Red Rocket in Cowes

Those observant Members who have recently ventured up the Medina to the Thames pontoon will have noticed a large, new red Eight Metre called Ganymede moored alongside. She is chartered to RTYC member John Bourke, for the 2008 season, and is spending time in Cowes, tuning up and crew training in preparation for the 8m World Championship in Hanko Norway in July. Launched last year in time for the

2007 Worlds on the Clyde, she was raced straight out of the box and proved quick on

and off the wind but represented a learning curve as steep as the south face of the Eiger. So John has assembled a crack crew and decided that learning the ropes before starting to pull on them might be useful. He is entering the worlds under the Royal Thames banner, and this year intends to frighten the opposition instead of the crew. Ganymede, build in wood, and virtually single handed, by Peter Wilson in Aldeburgh is the first new Eight Metre to be built for a British owner since the War, and is a welcome addition to this elegant and still very competitive class. With Team Clothier

setting a high standard in the modern Six Metre world, we wish John Bourke well in

the Eights.