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(The Official Post Event Press Release can be viewed by clicking above)
Thursday 19th - Sat 21st July '07
Thursday morning - 05.30 - and I'm being thrown out of bed
by a VERY excited Ms Stevenson with words to the extent of "Wake up,
Come on, HURRY UP, we'll miss the ferry!" (Timescale note at his
point: Ferry departs Liverpool at 11.00 and it's UNDER an hour from here to
the pier head!) - suffice to say, we departed Rhyl at about 09.00 with
LOADS of time to get to the pier head in time for the last call at 10.30!
The SuperSeaCat was "full" to say the least - VERY poor loading
technique at Liverpool and it seemed to take forever to load the vehicles
onto the 'Cat, what with road works on the entrance to the loading compound
and having to cross a "public road" with queueing traffic, to get
onto the ferry bridge to the floating loading pontoon
Still, EVENTUALLY we're safely instilled on board and soon on our way up the
Mersey towards the "bar" at about 10 knots - It took over 1/2 hour
to clear the "bar" and the new windfarm workings (where diving was
taking place, so slow speeds had to be maintained) - then it was POWER ON
and 37 knots all the way to Douglas, arriving a few minutes before 1400hrs.
A Millpond crossing, with barely a ripple all the way, not a drop of coffee
spilt!
Disembarking the ferry was soooooo much better than embarking at Liverpool,
we were off within a couple of minutes of docking and on our way up to the
TT grandstand to get 163 mhz radios installed (not using 81 for some strange
reason!)
What an impressive set up at the Grandstand! - Rally cars / Service teams
/ Marshals / Competitors / Organisers, were EVERYWERE - had a good mooch round
and bumped into several friends, old and new, including (of course) Baz, Rod
and Rikki.
Radios installed and tested, BIG envelope of instructions for the following
three days recieved, then it's off to watch and take a few photos as we're
not required on the thursday evening stages.
Found the "perfect" place to watch! a double use ofset crossroads
- only a few other spectators around AND we could park the car no problem,
between the junctions. ..... Then "The Papperatzi" arrived, IN FORCE!...........
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El Paperattzi! (there WERE
more of 'em!) |
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..................and sort of took over the junction with
thier white "media" tabbards, (which made 'em look more like marathon
runners than photographers) - they gave us all a bit of a laugh though, one
of 'em even deciding to do a bit of gardening......... and that was before
the first competitor even arrived! (see photos)
A BRILLIANT evenings' viewing of the event, no incidents although a few "close"
moments - and even managed to spot AND PHOTOGRAPH a really rare species of
animal nesting down in the undergrowth just as it went dark........
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| Spotted nesting in the undergrowth
just off stage, |
Friday morning, up bright and early (sigh, yawn!) for the
first of our two stages of the day, (St Judes i). on which we were doing the
FINISH Radio, then later in the day we were on the same stage (St Judes ii)
only this time we were IN STAGE at Junction 4 (They call them diagrams, rather
than junctions) Bit of excitement when we had to STOP the first of the Historics
at our point, due to a "management error" of him being released
into stage when a recovery vehicle was still on stage recovering one of the
Internationals who had met a ditch 1/2 an hour previously!........ needless
to say, Mr Stokes was NOT a happy man at being stopped mid stage! (but we
believe he was given a decent time for the stage and was NOT penalised for
what was, most definately NOT an fault of his!
Met up with a few of a really nice group of Dutch folks, who had come over
for the event and were largely running the St Judes stage. Can't remember
names now I'm afraid, other than Marika - but, if you're reading this report
guys, HELLO from us both! - and don't forget to display your stickers on your
cars back home!!! you all did a brilliant job!
