Ventnor Blog

Tomorrow sees the landmark Eco Island conference being held at the Yacht Haven in Cowes.

There is a great lineup of speakers confirmed for the day including …
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Originally a cricket pavillion, the Pavillion Cottage at Osborne House been converted by English Heritage to rentable holiday accommodation, becoming the most popular cottage in the English Heritage portfolio. So popular, The Times reports, that it’s booked up for the next two years.
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A HIGH-PROFILE conference with internationally-renowned speakers is being held to help the Isle of Wight become an energy-self-sufficient Eco-Island. (more…)

There has been much talk about the Isle of Wight becoming an Eco Island, with others following suit around the globe.

At the end of this month, a free event is being organised by the Isle of Wight Council on behalf of the Island Strategic Partnership.

The aim of the event is to ‘place the Island firmly on the international stage’.
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If you’re a fan of big bands, then this concert being put on by the Band of the Hampshire Constabulary to raise cash for the Wessex Cancer Trust on the Wight might be just the ticket for you.

It takes place at the end of April at the Cowes Yacht Haven venue and they are inviting the public to go along and enjoy a variety of music from all time classical greats, to big bands, to traditional marches and hits from West End shows.
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Yesterday saw the start of the Island Expo, the catering and hospitality exhibition taking places at Haven Events Centre, Cowes Yacht Haven.

Our favourite photographer Julian Winslow was shooting at the event and sent through this wonderful shot of Jose Graziosi from The George in Yarmouth, demonstrating his culinary skills to a captive audience.
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Today sees the launch of the Island Expo.

This looks to be an excellent event, which we hope to pop up to (time permitting) at some point over the next two days.
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Thanks to forum member Looby Loo for letting us know about this brilliant event that has been organised by a couple of Ventnor chaps.

Matt and Danny (maybe better known as Widget Productions) have organised a catering and hospitality trade exhibition taking place at the end of the month.
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Transition Island, the local branch of the national Community Action Network, will host a meeting in Cowes on Monday 18th February.

These meetings, held in different Island towns, allow local people to hear about the urgent challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change. Vav Simon, from the Transition Island Steering Group, said “Each town can have its own Steering Group to address local issues. Local people know best what is needed and how things can be developed with support from the neighbourhood”.

Held at Northwood House, Vav will outline the problems and some projects that other towns are starting.

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With news of the P1 Grand Prix of the Seas moving elsewhere this year, it reminded us that we still had one more podcast from last year’s event to publish.

Whilst getting very excited over the large engines being revved in the harbour, Simon caught up with Martin Lai who was part of the Sun Llik team and managed to pick up second place in the Round the Island Race in the Supersport class.

Martin has been racing in the national championships for five years, with 2007 being his second world championships.

As you can imagine, being sponsored by a beer company has it’s advantages when it comes to the after parties!

We look forward to seeing Martin again when we hope he returns for the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race in August

Click on the arrow to listen to the podcast

It’s not all bad news though, because despite the Grand Prix going elsewhere, it’s just been confirmed at the London Boat Show that the most famous endurance race in powerboating, the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes (CTC), will be returning to the Island this year.

The race will take place over the August Bank Holiday weekend and as with the previous P1 Championships, will attract worldwide interest to the Island.
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Shock news has just arrived in our inbox that Cowes will not be hosting the Powerboat P1 Grand Prix this year.

It’s a great shame for Cowes and the Island as a whole, because events like this attract worldwide attention to the Island but it appears that there were many better alternative offers on the table and the management team had no choice but to take the Grand Prix of the Seas elsewhere.
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We notice on the Motor Boat and Yachting website, that this weekend sees a round the Island powerboat race.

The purpose of the race is to raise cash for a young lad who was seriously injured two years ago in a powerboating accident in Weymouth.

Ben Ridd’s boat collided with another during a race in Weymouth and resulted in him being in a coma for three and a half weeks. He’s made an amazing recovery, despite battling with partial paralysis and speech problems.
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THE CHAIN Ferry Service between Cowes and East Cowes will undergo essential maintenance on November 24. As a result, it will be out of service on that day.

A free launch service will be provided for foot passengers between Grid Iron pontoon at East Cowes and Thetis pontoon at West Cowes and vehicular traffic will have to divert through Newport. The IW Council apologises for any inconvenience.

Have your ever thought about what your fantasy house would look like? Have you even gone so far as to put pencil to paper?

Well, whether you have or not, why not take the opportunity to do so this weekend as part of The Big Draw.

The theme this time round, is ‘Fantasy Town’, and its inspiration comes from the great Victorian writer and visionary, John Ruskin. Apparently, his mission was not to teach people how to draw, but how to see.

