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TBYC at the Round the Island Race 2026

Published 1:33pm on 17 Jul 2026

Rob Graves came up with the idea to enter a team in the famous RTI race 1 lap of the Isle of Wight for those uncertain.

A team was formed, mainly from the Hurricane fleet, consisting of Rob & Paul Graves, Alex Farrall, Richard Saunders, Jeremy Sandford, Alex & Howard Warrington and our wild card, Kev White who has never sailed or raced a yacht before… what could go wrong?

So now entered in the race as Kev White and the Seven Sailors, off we toddled last Thursday evening to Portsmouth and stepped on board our chartered Sun Odyssey 410. A nice looking boat albeit well used, but recently re-clothed with new Hyde sails. After a few welcome beers, wines and a bottle of rum, we set off early on Friday morning for some team training. Although, nominated skipper Paul G, firmly announced that we were not a team yet but more like Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub!

Alex Farrall was put straight on the helm and told to stay there, well no one is better than our Champ Faz! Richard and Howard adopted the trimmers role, Paul on the mainsail, Jeremy was playing the cockpit levers and Rob as mast man the strongest one, so made sense! And Alex on the bow. Kev was given the job of setting the twinning lines on each gybe and making sure he ducked! We were quite impressed at how quickly we all gelled, performing some very slick kite gybes and tacks. We were still working out the sail settings but seemed to find a set up we all liked. So with that done we decided to check out the bars in Cowes - well why not?

Race Day!

Our start was 07:30 so we needed to be docked out at 06:15. What a sight! Hundreds and hundreds of boats! Starting sequences were from around 7am and kept running. It was going to be a kite start, with the tide, so we just needed to be on the start line. Which we werent…. I think we were all a bit overawed with the number of boats, all fighting for a spot, it was kites up and off we went. There were 9 other Jeanneau 410s in our fleet. All from Prometheus Hire. We managed to spot seven of them but all in front of us. We had our work cut out. Our Yacht was named Red Penguin, a likely sponsor deal with Red Penguin Marine. Most of the hire boats were similarly sponsored. We were all kitted up in the H/H RTI clothing with the boat on the back. Our spinnaker was brilliant! White with the biggest red penguin, you could spot us a mile off.

We worked our way down to the Needles, trying not to be luffed by some annoying asymmetric yachts. With 91 boats on our start there was enough to contend with. We were catching Marlow Ropes and also British Virgin Islands. Some others took the safer but slower wide berth at the Needles. We been the racers we are, of course tucked in tight. The wind shut off in the lee of the cliffs but we managed to keep momentum up and drifted past BVI. 1 down, 7 to go. The next leg down to St Catherines point was upwind. Although it seemed we might make it without tacking. 3 other 410s were way out to sea and against a hard tide. We were as close in as we could get maintaining a good course to St Cats. Marlow Ropes Crossed us some way ahead and then tacked alongside but had more speed. We had a play with our settings and cranked on loads more kicker and with Richard playing the main like a demon, allowed Faz to really drive the boat forwards. We decided on a tack inshore which really paid, getting us right out of the tide. Marlow Ropes came back across and again tacked alongside us. This time, however, we were faster and higher. Faz worked his magic and pulled us closer to her, eventually slipping up and in front of her. She could not hold our height so another 410 bit the dust.

Round St Cats, it was a very long leg against a very strong tide, short tacking all the way. Richard and I were on the jib, luckily it was quite small but we still had to switch for a breather with Rob and Alex for a stint. We were good though. We pulled out massively on Marlow with 2 more boats long gone in the tide. Some of the other boats were looking at us incredulously, wondering why our helm was shouting loudly before each tack Tacking in 3-2-1 NOW! It was our team plan for good comms which did help. I cant help wonder if some other boats also tacked on Fazs command? We eventually asked him to change the numbers as we were bored with 3-2-1. 16-12-8, we really didnt mind.

Another 410, Hawksbill Rum had appeared inshore to us, just passed Ventnor where we all had to get into some new wind, which helped us lay the next mark off Bembridge. We were holding pace but concerned that they were closer than comfort. The turning mark loomed and it was clear that unfortunately, we were not going to lay the buoy without a quick hitch. We did this and rounded, kite up but still against the strong tide. Keeping to the shallows was going to be key. Hawksbill Rum was behind us and we made sure to match her course to defend. But he was going quicker than us and we couldnt work out why.

There are 2 posts off Bembridge ledge which mark the edge of the sand banks. We had a slight panic of uncertainty; most yachts were going round the posts but was it a mark of the course? There was water so why were they all going round it? Hawksbill Rum did not and went even further inshore than us and pulled alongside. But she then came out for the 2nd post. We only draw 1.5m which is shallow for a 41 yacht. We could see a sports boat some way ahead, hard aground. We were in about 4 feet under the keel so clear. Until Richard glanced at the depth gauge and screamed GYBE NOW! We had about 8 inches under our keel! That was close!

Hawksbill Rum was now in front. We tried hard to tactically get passed, and we did catch slightly but the class win was denied to us and we crossed the line after 9 hours, 33 minutes and 36 seconds. 3 minutes 30 behind Hawksbill Rum. We were, however, ecstatic! What a sail, what a day. We pulled into Cowes with the Prometheus Shore Crew all exited about how we very nearly beat their best Pro Helmsman, who had done a great many RTIs and had never been beaten. Wait, what?... He was a pro!... Oh, and the same crew have done it for the last 4 years together with him. Well take that as a win! said skipper Paul Graves as he popped the cork from the champagne bottle. He also proudly announced that we had moved away from the Trumpton Fire Brigade and called us a Team. Team Red Penguin! Brings a tear to the eye.

It has been said, by those who know, that this years race was one of the best. We certainly thought so and Team Red Penguin will return next year!

Will you join us?