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Some of the following may be true...

This week' crew were Russell "CBSS" Beale on helm and tactics, Rob "Slim Daddy" Whitton on main sheet and navigation, Tina "Doc" Newton and Kate "Don't do Tea" Brookes on sheet trimming, Viv "Slim Mummy" Brookes on keys, Max "single name" ..... ummmm..... on mast, Richard "Curty" Courtice (me) on bow and Jimmy "lips" McGraw on trumpet ..... ok Jimmy didn't make it.

Saturday

The sun blazing in a blue sky, a light breeze to tease the nose hair and a blue ocean to float upon. Well that's how Kate and Max described their summer in Greece at a Nielson's holiday base, but now they were taking part in the Hamble Winter Series and that sort of girlie weather was long gone. This is the Hamble Winter Series of Northerly gales, shredded spinnakers and torn limbs. Except that we started Saturday in shorts and T-shirts and there was rash talk of sun tan cream, but there wasn't any wind. So I talked Kate and Max through rigging the genoa and spinnaker sheets. Emphasising the importance of not tying figure of eights in the ends of the spinnaker sheets. I may have laboured that point a bit much, but I my over-emphasis was to be justified later on.

Once in Southampton water we did tacking practice with Russell providing the wind ............ by using the engine! Honestly you lot "!!! Once we had cracked that (tacking, not wind), we drifted around Bramble bank having some lunch, and then into the Western Solent for Spinnaker practice. By now the wind was NW 10 knots and the sun bathing gave way to fleeces and warm trousers. Not to put too fine a point on it, we were damn good. Windward hoists, leeward drops, windward drops and leeward hoists, overhand hoists, leeward underhand hoisting drops and dripping hoisting leewards. When it came to Spinnaker handling, we really were the dog's danglies.

Back to the pontoon at about 5 for drinks. That's the great thing about this time of year, the sun goes over the yard arm really early. Rob turned up, his timing perfect for a light Gin and Tonic. Your correspondent suddenly came over all knackered (burning the candle at both ends) and went forward to have 40 winks. I therefore missed the alien aircraft display team that entertained Hamble Marina for 40 minutes. I'm told they were very good. Kate and Max headed off to Southampton to do their thing for the night and the old crumblies went to the Square Rigger for dinner. By closing time Russell and Rob were out for the count and so we retired at a respectful hour ahead of Sunday's racing.

Sunday greeted us with weather that was simply unspeakable. The land sky and sea were all a uniform shade of grey and it was cold. The only reason that there wasn't ice on the deck was because the damp just couldn't be bothered to freeze that morning. By the time we had got to the start line the wind was increasing past the 15 knot mark and so we started with the number 3 Genoa and full main......2 minutes behind everyone else. Bit of cock up on the timing front to be honest. All got a bit tense, but it was soon forgotten as we worked our way through the fleet.

The wind was by now gusting 25 knots and it took a bit of puff to hoist the spinnaker, but it got there and Xcentric hummed through the water chasing the main pack of yachts. It soon became apparent that the yachts ahead were having problems. Peanut's spinnaker could be seen flogging to leeward, other spinnakers were being hurriedly dropped. "Obviously a squall ahead" pointed out Viv. "Great" says CBSS "Our chance to catch up".

Yeah right. Like all the yachts before us we hit this stretch of water and promptly broached. Several attempts were made to try and hold the spinnaker, but there was just too much wind. So we got the Spinnaker down, via the sea (not the dog's danglies now were we - oh no). The wind was gusting 30 knots for most of the rest of the race - less breeze than the week before, but with steeper, shorter waves. Those working the bow had a couple of moments of "free-falling" before crunching their knees into the deck.

The rest of the race was a bit of a slog to be honest. The rail bait fought off the cold and watched the shredding of spinnakers and mainsails in all fleets. Back in cockpit, Rob on mainsheet, and Tina and Kate on Genoa were beginning to feel their arms give up. Russell lost the end of his knob......... on the tiller! Honestly you lot!!

We did well though and had a terrific battle with Xploiter on the finish line. The race committee were unable to separate the two boats and gave us the same race time. We crossed the line in 11th= position to give us 12th on handicap. As we sailed back to the Hamble, we met the Solent Lifeboat going the other way. A Hunter 707 had sunk during the race. Apparently, the boat had broached, and the spinnaker sheets had knots in the ends of them. So the spinnaker couldn't be freed. The boat was dragged along on its side by the spinnaker, and as it ploughed through the water, the boat filled with water, until eventually it sank. We had escaped with very little damage given the conditions. Lunch was that boat favourite - pasta snack pots.

Back in port, the rain finally stopped, and we soon ended up in the Square Rigger. Kate and Max were very kind and pretended to have enjoyed the cold and wet, and then it was back to our respective homes, and back to the routine.

Curty.