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Saturday

A generally late start around 11:30 (except for Mike who'd been keen and got there for 9am) saw us drifting out into the Solent with a light force 1-2. We spent pre-lunch doing genoa trim adjustments, and I played with re-calibrating the instruments after the man from B&G had been, with Elaine helming us up and down. Post lunch we hit upwind sailing quite hard, with me doing more mouse-clicking and the others doing the hard work. Once the moon was up and on the water (at about 4pm) we launched into some intensive tacking practice, whilst trying to make our way back from the forts in the eastern Solent where the tide had transported us. Tacking every 20 seconds saw Tina and Mike unable to lift their arms after about half an hour, so we turned on the engine and pushed back home. Elaine went off to party, unencumbered by thoughts of racing the next day, whilst the rest of us had showers, G&Ts, then headed to Boomerang for wine and food and wine and then to the White Hart and then to the Square Rigger. We had to take it easy, after all.

Sunday

Up and away before 9am, we found a light breeze of 6-8 knots from the north, and quite a strong tide. We set up the boat much earlier than usual, getting genoa trim right and settling down, doing a few tacks, which certainly calmed a few nerves. The line was roughly square to the wind, but with a strong tide taking boats along and over it, getting away cleanly could be tricky. With the wind shifting through 15 degrees either side, the favoured end of the line varied, and it was hard to anticipate the swings, so we set up for a start 1/3 down from the committee boat, with the intention of having clear wind and space to leeward to dive off into for power before the start, and to allow us to stay back from the line if we were close to being over.

At the 2 minute gun we turned for the line, and I slowed us at 1 minute, but shouldn't have, as we then powered up into a massive space to leeward but were still late at the gun, crossing 15 or more seconds late. However, the reluctance of anyone to be over showed through as there was only one boat in front of us, and we set off up the first beat near the front. Working upwind with the tide taking us across meant that tacking onto port was favoured, which we did once clear of the line and surrounding boats, and we hit a couple of shifts well and crossed well in front of X-therapist and Peanut, our usual benchmarks. We rounded the windward mark second, set the kite, and were off.

We gybed to cross the tide at right-angles, sailing slightly lower than optimal rather than too much into the tide. Brightworx led, Peanut went very low on the other gybe, ignoring the tide and planning to come uptide closer to the Wight shore. We held onto Brightworx, but Carabistouilles sailed slightly deeper and faster and passed us near the buoy. We rounded hard on their tail onto a 110 degree reach, which our kite isn't great at. X-therapist came past to windward, and we let them go in order to sail closer inshore and out of the tide. This was a tactical mistake, as we then had to sail higher to make the buoy, compounding our reaching problems. Peanut had gained on much of the rest of the fleet by taking a different line, but we were ahead of the pack and fighting hard. Another beat, another few shifts and the maintaining of some separation allowed us to close the gaps again, whilst the next run saw few positions change. Piccolo Bill had appeared up there, and we rounded just behind them in 5th or 6th for the final beat.

The wind started to go light; again by working shifts very hard and some excellent trimming we were eating into the gaps, and crossed Piccolo Bill, rather spoiling the effect by immediately tacking, slowing down, and watching them sail under and away again. But with only 4 knots of breeze and the tide pouring out of Southampton Water, the leaders were not getting away, and in fact we were all parked for a while. Most had gone left, tangling with the IRC fleets and seeming to sit in a hole, so we maintained separation and headed right on a favourable shift, clearing our wind as we did so. We tacked back for East Knoll and the line, heading about 40 degrees above it to maintain our course over the ground to it. The wind dropped further, and we were now sailing with loose sheets and very very broad - 50-60 degrees - just to maintain speed and counter the tide. Having looked a dead cert to clear the line, the lack of wind and strong tide meant we were now not even going to make the committee boat at the far end, so we tacked back early from mid-line and crabbed out well to the right again, keeping clear of the rest of the fleet to the left. We ducked one boat, stood on, then came back in fairly broad and with enough speed to stem the tide, crossing the line just inside the buoy. The light wind, playing our luck well and making the most of the conditions, had allowed us to retake the places we'd lost and we finished second.

Second is our best winter series result; a good start, excellent upwind speed and slightly slower but not poor downwind performance shows we can manage to beat anyone, on the day. We learnt a few things about trim and strategy, and communication on the boat was much enhanced, with the crew calling gusts and boats well for Dave and I. If we can start to gain some consistency, that will help the most, but this result means we've achieved one of my stated winter series aims - a top 5 position. An excellent race, topped by a good gossip in Hamble River SC. Congratulations to all the crew - a great team effort. I don't know about anyone else, but Tina and I came home, vegged out and went to sleep very early.

Russell.