Isle of Ischia
On a bright, windy June morning the church bells of this beautiful island rang out in welcome to the most egregious concourse of sailing boats to have arrived off its shores since Commodore Thomas Troubridge sailed into the bay of San Angelo in 1799. Troubridge, who under the command of Lord Nelson had been dispatched to quell an island revolt, had brought great distinction to the family, a distinction upheld by his family for 200 years until in a moment of madness ‘Poor Tom Troubridge’ was lured into marriage by the little known but highly ambitious daughter of an Australian librarian and an Austrian POW guard, Marie Christine Reibnitz, presently known as Princess Pushy and then some. Needless to say, the liaison with the Australo-Austrian bitterly disappointed the people of Ischia and simultaneously consigned the name of Troubridge to a cheap celebrity but nevertheless watery grave. The Ischians, however, are a forgiving lot, and since Marie Christine found another sucker, the Troubridge name has been restored to its proper place.
Thus on that bright and windy morning last week the crowds gathered to watch the annual Pug’s Club regatta, with enough moolah in that bay to pay off the Greek national debt. The big favourite and defending champion was the billionaire Bob Miller in his transatlantic record-setting Mari-Cha III. The evening before the race we met on board the magnificent 240-foot Talitha, owned by Mark Getty and acting as the committee boat, where Mark laid down the rules, the course and the handicaps. It’s just as well that everyone was drunk because Commodore Tim Hoare took exception to the generosity of the handicap to the defending champion and threatened to boycott the race.
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