Spring Rally Report

BEMBRIDGE ISLE OF WIGHT – 9th April 2005

Air Traffic Congestion and Mythical Legends at Bembridge

Last weekend (9 & 10 April) saw the first official Legend Rally of 2005 take place at Bembridge.

Turnout promised to be good with 19 Boats having put their names down to attend.

After a belated start and a brisk crossing from Chichester with chilly NW wind of 18-20kts, gusting 22-24kts, we arrived a little later than originally planned to a wry greeting of “What time do you call THIS then..?” as we motored into the harbour from Kath (Ghostly Goose). Ah well….It’s nice to feel that the new season has started where the old one left off.

A little lunch and a short snooze later, we freshened ourselves up, and made our way over to the Yacht club via the Water Taxi around 6pm. By this time the tide was so low that the harbour resembled the surface of the moon, and also meant that only a small number of us could be taken across at a time for risk of grounding the Water Taxi.

After pre-dinner drinks in the bar of this rather well appointed club, we enjoyed a superb dinner in the large and comfortable dining room in view of a lovely sunset.

The food was good and plentiful, the wine flowed, the dining staff were attentive and good humoured – a great start to the evening.

I recalled to the people at our table how the Bembridge Harbourmaster had guided me to “the pile of Legends down at the end of pontoon…” when I asked him where I should park over the VHF as I arrived earlier that afternoon. This started a discussion over what the collective noun for Legend Yachts might be, and soon spread to all the other tables until just about everyone was writing their suggestions on napkins or anything else that came to hand.

Many really good ones came including ; a Hang-over…, a Tome…, a Flagon…, an Epic…, a Lush…., but in the end, the entry that seemed most popular was “a Myth of Legends”. So now you know !

As the evening wore on, it did not take long for many of us to rediscover the schoolboy side of our natures. It started off innocently enough with one enterprising adult folding a sheet of paper to make a paper plane to keep one of the younger children amused. It soon degenerated and before you knew it, the air was thick with paper planes of many different designs and aerodynamic properties, some gliding gracefully across the dining room to land in a wine-glass, coffee cup or desert plate, whilst others seemed to astonish their creators by taking the shortest possible path to the floor. Of course, everyone claimed that the most acrobatic or longest flying belonged to them, and I suspect some sabotage might have been at play.

When the last of the hangers-on finally left the Sailing club, the Water Taxi was nowhere to be seen. Fearing that he had gone home for the evening, Jim came to the rescue and we proceeded to overload his large RIB. Sitting as far back in the RIB as it is possible to be (next to the engine), the water level was barely two finger-widths below the top of the transom as he motored us across to the Pontoon. If he had opened the throttle even slightly more than he did, it would have been an early bath for me!

Several of us repaired to ‘the party boat’ (Ghostly Goose) for some Goose-Juice and music (apologies if we disturbed anyone that night – blame our DJ !). This boat has a rather useful and appealing feature; a pole that runs floor-to-ceiling at the end of the Galley worktop. Just ideal for Pole-Dancing in fact ! One of us was just WAAAY too good at this for it to have been their first time. I must say, I look forward to a repeat performance.

It was a great night, from start to finish. We only became Legend owners in August last year and have already enjoyed several memorable rallies. I wonder what future rallies will bring….?

Mike & Sue O’Donoghue

“Kindred Spirit”

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