Ventnor Blog

Many thanks to Kevin for sending through this report from the Ventnor Angling and Social Club. Ed

Kevin Mole Outboards & Chandlery Open Boat Specimen Competition hosted by Ventnor Angling and Social Club took place on Sunday 27th July.

Calm and sunny weather added competitors in last weekends specimen boat open hosted by Ventnor angling and social club allowing charters and small dinghies to fish from four harbours around the Island.

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If you have some free time and would like to put it to good use, why not consider being a volunteer driver? Janet Short from the IW Rural Community Council has been in touch, looking for help in recruting volunteer drivers. Ed

Driving voluntarily for the Optio Voluntary Car Service is rewarding and fulfilling; you can tell us how much time you are able to give and we can co-ordinate this through the Optio Helpline in Newport.

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For those of you fortunate enough to have time on your hands during the day to sit down and watch the box, you probably saw the week long series of programmes featuring the Isle of Wight last year.

You might remember that Ventnor’s very own brewery and fishery were featured.
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The Walk the Wight event has grown year on year - even with less-than-idea weather last year, over 5,000 turned out - and this year it’s coming around on Sunday 18th May.

Depending on the level of your physical fitness, there’s many different walks …

• Bembridge to Alum Bay (approx 26.5 miles)
• Bembridge to Carisbrooke (approx 12.5 miles)
• Carisbrooke to the Needles at Alum Bay (approx 14 miles)
• *New this year*: The Flat Walk

Southern Vectis are supporting the event by providing free bus travel both to the start point at Bembridge early on the Sunday morning and a Walk the Wight bus service which will operate from the Needles Park to Newport Bus Station during the afternoon.
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Anyone who saw We Will Rock You and were impressed with the singing talent on show (and why wouldn’t you be?) will be pleased to hear that three members of the cast sing and play as part of a band on the Island called Lucid.

They originally started out with just Ollie Dulcie and Blue Brown, but were soon joined by Blue’s sis, Sunny.
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We caught up with Danny Vokins at his Bembridge pad near the start of last week and got the lowdown from him as to how he caught his now-world famous 14ft, 500 pound Thresher shark, just off St Catherine’s Point.

A highly amiable chap, he was a joy to interview, given his huge enthusiasm for the subject.

He’s dedicated a large chunk of his life to catching and caring for sharks - 35 years. He’s very particular about the sharks not being killed when they’re caught, in fact it was his insistence on this, that cost him the official record for the largest shark caught in UK waters.

He also got Bembridge Shark fishing club to change their rules, by insisting that the shark not be killed to be counted.

His preference is to catch the shark, bring it alongside the boat and tag it.

His shark exploits have been covered all over the UK media, including The Sun, Daily Express as well as the local press.

When we spoke about it, he and his wife (Sue) told me that he was complete knackered for two days after the catch - pretty reasonable when you think it took him two and a quarter hours to catch it!

It’s clear that Danny doesn’t just have the skills to snagging sharks, but has the abilities in the photo department too.

You can stay up to date with his fishing exploits by following the updates on his Site, VoFish.

All of last week, BBC2’s Working Lunch were running reports by Graeme Le Saux (the footballer) who came over to the Isle of Wight to look at our diverse collection of businesses.

On Friday we see the report when Graeme came to “Vent-Nor to find out how it is establishing itself as the food capital of the Isle of Wight.”

There were two films shown, the first focused on The Ventnor Fishery. Geoff Blake certainly flew the flag for Ventnor in this feature and it was very interesting to hear what he had to say about his business and it’s development. Good to see him taking the anti-Tesco stance too. Look out for the really sinister smile from one of the chaps in the fishery when he talks about how the crabs are ’slowly suffocated’.

The second feature on Friday covered the success of the Isle of Wight Cheese Company (as we’ve mentioned on the blog before) and Graeme also took a walk down to the Ventnor Brewery and had a chat with Ventnor’s very own master brewer, Xavier Baker.

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