It is hard to comprehend that the Folkboat is sixty years' old this year.

To mark the occasion, the United Kingdom Association organised a circumnavigation race around the Isle of Wight on the weekend of 20/21 May 2002.

The Saturday evening saw a briefing and barbecue at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club. The weather looked to be the biggest restriction to the race as it was still blowing force 5-6 on the Saturday evening and the club had two forecasts in their possession for the following day; force 3-4 and force 5-6 gusting. Fortunately when the start arrived on the Sunday, the former forecast was accurate.

The start allowed the race committee to split the entrants into the British cruising boats and the one design fleet. Total entrants for the event were 28 boats.

The British cruising boats started via a rib at Hurst Castle, whilst the one design fleet started from the Royal Lymington Yacht Club start line.

After a short postponement, the one design fleet got away at 07:30 am, a close beat out to the Needles ensued with "Celia Mary" Malcolm Donald and Mike Stoner first round, closely followed by "So!" Simon Osgood with Stewart Becker and "Svenja" - Rob Berwick.

The weather provided ideal conditions for such a race. After a dull and overcast start, the sun started to shine as the boats passed Freshwater Bay and onto St. Catherine's with the tide aiding their progress.

"Svenja" moved through on "Celia Mary" and "So!" downwind on the way to St. Catherine's behind the leading three were a closely knit bunch of boats, "Sweet Caroline" - Brett Dingwall and Rodney Carran; "Madelaine" - Edward Donald; "Strider" - Andrew Salanson; "Box Clever" - John Bence and "Jessica" - Stuart Watson.

As the boats passed through the slight swell at St. Catherine's, "Celia Mary" and "Svenja" began to stretch ahead of the remaining pack as the wind freed for the dead downwind leg to Bembridge Ledge buoy. The one design fleet were now starting to pass the British cruising folkboats who were reasonably spreadout and enjoying the magnificent conditions.

As the one design fleet neared Bembridge Ledge, the leading two had a clear lead on the remainder of the fleet. These pursuers had changed their order with "Madelaine" moving to third, "Sweet Caroline" fourth and "So!" fifth but still the Forts loomed as did Osbourne Bay where anything could happen.

The leading two "Svenja" followed by "Celia Mary" sailed high to the forts as neither wanted to give the other an opportunity to gain an advantage. Both cleanly cleared the forts and made their way up the Ryde shore with the lifting breeze. The question posed, would there be any victims on the shallow Ryde sands.

The closely following pack rounded the Forts, 'Madelaine' got caught in the shadow of the Fort and a slight back eddy allowing, 'So!' and 'Sweet Caroline' through, the former taking the third position up the Ryde shoreline. Astern there was a gap to 'Jessica', 'Box Clever' and Strider with a further gap to 'Riot', 'Cloud Cuckoo' and 'Hannchen'.

Ryde sands saw everyone chancing their luck up the shore to make the most of the favourable tide beginning on the island shore. This firstly saw 'So!' touch the sands, looking astern a domino effect had occurred with, 'Sweet Caroline', 'Madelaine' and 'Box Clever' all following suit, unfortunately 'Box Clever' came off worse and became stuck for some minutes.

As the fleet approached Osbourne Bay and Cowes, the leading two boats had lost their momentum under the bay prior to Cowes, this allowed the rest of the fleet to catch up after a clear lead and some seven hours racing.

As the wind filled in again the boats passed Cowes entrance and 'Svenja', maintained their lead with 'Celia Mary' still in pursuit. At the end of Gurnard the fleet had split in their race home to Lymington with some opting to remain on the Island shore, some in the centre channel and some going for the mainland shore.

'Svenja', maintained and defended their lead under pressure from 'Celia Mary', right to the finish with 'Sweet Caroline' third, 'Madelaine' fourth, 'So!' fifth and 'Strider' only a second behind in sixth. Only three minutes separated the first six boats after some eight and three quarter hours of racing.

The author's apologies go to the British cruising folkboat results which were not available at time of release.

With the Folkboat National Championships in Lymington during the Jubilee weekend a large competitive fleet is expected.

Overall One Design Results:

1st Svenja - R.Berwick

2nd Celia Mary - M.Donald

3rd Sweet Caroline - R.Carran

4th Madeline - E.Donald

5th So! - S.Osgood

6th Strider - A.Salanson