2026 Captain Rally at Hornet SC
Published 15:35 on 2 Nov 2026
The penultimate cruising event of 2026 was the Class Captain's Rally, this year being hosted at Hornet SC at Gosport. The lure of some non sailing education was enough for the crews of most of the 10 boats who attended to arrive either Friday night or early Saturday. Most joined by land-yacht as it turned out, though Caramor, Catharine and Ripple all joined using Contessa power.
Friday night saw the advanced party of Coric, Connie and Muscadet take advantage of Hornet's very reasonable bar prices before dining at the nearby Creek, most of the evening spent marvelling at their burger-less menu for which our Class Captain and Cruising Captain succeeded in achieving no liquid recompense for, despite a number of increasingly desperate attempts. Saturday morning dawned bright and breezy and the company assembled at the Gosport submarine museum when even Andaxi made it on time!
HMS Alliance is an A class boat launched in 1947 and has been in Haslar Creek since the 1980s. Whilst the phrase 'oh look at all the space there is available on a Contessa 32' is one that has been only rarely used, it possibly would have been more frequently heard by people downsizing from an A class submarine! Class Captain McNaughton led the tour of the boat from bow to stern and the lack of space is truly astonishing, how 65 men lived and fought together is such confined quarters is truly humbling. It was extremely interesting though and John's personal experience made it more enjoyable still.
Thence to Hornet again to make sure the prices were still reasonable (they were) and we all enjoyed an excellent lunch there before heading to Haslar Hospital where Elizabeth McNaughton had managed to organise a tour for us, a feat only made possible by her personal connection with the place, she spent some time there in the early stages of her career.
Our tour guide was actually the now-retired ex commander of the hospital whose sad duty it was to close the facility down in 2009. He took us on a tour of the vast 62 acre site which features 30 + buildings in various states of renovation and occupation – what has been finished and occupied couple the elegance of the original structures with modern features and some of them obviously have a truly special view out over the Solent and Portsmouth Harbour entrance. The largest of the buildings will clearly take many more years yet but the ambition is considerable and the execution impressive, the history of the place was well covered and put into the context of the era for which it built when we still had a proper navy!
Both these visits were enormously interesting and greatly appreciated, we all knew that both these places existed, but we all learned a huge amount about both. After power naps, showers and general "primpification", we returned to Hornet for the pontoon party kindly hosted by the Class Captain dispensing highly agreeable Horse’s Necks followed by dinner at the Club for 22 in all, with further land-yacht conveyed crew joining from Blanco and Coh Karek.
It was a most enjoyable couple of days and thanks are due to John and Elizabeth for organising the tours (and the pontoon party!) and to Gina for generally herding the CO cats in the right direction. Next stop, and the final one of the year, the RAF Club on 5th December with jumpers, boat decoration, mince pies and mulled wine!
Ben Price - Muscadet de Havelet
Last updated 15:46 on 2 November 2026