed New Year's Day at the Island Sailing Club so no lying a-bed for this hardy group by 0900 . We were doubling lines ready for departure on the tide for Cowes to be in time for the pontoon party.

Ione, Whistler and Serena where happy to sail to Cowes and we were able to capture some photographs.

The tradition of Buck's Fizz on arrival in Cowes

Who are we to argue! 

After drinks we headed off to the Island Sailing Club where we met with the other club members who had come over on their chartered water taxi, where we had a delicious and sociable lunch. Well what else would you expect!!!

Cheers and Happy New Year 2009