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Little Britain Challenge Cup 2006
James Rose was at Cowes last weekend for construction industry regatta Little Britain, looking forward to genteel boating and industry chit-chat. He found a whirlwind of tough competition and gruelling late nights
Thursday
1pm Arrival in Cowes in drifting rain, after I foolishly accept a passage across the Solent on the Buro Happold/Builder Group yacht without picking up any oilskins.
It's immediately obvious how seriously the organisers and teams are taking this: most of the crews are sporting company-branded clothes and the yachts are all emblazoned with logos. The nearest structures on shore are temporary beer tents and the event marquee, large enough for the 230-odd teams who have registered.
Prominent among them are Benoy, who have chosen to wear dinky white sailors' hats, Assael Architecture, who have more female crew than most of the rest of the fleet combined, and Pringle Brandon, whose sleek grey yacht Fraxious looks highly professional even to a sailing novice (me).
2pm Nothing but sailing is on the agenda until nightfall, so I borrow some clothes and join the Buro crew. Our boat, improbably styled Headhunter II, is rated one of the slowest in class 6 and most of the crew have little more experience than I do, but the competitive nature of the event takes over.
We're soon scampering from one side of the boat to another and shouting at other boats as we round race markers. There are frequent collisions and scrapes at these crucial points where boats jockey for position. The attitude is summed up by the race logo chosen by demolition engineer H Smith, which features two ticking...