Dear MEC Sailors,

Happy New Year to you all and all the best for sailing in 2011!

2010 has been another busy year for us with all our yachts busy taking out many stag and hen parties and bringing them back safely, in good spirits and not too many sore heads!

Antigua Race Week

A weeks cruising round the island of Antigua followed by a weeks racing and partying in the sun, what could be better! It was more than better, but the cruising was marred by a little Icelandic volcano that decided it was time to erupt and cause chaos. Two crew made it out for the first week and we visited Green Island and Barbuda, catching tuna and kingfish along the way and barbecuing for dinner. Fortunately all bar one of the rest of the crew made it out in time for racing and the travel woes were quickly forgotten as we raced our Beneteau 40.7 during the day and enjoyed the local rum punches by night. Snorkelling and whale watching were just a few of the many highlights.

Cowes Week

A fantastic week, with all the thrills and one spill for Flying Formula who was t-boned before the start of the first race by another Sigma 38 who should have known better – no names mentioned. However, the damaged pushpit was put to rights and we were able to race the whole week. Flying Banana had a good week too and both yachts with their brand new main sails were certainly flying!

Sigma 38 racing is certainly the best fun and with up to 20 matched boats on the start line is very popular too.

Our Beneteau 47.7 sailed off to the Mediterranean in May on the Rally Portugal and is now in Brindisi having visited Gibralter, Morocco, Spain, Ibiza, Majorca, Tunisia, Malta, Sicily and Croatia along the way. The Greek Islands are next and we can provide some wonderful cruising onboard this skippered yacht for 2011.

Southampton Boat Show

We had our usual stand at the show and were very busy with new enquiries and meeting regular clients who we would like to say a big thank you to for coming to see us! It’s much appreciated and we look forward to seeing you again this year.

The highlight of the show was our branded clothes pegs which we had great fun ‘peggin’ to unsuspecting show visitors, who took it in the spirit of the occasion. Nobody was excluded, young and old alike, there was a prize for pegging a dogs tail, but it proved too tricky!!

The MEC Sail Christmas sailing party was everything it should be…..plenty of mulled wine and minced pies during the sail to Cowes on probably the coldest night in December when 20 of us, all yacht owners from Ocean Village and Hamble arrived in a deserted Yacht Haven. A trip to warm up in the Anchor, was followed by a wonderful meal at Villa Rothsay and the partying continued on board until 4am. Next morning we woke to 2ins of snow on the pontoons, a wind chill of -15C on the nose up Southampton Water and a long drive home in the chaos of the winter weather – all very much worth it though!

And so for 2011……

Three of our yachts are booked for the Fastnet Race, so we are looking forward to some exciting racing offshore racing this season. For 2011, the yachts are required to be fitted with AIS systems, so these will be installed over the next few weeks, along with brand new plotters.

We have several yachts over in the Caribbean ready and waiting to be chartered for relaxing cruising weeks or full on racing. We can cater for both whole yacht charters and also individual places, just let us know your requirements.

MEC SAIL ITALY – new deals available soon

MEC Sail is continuing to offer charter yachts in Italy. Current bases for either skippered or bareboat charter include Genoa, Tuscany, Sardinia and Sicily. All of the yachts are in excellent condition and range from the small Beneteau 31.7 through to the Oceanis 473. Cheap flights are available from the economy airlines.

For the corporate client looking for something different we are now able to provide some of the most prestigious motor yachts available for charter in the Mediterranean. Fly out to our selected Italian bases and be spoilt on one of our top of the range luxury motor yachts. Helicopter and tailored transfers are our speciality. A wonderfully stocked bar, great choice of restaurants at various locations, or you may prefer to just eat aboard.

Chartering

We now have available for charter the largest fleet of Beneteau 40.7s and Sigma 38s on the South Coast which are all ready to race or cruise, skippered or bareboat.
Our corporate sailing section is looking forward to seeing the end of the credit crunch and it would be advisable to book early for this season. Consider having your sales meetings, conferences, dinner parties, birthday parties at Ocean Village Marina, combined with a day on the water either sailing or relaxing on a luxury motor yacht. We are able to supply gourmet cuisine, live music evening jollies, in fact any combination.

Bookings already being taken for mileage cruises, cross channel races, Warsash Spring Series, Round the Island Race, Cowes Week and the Winter Series.

Finally – come a see us on Facebook, with updated news and offers throughout the year.