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This week Russell was on a power-boat course, and Dave was charging around the south coats on a Round Britain yacht, so I was given the job of skipper, and I my immediate reaction was that this skippering lark was a doddle. The deck hands had obviously been bored waiting for their Skipper and had got the boat ready for immediate departure. Eventually I managed to suss the boat electrics and got the engine started and we headed off for a practice sail.

The crew were:
Phil - bow
Andy - mast
Viv - keyboards
Angus and Geri - sheet trimming
Duncan - mainsheet
Curty (me) - Helm.
Oh and Sam (Spaniel/Collie cross breed) on Kennel duty.

The wind varied between 12 and 18 knots and we did the usual tacking practice, and a little bit of spinnaker stuff, before a late lunch. The rain never relented and by 3:30pm we had had enough - well I had, and we headed back to the pontoon to get a warm shower. Sam joined us for a small drink in the evening and was very distressed by the local firework displays - oh how we laughed! Boomerang for dinner and a couple of drinks in the King and Queen and the Square Rigger completed the evening.

By the morning the rain had stopped and the sun had made an appearance. I was mulling over which genoa to use as we headed for the start line. There was 10-12 knots of breeze, but the forecast more would arrive at some point. Also the other classes were being forced to wear Life Jackets (Flag Y), so what was it the race committee knew that I didn't? (well the course for one thing - Ed). We looked at the start line for quite sometime before Andy pointed out that we were the only X yacht around. We were at the wrong start line.

We found the right one and arrived just in time for our 10 minute gun, which is the start for the IRC 2 class. One of the IRC 2 class yachts wrapped itself around the committee boat and broke that latter's anchor chain. The start was then delayed for 20 minutes.

The wind was slowly increasing and so I went for the number 3 Genoa and felt pleased as we started in 15 knots of breeze and in the middle bit of the fleet. I guess we were 12th or so at the first mark. The course was triangular and the second leg was a beam reach. The lead boats all rounded and hoisted spinnakers. They seemed to be heading too far downwind, so I chose to keep the spinnaker on the deck. The tactics worked and as we approached the second mark, we were in the top third of the fleet. The leaders were having a hell of a job holding their spinnakers. Xtherapist broached and retired. As we approached the second mark, we seemed to be in close contention and I was rather worried by the fact that I wasn't sure where the next buoy was. Thankfully the lead boats appeared to leeward and we had someone to follow again.

The spinnaker went up very smoothly and we tanked it down to the leeward mark. The wind rose to the 24 knot mark and the next beat was a hard slog, but we seemed to keep our place. All went fine until the last run when we managed to wrap the spinnaker around the forestay and the genoa. So we lost a bit of ground. I then completely mis-judged the last tack to the finish line and lost two places. Then the squall appeared - 30 knots of wind, and rain that hurt. The Snack Pots we had for lunch were very welcome. In the end we got an eleventh, which is our best result so far ...... which is nice.

Curty.