This Saturday between 10am to 3pm, Island 2000 and Quay Arts invite you to “Come and draw the house you’d like to live in, and its inhabitants, real or imaginary, on the blue hoardings in East Cowes”.
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Have you heard the one about the German airman shot down during the second world war hitching a lift and cadging a meal in Bowcombe? Or the one about William the Conqueror heading over to Wight?

No, this is not another of Dark Knight’s jokes over on the forum, but a potential myth or truth being discussed as part of the Wight Words Festival.

Sue Bailey, known to many of you I’m sure, for her great storytelling skills, will on Wednesday, be retelling some of her favourite tales, before giving you, the audience, a chance to contribute your own local stories.

Whether they are true or not, is up to you to decide.
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Sad news reaches us about a woman who fell overboard and died on Sunday when returning from a two day cruise on board the Oceana to Zeebrugge, Belgium.

Her body was found near Cowes by the Lifeboat.

Her husband raised the alarm when the 67 year old wasn’t seen after she left their cabin at 5:45. The alarm was raised at 6:50am with the Solent Coatguard.
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Hundreds of people gathered at Cowes Yacht Haven for The Isle of Wight Peoples People Awards last night.

We are so chuffed to hear that Asa Singleton was not only nominated and received the award for the Most Courageous Child, to which he received a standing ovation (the only one of the evening) but he also won the overall Peoples Person Award 2007, as voted for by the public.

We have photos and a write up following on VB soon. In the meantime, congratulations Asa, you really deserve the credit for your amazing courage and constant optimism.

In what could be one of the worst bits of timing in recent times, Red Funnel tell us that one of their ferries is out of service.

The part that’s needed to fix it has to be ordered from abroad, so it’s not clear when it will be back in service.

As it turns out we’ve heard that there was no real problem with the 2pm sailing, just a slight delay in it leaving. Ferries later in the day and tomorrow might not be so lucky with the significant increase with Bestival traffic.

You may remember an interview we did with Nigel Hook after the first day of racing at the Powerboat P1 in Cowes.

You’ll tell from listening to this brief chat that Nigel was really rather pleased - and why not after the team had won both of the Evolution Class races in the British Grand Prix of the Seas, at the home of powerboat racing, Cowes?

He’d just got off the podium after having received the Beaverbrook Trophy from the current Lord Beaverbrook himself.

Not to mention a champagne-soaking.

After winning both of the races of the British Grand Prix of the Sea in their SuperSports class, on their home water, Jackie Hunt and Mike Sheldon were in a buoyant mood.

We stood on a pontoon as the sun started to drop in the sky, just out of earshot of the celebrations and chatted about their success in their boat, that boasts twin V8 engines, giving 1050 HP at the control of their throttle in the boat that they call ExtremeBoat.com.

Among other things, I thought it would be interesting to know what, in such a male-dominated world such as P1, the reaction of the other male-only teams had been, when they found themselves losing to a team with a woman in it.

There’s load more details about them on their site, ExtremeBoat.com

Taking place on the same course at the same time and finishing just 15 minutes ago was the Supersport class.

Extremeboat took first, followed by

Sun Lik Beer
Roscioli Hotels Roma
Buzzi Bullet III
VoomVoom.com
Sunseeker Challenger
Chaudron II

If you’re a reader of this week’s County Press, the odds are that you’ve got no idea that the Powerboat P1 is taking place in Cowes this weekend.

The CP gave it a couple of para at the very back of the Weekender supplement. A strong contrast to the Skandia sailing event of a few weeks back, which had its own separate supplement!

Isn’t the CP supposed to be the newspaper for the Island? By not making more of important Island events like this, they’re letting down lots of people - the P1 people who go to a huge effort to bring the P1 to Cowes; the population of Cowes, by not making the most of having the event in town; and the residents of the whole Island. By not telling them it’s on, the CP is effectively robbing them of an enjoyable weekend out - one that doesn’t cost anything to spend time at as well.
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The Powerboat P1 British Grand Prix of the Sea comes to a close today with the 8th round of the World Championship taking place at Cowes this afternoon.

You’ve still got time to catch the Thundercats and Jet Skis racing off Egypt Point, but it will be the final rally at 3pm that will be unmissable.

According to The Times, it is pipped to attract some 70,000 spectators (so it might be wise to take the bus if you’re thinking of going).
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There’s very little that can quite prepare you for the sound of a powerboat P1 engine firing up and revving when you’re standing alongside.

There’s something almost visceral about it. Your internal organs rearrange themselves in changing patterns trying it fit around the throbs as the V10 engine pumps fuel into itself, in an attempt to stay up with the spark plugs which are exploding it.

It’s loud. Very loud.

Such was the experience on the pits/pontoons. By the miracle of technology you can share the experience by listening to the recordings we made.