Friday evening, couple of beers and BED, ready for (yes, you guessed it, yawn)
ANOTHER early start on Saturday morning - only this time it was to get in
a bit of Island sightseeing before our lunch time START Radio appointment
on SS20 (Glen Roy ii) - we nearly came unstuck timewise, when coming back
from our sightseeing tour when we came across a CLOSED ROAD (for the event!)
and had to do a 15 mile detour to get back up the island! - got to the start
of our stage with only about 10 minutes to spare before ROAD CLOSED time on
that one too! -
Our Stage Start Marshal on this stage was the 3 times Motoring News Champion
MICK BRIANT who now lives on the Island - (and who, I'm embarrased to say,
I didn't recognise - sigh)
 1970's
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| Mick Briant, 3 times Motoring News Champion in the 70's, now living and marshalling on Isle of Man | |
2007Sadly, this stage was never to be for the Stars & Trophy competitors, as the rally became its own worst enemy early on Saturday afternoon when Douglas town became totally gridlocked owing to a road closure (for SS22, the FINAL stage) at the TT Grandstand area on the "A" road, which forced both local AND rally traffic to wander down just about any byway to try to get around the area, the problem was compounded by the International competitors now getting to the finish of the event AND trying to get out from the area once thier rally was over. By the time our stage was ready to run, the last competitors were well over an hour late at the stage start, having been gridlocked on Douglas Promenade and the organisers had no option other than to cancel the stage for them as we were only MINUTES away from "ROADS OPEN" time........... Baz Green and Baz Jordan were in this unfortunate group, who also missed out on two other stages today.
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Baz Jordan with Baz Green - on "St
Judes ii", SS11 Friday |
Then it was back to the TT grandstand for the finish and
to catch up with Rod and others
Saturday evening saw Sandra & I in a lovely little restaraunt in Douglas
called "SANCTUARY" - which I'd recommend as excellent food and reasonably
priced too - then it was off to Colditz Castle for a few hours of zzzzz before
yet ANOTHER early start on Sunday to make the most of out few remaining hours
on the Island sightseeing.
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Rikki Proffitt with Dave Allcock,
St Judes (i) Stage, Friday |
Amongst other places, we visited Laxey and the famous "wheel" - where we stopped for a bit of lunch at the Electric Railway Pub, only to bump into Rikki Proffitt and his team out on a "cultural trip" to finish off their Island break. They'd all come up to Laxey on the electric train, gone to the pub for a beer and were waiting for the Grand Prix to start on the telly - Really good idea of Rikkis' to instill a bit of culture into the team, but next time I'd suggest you make sure there's a train back BEFORE the ferry sails Rikki!!! -
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Rikki Proffitt with Dave Allcock,
St Judes (ii) Stage, Friday |
just as well we called in for lunch at the same pub and had
a bit of room in the car to take one of the team back to Douglas to pick up
the "crew car"
- then it was straight down to the ferry terminal for Sandra & I ready
to catch the Fast Cat back to Liverpool. EXCELLENT Loading at the Douglas
end, even though the ferry was totally 100% FULL with both vehicles AND passengers
- and, fortunately, a very quick unload at Liverpool too, hence we were back
home by 18.30 Sunday!
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We finished! even though we didn't
manage to get all the event in! |
Fabulous Rally, Brilliant few days "abroad" and, YES, (God willing) we're most definately going back again next year.
On the "Must go to'ometer" the
RALLY and the ISLAND scores 99.9 out of 100! (but DON'T stay at Colditz Castle
- where 3 nights Bed & "continental" breakfast of Weetabix and
sliced bread (no butter!), ONE teabag & ONE coffee sachet will cost ya
£210 - oh, and the "dining room" is LOCKED until 07.50 (great,
when you're on 09.00 stage openings!)
Next year, we're taking the Caravan ----
( Yes, you CAN - but there ARE restrictions) - I now know how to do it!
Would YOU like to get together for NEXT
YEARS EVENT and form part of an organised Marshalling team? Rally Isle of
Man really DOES need teams of reliable, experienced marshals, timekeepers
and radio crews. We'll be "recruiting" for our team soon - Info
on next years event and special travel & accomodation deals available
via the organisers with the Steam Packet Co and various hostilleries will
be coming to myself in the coming months direct from the organisers
Contact myself or Sandra if you'd like to be involved in the "Rhyl"
team, next year!
(See HERE for more details)
Iain
All photos
this page are © onepotworkhorse 2007