Windrush Edge debut in Europe at the Solent Slog

By Brett Burvill from Windrush Yachts –
Photo from Solent: Rich Thoroughgood
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Brett and Ryan do Europe.Episode 1.
After arriving in the UK and hiring a car to make our way down to Southampton to meet friends and make arrangements for the EDGE to hit the water for its first event in the UK we discover that the Monday following our arrival is a bank holiday. This would not at first seem like a drama but as we were supposed to pick up our truck ‘Chateau Windrush’ from its previous owner ,a removalist business in Solihull things looked like they were about to be delayed.
We decided to head off to investigate an F18 regatta at Stone on the east coast on Sunday morning after staying the night with Stuart Offer who we had leased a tornado from last year. On arrival at Stone with the lovely summer weather greeting us, 15 deg C and rain, we discover the event has been cancelled due to high winds.

We had hoped to find a familiar face at the event and beg a piece of floor to crash on but as everyone was leaving we decided to head off to Solihull and get a hotel for the night. We had also hoped to get the truck Monday morning and then make our way over to Felixstowe where the container was supposed to have arrived and cleared customs ready for us to pick up the boats.

These plans were all ill-founded. We went over to Solihull via Grafam Water where I was able to show Ryan a boat park with perhaps 1000 cats and dinghies in it. I had sailed there over 20yeas ago and was still amazed at the size of the boat park. Arriving in Solihull we find a nice and reasonably cheap hotel with breakfast included as we would need to get the maximum out of the included food to avoid paying too much more elsewhere.

Next morning after our first night in the ‘Chateau’ we hit the road bound for Felixstowe. After a few calls we discover that the container ship that the boats were to be on has arrived without our container and that it is on the next ship due to berth later that day(Wednesday)after it missed a connection in the middle east that we were un aware of.
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Paul Mines one of the UK tornado sailors we met at the worlds last year had called us during the day and offered us a place to stay the night.
He owns a lovely 9 acre property over not far from the east coast sailing club, Brightlingsea.

The home of Reg White who had passed away only the Thursday before while mooring his boat after the weekly pursuit race . Upon arrival at Pauls property he takes us down to Brighlingsea to have a few beers and watch the race for the night. We get to catch up with a few familiar faces from last year and see Rob White and pass on our condolences to him and his family.
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We arrive in Weston near Southampton just after 10.30 and set up camp for the night .
The Solent Slog is the first event for the edge and we hope to do well.

Sat morning and we are into unpacking the boats , trying to fit the new beam end caps, fit the new rudders and mast pivot pins , there are also thousands of questions about the boats and the Chateau as we prepare and finally hit the water with a few minutes to spare before the start. We have a great race and finish 4 minutes ahead of the next F18 , so it’s EDGE 1 others Nil.

Sunday arrives and we are confident that we can do a good job and hopefully clean up the event. After the start we work our way out to a good lead and are hanging onto the formula 20’s and a good 500m or so in front of the next F18’s, looking good.

Then we all park as the breeze decides to come from another direction , the sea breeze is coming. We get left behind by the arriving breeze and are a good 15 minutes behind by the time we get back into a decent breeze.
Making a few mistakes in the tide we get further behind but are determined to do our best still and push really hard to catch up what we can. We steadily catch up boat by boat and turn the last mark still way back but making ground all the time.

The wind has built to about 18-20 kts ( an English 30 knots) and we are ripping down wind in the confused tidal Solent .
Just of Calshot we launch of a wave to find nothing in front of us and go into a big nosedive, spin off, main off, still standing on its nose then pivots around and rolls over sideways. In the few minutes that it takes to get the boat up we have lost the time we had gained in the last 10 miles or so have to go for it again to get back up the score board. We pass a few boats again and set about putting a few minutes gap into them before the finish.
By the end we are still 15 minutes behind the leaders but have put on a good show and feel like we did a good job.

At the prize giving we are awarded the prize for the fastest speed recorded in the event 22.7 kts . All the boats in the event carried trackers on board and the speeds and positions were live on the internet during the event.
Now to get the second boat ready, do some more work on the Chateau and prepare for our trip to the Netherlands.
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