Cranfield MBA Regatta 2009
REGATTA – the participants
After negotiating a deal with MBS, for the three of us, Andy, Idalia and yours truly to attend the Cranfield MBA Regatta, that we were excited and looking forward to the weekend, is an understatement. Despite the usual academic pressure of electives and internship deadlines, we packed our bags to race against 191 professional yacht racers, on 23 different yachts from different MBA Schools. The participants were current MBA students and Alumni as well. We hired a car (a 1.8L Vauxhall) and set off to Port Solent!
Despite all this technology, we were L.O.S.T :-/
Friday: It was a great day, Friday morning, very sunny and atypical Mancester weather. We started at around 10 the morning in our Vauxhall and set off. I bet you have heard about GPS technology. We had something better – GAA :!: (GPS Assisted Andy) to map our route. And we got lost! So despite having an android phone, a GPS and latest GAA technology, we resorted to that 5000 year old way of finding directions – a map. And ended up in a small country side village. After much consideration, we finally found our way back to the motorway and stopped for the usual burgers and coke somewhere midway. The weather was on our side ! No rain, nothing. I hoped that the weather would be the same for the regatta. It is very ironic that although I have been a “sailor”, I have never sailed on yachts :roll: and this time would find out what real sailing is all about. We moved on. On the way we spotted many curious sights – typically people going for vacationing in caravans. You could see so many of ‘em. We reached Port Solent around 7 in the evening and were welcomed in the Marina Keep bar by the-tallest-man-in-Cranfield: Mark Hamilton. This (ex-navy officer, as I later got to know) was responsible for organising the Regatta and was persistently harassed for information by the likes of me :mrgreen: . Interestingly the bar in Port Solent has its exact location etched onto a plaque on the back in Latitude and Longitude ! The bar itself was a great networking area, with current MBA students and alumni from different MBA schools coming together. On our team we had Jeremy – the skipper (who we found out was good at SHOUTING), Tom (who apparently was the First Mate and Helmsman), Oscar (who wondered about the reason why “Cheese and Onion” packets were coloured Green), Tony (who had sailed on 8 regattas before), Chris (whose fiance gifted him a course for a day skipper’s license), Andy (who has sailed in races before), Idalia (who has sailed on yachts before) and myself (who has never sailed before). The people who were most envied were London Business School – who have worked as a team for the past couple of months and have practised regularly for the Regatta :| Compared to us who just came together as a team one night before the Regatta, we were no competition for them :? We retired to our yachts (ours was Sunsail 32) and sorted our stuff out. As an aside – the bathrooms at Port Solent are *amazing*, just about the most posh bathrooms I have ever seen. Ever. In fact, me and Idalia used the hair dryer to dry our towels :P. We were tired, so after a good, long, hot shower we sat on the yacht sipping tea and enjoying amateur astronomy. And then it was time to sleep – on the yacht in comfy sleeping bags being rocked slowly by the waves …
The Spinnaker Tower
Saturday: It was the day for our first race :!: We started the yacht engine, the crew was briefed by the Skipper and went on a “test-drive”. Apparently I would be placed on the fore-deck and my duty would be to take the spinnaker up and down. I will not go into the lenghts of how that is just about the most dangerous jobs on a yacht in the middle of the sea in stormy weather :| For those who know the job, they realise it. For those who don’t, use your imagination. After testing the sails, spinnaker, winches and team-work we were ready for our first race. And we came second :!: At first position was LBS. Our Skipper was himself surprised as to HOW IN THE WORLD could a bunch of people who just met each other last night, win second place in a regatta full of 23 well trained sailing teams 8O . We scored a second place in the second race too and each one of us was very pleased :D
When the races were over we were invited for dinner onboard the HMS Warrior – a battleship that was made in 1860 to defeat the French. A hillarious incident occured while we were being welcomed onboard the ship. This gentleman was showing off the trophy which would be awarded to the winner. He handed over this trophy to a lady who dropped and broke it :| The lady, incidently was French. So after a long introduction to the HMS Warrior and its history of enemity with the French, our compere ended his speech with “…and tonight ladies and gentlemen, the French finally turned up, to sabotage your trophy…!” :lol: :lol: :lol: At the end of the day, we thought we would go to the top of the Spinnaker tower, but it was closed. We came back and sat on the deck of the yacht for a hot cup of tea and then retired for the day.
Sunday: This was the last day of racing and we had three more races to go. We were placed First in the first race and we beat LBS. For a crew of our “random” calibre, that was very very good. In the second race a mistake cost us the race and we were third in the last race. Overall position – Second. The only thing I did not like was that for the networking gatherings for collecting the prize or general meetings in the Regatta, everyone had to wear their crew T-shirts. Nothing wrong with that eh? Ours was coloured a light pink. Imagine a person my complexion in that kinda color and you might as well imagine Token in Southpark dressed up in a Barbie costume :mrgreen: After the races, one of which created history for our skipper – first ever “1st” against LBS, everyone gathered in the bar for prize distribution. Everyone exchanged emails were off to their destinations – which were far off for many of the participants. As for us, we headed to an Indian Restaurant called Indian Palace and had yummmmy food before we made our way back to Manchester. It was a little difficult to navigate by putting the directions on google map in reverse order but we managed. What a funnn weekend – I got a little inspiration though, thinking of buying a yacht now…. 