In the days when there was a Gurnard open, we used to sail across from Lepe Beach. The Gurnard rescue boat would come over and you bunged your bag of clothes and a sleeping bag in to it. The club were quite happy for us to spend the night on their floor. Not quite sure if a boat would come all the way round from Royal Vic though. (South-East corner of the Island if I remember rightly).
I have a hazy recollection of one of the best piss-ups of all time in the bars of Cowes, Bob Clements (class president) buying the entire fleet a curry on his company expenses account, and then Davro pushing me home to the club in a shopping trolley, past the Royal Yacht Squadron. The only downside was we got becalmed on the trip back to the mainland on the Sunday evening, and I had to be at work in Dundee on the Monday morning. I think we made it with an hour to spare.