Your Experience

You need to know how to sail. Ideally you will have done a bit of racing before but this is not essential. You need to be a team player and keen to get stuck in with all aspects of sailing the boat. You need to be reasonably fit and agile. Racing can be quite physically demanding particularly inshore round the cans racing where things happen quite quickly.

Do you remember the rules of the road from your RYA training?

Who has the right of way? The leeward yacht or the windward yacht?

2 boats are heading straight for each other bow - bow. Which way should both yachts steer to pass each other?

2 boats are on a collision course. Both boats are going upwind. Boat A is on a port tack, Boat B is on a Starboard Tack. Who must steer clear?

Correct clothing is important. The weather is usually quite fresh, guaranteed to give you a sailors glow at the end of a fun day's racing.

The Yacht

The yacht, Espresso Martini Too is a Farr 40, and is 40ft long and weighs 5 tonnes. She has a comprehensive sail wardrobe. and is the one in this picture with Aquapax written on the hull.

She is MCA coded to Category 2.

The yacht is very hands on and team work will be key.

Espresso Martini Too is a very exciting boat to sail, she is fast and competitive. She performs really well throughout the wind range and provides a great sailing platform from which to optimise the performance for all angles of sail.

Espresso Martini Too is a boat that rewards well for consistency and teamwork. The boat is light and so you will need to spend time sitting on the rail balancing the boat. You will get wet.

The facilities are modest and set up for racing. Snug bunks are arranged in the saloon and in the aft part of the boat on each side. You are welcome to sleep on board but it would be better if you arranged accommodation ashore.

The Racing

The Warsash Spring Series is run by the Warsash Sailing Club. The courses set vary and are around existing marks in the Solent. When you reach the race area you’ll see the Race Committee setting up the course. The course will be announced over the Radio, noted down and located on a chart of the Solent. When the start line is established and time to start announced, the yachts will vie for the most favourable position on the start line. From there the sound of a gun/ horn sounds and the yachts race over the start line and follow the course.

They generally last 1 to 2 hours each.

The event is open to different classes of boats including IRC Divisions 1-4. We will be in IRC1.

See our availability and prices

Dates

The first weekend is all about learning your way around the boat and working with your fellow new found crew mates.

After that weekend there are 2 weekends that consist of a training day on the Saturday and racing on the Sunday.

Then there are 2 weekends with racing on both the Saturday and Sunday.

23/24 March - Training Weekend

6/7 April - Training/Racing

13/14 April - Training/Racing

20/21 April - Racing

27/28 April - Racing

The Price and What's Included

The price for the whole series is £2675 and includes the following:

4 days of training and 6 days of racing.

Professional racing skipper and mate.

Accommodation on board is fairly basic. You may wish to book accommodation ashore however there are 8 berths available on board. If you would like one of the berths then please let us know at the time of booking. First come first served. There will be 8 to 10 crew plus skipper and mate on board. Whether there is 8 or 10 crew depends on your weight! - we will be asking you what you weight is when you sign up.

Food – a simple but filling ‘on the hoof’ lunch and snacks will be included.

Race entry fees.

The yacht is insured but you are advised to take out your own personal travel insurance. One such company that offers this is Topsail Insurance.

There is a possibility that some races may be cancelled due to the wind strength. If this happens then every effort will be made to go out for a sail instead.