Prince Philip Cup at Seaview Yacht Club

Published 13:34 on 2 Jul 2025

On Sunday 22nd of June, Mark Ross, Alistair Seaton and Tim Wilcock represented BSC at the SEAVIEW YC on the Isle of Wight in the Annual Prince Philip Cup, sailing against the likes of Imperial Poona YC, SVYC, Royal London and Island SC. All the above I should add were well experienced in sailing the famous Mermaid boats! It was a poor turn out due to windy conditions but we were in no mood to quit!

Our first challenge was how to set the boats up as we were dropped on our moored Mermaid and told to use small spinnakers and a small jib due to breezy conditions. Fine but how do you rig these things or even sail them? No time for superfluous details and the patrol driver gave a wry smile and was gone! Well the racing ensued and apart from some gear failure which meant we couldn't finish the first race, we were duly baptised (literally by the amount of spray Mark endured at the front) in the art of racing a Mermaid in 20-25knts and a strong tide!

Well safe to say we didn't win and we didn't come last, but more importantly we didn't crash and actually recorded a 2nd and 3rd in two of the 6 quick fire races. It was a lot of fun and the lunch and free beer made it even better. A great day and would thoroughly recommend it.

Last updated 13:34 on 2 July 2025