Cruise in company round Portland Bill

Published 14:25 on 22 Aug 2025

The winds had been gusting to 25kn the day before and eased overnight with a forecast 18Kn maximum - depending which forecast you chose! - but come the day it was not to be.With the harbour kicking up in the easterly and the wind gusting 22kn a club house round table decided that 'if in doubt don't go out' was a good adage.  We all decided to proceed to Groves Point to 'have a look' and then beat north eastward and back round to Weymouth.  

By 09:15 Double Vision, Dulcibella, Kombu and Rhapsody 2 were underway to be met with a very nasty surf and swell at the harbour entrance.  Some single reefed, some double reefed and others with furled genoa's, we all close reached southward past Portland Bill into a substantial swell and 18/20 knots of easterly.  By the time we got to Groves Point there was little doubt in most skippers minds that we had made a good decision to abort Portland Bill! 

The fleet tacked eastward but as we beat north east the wind began to back to the north and whilst the swell diminished our heading meant that we were struggling to get further east than Mottram's Beach.  Closing the northern shoreline most of us jibed, still in 18/19 knots, onto a run back into the bay, although Double Vision and Rhapsody 2 chose to tack eastward before accepting the inevitable and turning onto a run back into the bay. The further westward we went the greater the swell as we came out from the lee of the coast.  

But all went well with the exception of Dulcibella which suffered a wrapped Yankee jibing back to make the harbour entrance.  Main dropped and lines secured she entered the harbour safely but looking rather bedraggled with the Yankee flogging.  All returned safely from an interesting Monday morning sail or, as one crew member put it, 'the most excitement I've had on a Monday morning for a long time'. 

Last updated 14:18 on 23 August 2025