Annual Race & Rally

Join us on Friday 29th August 2025 to Sunday 31st August 2025 for the Solent Gaffers Annual Race & Rally 2025 on the river Beaulieu.

Participants are welcome to arrive from Friday night with berthing available at historic Buckler’s Hard. There will be a welcome BBQ at Bucklers Hard. Please bring your own food to cook, plates, glasses and drinks. You are also welcome to dine at the Henry’s (the pub at the Master Builder’s Hotel), or the Master Builder’s Hotel.

The main event will be the Annual Race on Saturday 30th August. Following the race (or a jaunt around the Solent if you don’t fancy racing under your own steam), all boats will berth at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club (‘Gins Farm’). Moorings will be a mixture of alongside a walk ashore pontoon or on a mid-river buoy. That evening we shall enjoy a sit down dinner and prize giving at the Gins Clubhouse, with beautiful views overlooking the river.

Menu Choices – When registering you are required to pre-book your Saturday night dinner. The options are (click the arrow to expand the menu):

Main – All of the meals are served with a baked sweet potato topped with feta, pecornio and caramelised onion, a buttered corn on the cob and access to a self-serve salad bar:

• Monkfish steak cooked in either garlic, lemon & dill, or a chilli oil, topped with samphire and chorizo & bacon jam (£28.40)
• BBQ boston butt pork steak (£26.40)
• Hand cut rib eye steak chargrilled to your choice (£28.40)
• Share a cote de boeuf marinaded in garlic, thyme and rosemary, cooked to medium (for two people) (£60.85)
• 8oz beef burger topped with chorizo & back jam and applewood smoked cheese (£22.30)
• Cauliflower and miso aubergine steak (best served with IoW blue cheese sauce) (£24.35)

Choice of sauces – IOW blue cheese sauce, Albin’s smoked bacon and pepper sauce, wild mushroom sauce

A dessert may be ordered on the night.

There is parking available at both Bucklers Hard and Gins Farm for those who come by land and there are launching facilities available for small boats.

Whether you race or not, the weekend offers the opportunity to meet up with Gaffer friends, old and new, and to talk boats in this ever popular Solent venue. 

Please do come and join!

You can find navigation guidance to Beaulieu River here.

Boats who have entered: