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12th October

19th October, 26th October, 2nd November

16th November

10th - with crew in different positions, trying new stuff.

Great start in lightish breeze, second half way up the first beat, then hit by bad windshift and tide (and poor tactics) and lost out. Worked hard, sailed well but never quite recovered, but were always hanging on to the front pack's coattails.....

Great effort from all in different roles.

Curty has pinched a cast-off sail out of the bin and so will soon have a kevlar shower curtain - cool!

23rd November

WET

wet wet wet wet wet

rain, then showers, then monsoon, then drowning, then wet some more. Oh, and did I mention it was wet?

Saturday after our famous rugby victory saw Tina and I driving down (in the wet) and she valiantly serviced the coachroof winch whilst I hid, sorry, did some electronics, in the cabin. Tina and I then discussed rules and scenarios, and retired to the pub. The party boys (Curty, Ian and Chris) turned up in the evening and we drank and ate and watched re-runs of the rugby in the Square Rigger, not venturing far cos it was - oh, you guessed it.

Sunday it rained all day. Let's take that for granted.

It was a day of sailing well, having odd problems, and some rules situations. Pre-start, we we sailing along the start line on a reach, with Reckless Rat catching us up from behind to leeward - he slowly luffed, we yelled that he had no luffing rights, so he bore away. Interesting, cos there's no proper course before the start so we actually had to give way- but I was testing them and now we know they are unsure of their rules in that situation.

But we messed it all up by sliding to leeward of Mardi Gras (on charter) and getting sat on them as they had no idea about going up at the start, or powering up, or sailing away from us, and we dropped to the back almost immediately. We had the #2 up in 16 knots, and slowly worked our way back to mid fleet up that first beat - a couple of decent shifts and some good speed, though we tacked badly. Note to skippers - always check what your new crew have actually done, rather than taking people's word for it..... good efforts and a steep learning curve, but I only found that out after a 'few flappy sail up the beat' moments. Chasing Peanut - Glide-X had already got away by this time, we rounded, set the kite, and roared off.

Some more interesting runs and reaches and beats had us dodging heavy tide across the course for much of the time, and we fell into a windless hole when right in the middle of the channel, and so parked there for a while whilst the leaders had just escaped - but we did a great peel from the #2 to the #1 and picked our way through the other fleets that were often crossing our tracks.

Big dramas on the last but one run though - the breeze was back up, the boat was going well under kite, when we saw a Beneteau 40.7 catching up from leeward and behind. We were going straight on but his mark was to windward of us. Having been blissfully unaware, he then decided to come up and luff us, so he could go to his mark. Huge screams of 'no luffing rights' from us, and some seriously pushy stuff from him, which brought his delicate grp hull very close to our sharp and heavy boom end, and massive arguments on his boat as the tactician and helm argued, until common sense prevailed and he gybed around a full circle to eventually head towards his buoy. Lots of yelling of protest from us too. But in the chaos, we'd gone quite high to avoid him, and we being set down past the buoy by the tide as well, so had to gybe. And do a headsail change, as the breeze was into the 20's now - #3 weather. But with not that far to the buoy, it was always going to be frenetic. Curty and Chris on the bow each did a great job in the time available - but they did different jobs. With no time to get the #3 up, we gybed the kite, swapped the sheets from the #1 to the #2, and hoisted the genoa - but we hoisted the #1 not the #2. So there we were, with a sail up but no sheets on it, lots of breeze, and a buoy arriving fast. We dropped the kite, headed into the wind, untied the sheets and refastened them to the #1, then dived off around the buoy and upwind. Suffice to say that we were a little overpowered. At one stage we saw 26 knots, all with the #1 up but twisted off so far it was ridiculous! We've done a lot of sailing with very twisted sails this year. Round the top mark, and despite a few questioning looks from the crew, up went the kite for the last run. We powered downwind, kicker at the ready, narrowly avoided a windward broach through good luck and huge tiller heaves, and then sailed the final leg.

Massively entertaining, great boatspeed - we ate into people whenever we we near enough to tell - but too many mistakes in basic handling to get us anywhere near the top guys. Interestingly though our 'bad' performances this year is much better than our 'average' last - we are certainly getting better, and the strong breezes are slightly less terrifying than they used to be.....

An object lesson in knowing your rules too..... On Monday evening I sat down to fill in the protest form, and checked on the rules considered infringed. Then read them - and thought about it..... We were windward boat. He had no luffing rights, true - but then, he wasn't luffing, he was sailing his proper course, which was to head up for the mark. No matter that it was taking us off our proper course - the rules are not about our couse, they are about his..... So we should have given way not him. So we didn't submit the protest :-)

An object lesson in assertive behaviour, then.

