Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2007 | Page 54

life

ON THE WATER

An all-Isle of Wight crew turned out for the
Little Britain Challenge cup, the regatta
hosted by the construction industry. Given
the size of the event and its growth each
year this ought not to be unusual. But, as
crew-member of Fandango, Paul Sturrocks,
said, given the 2,000-odd competitors, it
seemed a shame that not one boat was
crewed through and through by Islanders.
“We thought it was bad that the Isle of
Wight was not represented in an event
in its own back garden. We wanted to
prove there is an Island construction
industry. People bring firms in from
the mainland, but we’re all here.”

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Whilst they all knew one another through
the industry they had never sailed
together. Practicing was somewhat last
minute – they only got together three
times just before the event, which makes
their overall position, 14th out of 34 in the
Beneteau 40.7 class, pretty respectable.
“It was a steep learning curve,” said
Paul. “We’ll definitely enter again next
year and hopefully do even better.” The
overall winner was Amey Love Shack.
The Fandango was sponsored by GE
Banks of Lake, and MCM Construction.
Also by the Builders’ Centre, Newport.

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