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Rush for the Bar

Rob Howard / 18.06.2006

With low water effectively shutting the entrance to the sea lock at Whitehaven Marina at 22.30 a small group of yachts were racing to arrive in time, desperate to get across the bar to enter the outer harbour and through the gates.

As the deadline approached there was a rush to get through. (This seems to happen every year. There is nothing like a deadline to encourage haste!) First in were Road Runner, then came Paget’s Lady, Tactix, Highland Spirit, Confusion and Kithros II, all between 22.17 and 23.19. Kithross II were last in, lucky to make it as they only draw 1.1m on their keel.

The marshals were hard pressed to kit check everyone with 3 or 4 teams there at once, all preparing their bikes, lights and kit for what will be a stormy night on the mountain. While they will face a tough night on the hill, it would be worse to anchored outside the harbour for hours in stormy conditions.

“That was a wild last few hours,� said Andy Wilson of Highland Spirit. “We had the main and spinnaker up. We were flying but blew the spinnaker out half an hour from Whitehaven and only just made it in. The lock keeper said we had 1.6m and we draw 1.8 so we must have ploughed a trench!�

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