30th November

Curty on the helm, Andy Ffoulkes and Chris on the bow, Tina and Dave genoa trimming, and Sarah on keyboards, with Rich Thoop on main, left me with little to do but stand at the back and tactic.

A medium tide across the racecourse saw the course set as a series of windward leewards, zig-zagging off towards the east, and a reach back with a beat to the finish. We got a pretty good start at the right end, and sailed well up the first bewat in a constant, non-shifty force 2-3. Force 6-7 was forecast for later, but it never materialised during the day. Coming in to the top mark we couldn't cross people and had to tack and tack again - not rushed, but now not quite at the front of the pack, but in the middle of it. We sailed well on the run and were still in it, gybing beautifully when we needed too. Some tight roundings saw us with the pack, and we made our way back up the next beat. And oh-what tacking! With Dave pulling through, the #1 whipped round and was in - Tina hardly ever had to winch, and if so it was a few cm not a few metres. Slick stuff.

For some reason we simply lacked a little bit of boat speed, however. Dirty bottom, people trimming in different positions; when sailing along we were just a fraction down on the other boats - and it was that that made the difference. Downwind we were better, but perhaps should have sailed higher and hotter angles to keep the speed, rather than hanging in deep. Downwind we generally went faster than upwind, and kept making up places that we'd see drift away on the beat again. This lack of speed saw our position slowly erode, and whilst we sailed the boat well and went the right ways, we were left hasing the back rather than being right in there.

On the penultimate run, we went left up Ryde Middle shallows before crossing the tide back to the mainland shore, and caught up a lot of distance - the only boat to do it, we stemmed the tide in 3-5m of water which really helped. But on the last one, we elected to go to the north of the tanker moored in the channel, punched into more tide, and were caught by Dragonfly Too and another boat - during the reach they were behind but edged past to leeward (see, we were down in boatspeed!) to break the overlap, and despite hard work on the final beat we couldn't get back past. But we got one back on handicap.....

And it only started to rain as we came in. Great fun, good to try out different roles, and excellent boat handling. Get the speed right and we'll be well in there - as it was we were only 10 mins off the lead, and so have, overall, closed the gap from last year. And we can do that by sorting out the bottom over the winter - and I need to resort the instruments, cos they are starting to sail their own races again and give very strange values.....

Well done folks, a good one overall. Only one left now.....

7th December

Dave on helm, Russell on main - Curty on nav and winching, Kate and Viv on genoa trim, Chris and Sarah on the bow, Sarah on keyboards, Mr Cold everywhere.

Crisp blue sky and sunshine but no heat in it. Strong tide, too, which rather caught us out at the start and stopped us from ever really competing. Good breeze - a firm winter one, and a choppy but not rough sea. 26 knots but hard enough to make starting with a reef and the #3 a good option. Powered across the line, but in last place and about 3 mins late. However, sailing flatter cos of the reef, and feathering up in the gusts, we overtook the back markers and started to haul in the rest of the fleet. Strong tide on the top mark saw the leaders make a hash of judging the laylines and we closed further.

But without quite enough experience on board we used discretion not the spinnaker downwind, and were dropped off the main group but ahead of the others. And basically, that's where we stayed for the race. Some interesting moments - a J109 keeping trying to go high over us on a reach, and getting huffy when we'd not let him. The rail crew being hugely suprised when a BFB (big f******* boat) appeared just in front of the bow - we were rather close to its side, shall we say; the brains at the back had seen it and judged it, but to be suddenly confronted by it was a shock to some..... Dave's Massive Duck of a Sigma - which saw lots of facial grimaces and little boat response initially, until the main was well and truly dumped - grimaces on the Sigma too..... soaking the cockpit of the same J as we rounded a buoy - they'll not get so close again :-)

Finished 7th (missing 6th by 3 secs, incidentally). A fun end to the season, but without flying the kite downwind there wasn't the same level of activity and so it was freezing cold for the rail, and pretty chilly for the cockpit crew too. The sort of day you're pleased to have done, but which also leaves you looking forward to weekends in front of a roaring log fire. At least, that's where you'd be if there wasn't antifouling to be done.

Thanks to all for a great fun season - a full and eventful one, with highs and lows, triumphs and disasters, but a strong seam of laughter and fun through it all. Great offshore results, mixed inshore ones. And next year beckons already.

Have a very Happy Christmas.