FOUR YACHTS AGROUND

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7280, 6 October 1933, Page 5

FOUR YACHTS AGROUND

King’s Britannia Is One Of Five Craft Engaged In Amazing Race One of the most amazing yacht races ever sailed was one round the Isle of Wight recently. No fewer than four of the five competing yachts ran aground. The King’s cutter Britannia, with his Majesty and the Duke and Duchess of York on board, was the only one- to escape grounding, but she, too, was unfortunate, for she was becalmed near St. Catherine’s Point, and had to give up. being towed back lo Cowes. W. L. Stephenson’s new all-steel cutter, Velsheda, won the race by 40min from Hugh F. Paul’s Astra, which was the only other boat to complete the course.

After starting in a light easterly wind at 10 o’clock off Ryde Pier, T. O. M. Sopwith’s Shamrock took the lead, followed by Astra, Britannia, and Velsheda.

In Cowes Roads Shamrock was still leading when the easterly wind failed, and, running against a strong flood tide off Cowes, the yachts all fell into the doldrums. The cutter Velsheda ran on the rocks at 11 o’clock opposite the Royal Yacht Squadron, quite close to Cowes Esplanade. She remained ashore for three-quarters of an hour. Shamrock and Astra got afloat, and were now tacking to windward along the New Forest shore. They were a mile ahead of T. B. F. Davis’s schooner. Westward, and Britannia.

When Velsheda got afloat again she picked up a breeze off Gurnard Bay and quickly passed Britannia and Westward. At noon the leading vessels, Shamrock and Astra, ran ashore at the same moment on the Hampshire coast, opposite East Lcpe. Shamrock, which was ahead, lowered her boat and sent out a kedge-anehor, but she was most unfortunate, and could not get off the ground until it was too late. Astra soon floated and got upon her course again before Velsheda could catch her. When they were abreast of Lymington Britannia sailed through the Ice of the schooner, and here the order was Astra, Velsheda, Britannia. Westward, Shamrock had retired. The next incident was that the Astra and Velsheda, off Totland’s Bay, passed the wrong side of the Warden Ledge buoy. They had to bear away and gybe to return to it. This mistake let Britannia get close to them and also put the Velsheda into first place. Yet another accident happened before they reached the Bridge buoy at the western end of the island, and had it not been for the prompt assistance and ve/ry efficient seamanship of H.M.S. Sutton, Britannia’s lender, which was following the race, this might have been serious.

At high water the schooner Westward ran ashore on the western end of the Shingles Bank. The schooner lowered her boat and ran out a chain anchor, with which she was hauled off the ground by H.M.S. Sutton. This, of course, put the Westward out of the race.

They were off St. Catherine’s Point at about 5 o’clock, where Velsheda had a long lead of Astra and Britannia. The King’s yacht was so far astern that she gave up the race near St. Catherine’s and was taken in tow by H.M.S. Sutton,