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 On Sunday 26th June, 9 boats assembled at Le Crouesty, Brittany for the 2011 Fareham- Vannes Rally. They were met by their French hosts and were then escorted through the Morbihan to make their ceremonial arrival into Vannes on Monday.
Among the fleet are 3 boats from FSMBC: Terry & Nicola Flinn together with John Fagot on Flinesse, Phil & Marian Harris-Deans on Satin and Margaret & Jack Pride on Mithril Aegis.
The journey from the Solent was tough because of the very strong westerly winds that affected the UK for the last 2 weeks.
Flinesse left Gosport on 15 June and after a night in Studland Bay, had a 14 hour beat to Guernsey, where they were stuck for 2 days. After completing legs to Lezardieux, and Primel they made it to L'Aber Wrach, with the wind firmly on the nose the entire time. A further delay of 24 hours meant that they were well behind schedule and so decided to miss out Camaret and Loctudy and sail overnight to Lorient. Now able to reach on the southbound track, they completed the Chenal du Four and the Raz de Sein on one tide. Unfortunately it was about this time that we heard that the 4th FSMBC boat, Lady Sefton, with Terry Godfrey, Alan Laburn and Kate Sullivan on board had abandoned their attempt to get to Vannes because of the continuing adverse winds.
Needless to say, south of Lorient the winds died completley and so Flinesse had to motor the final leg to get to Le Crouesty.
So we've had all the tradtional yachtsmens' moans: "wind right on the nose, too much wind and not enough wind"
All the boats, dressed overall, proceeded up the canal into Vannes marina which is right in the middle of this lovely old town.
The programme, which started with a civic welcome in the Town Hall, is pretty hectic with little time for sleeping, and the emphasis firmly on eating, drinking and singing.
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