Our 1230 ferry, citing delays due to racing, actually left Fishbourne around 1300. Swinging east before the turn into Portsmouth, the ferry skirted the western fringe of the large & busy circle of sightseeing boats anchored around the course, giving us quite a decent view of the proceedings. Plus the Royal Navy, probably in the form of a frigate. The oligopic yacht illustrated was somewhat off-piste.
There seemed to be six catamarans on the course, giving their large crews what looked as if it could be a rough ride, with two or three more mucking around off Cowes. Perhaps they had been disqualified for unsporting polishing of their keels. A number of speed boats buzzing around, presumably full of press, umpires, St John Ambulance (they seem to spell their name without an abbreviation marking period) and other hangers on of that sort. One substantial Naval Police cutter. One helicopter, but there might well have been more as the afternoon developed.
We also had a gaff rigged cutter sporting no topsail & just the one head sail, perhaps a relic from the before the second world war, a sailing barge under mizzen & motor and a clutch of large monohull sloops, black main and white head. Plus the rather expensive looking sail training ship the 'Stavros S Niarchos' tied up next to the Wightlink terminal at Portsmouth. See reference 1.
Two large blocks of spectators on the beach at Southsea and at that distance they would have seen even less than we saw. But the race must have moved, because according to BH, by the end of the afternoon, on the telly, the finishing line was only just offshore, right by the spectators. Perhaps the racing was able to move inshore as the tide came in during the afternoon.
There was also the puzzle of the catamarans. I thought that there had been a great old row after a catamaran trounced a monohull years and years ago, after which catamarans were banned. Not real boats anyway, always breaking up if you try and use them in a sea rather than on a boating pond. But reading wikipedia this morning, it seems that the catamarans now rule the roost. So I now wonder if these new boats duel in the way of the old monohulls, or is it just a sprint from start to finish? No luffing matches or cutting people up at the bouy? But not wondering enough to bother to take a squint at the telly. And anyway, I don't think I could stand all the talking heads - probably even worse than the ones that they field for heritage programs.
Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavros_S_Niarchos.
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