This year could be good. We'd come 8^th last year in our first Nationals, despite the hazards of Guinness and late nights in Cork. The winter had seen the hull re-antifouled and smoothed down, all the minor niggles sorted out, and some serious practice sessions in the Solent in the months leading up to the event. We had in mind something in the top ten, possibly better. The fleet had clearly improved in competitiveness and skill; the defending champions of both the title and drinking events, Tundra, had stayed on from Cowes week to defend their honour. The East coast had some representation; Crickey! was exceptionally quick and well sailed. Exotic had been fast; X-Therapist was in the mix. There are many others too. But there seemed little reason we could not compete with these guys, despite the fully amateur nature of our team. And then our trimmer hurt her back, slipping a disk so badly she had to stay on our floor for a week when she'd only been intending to be up here for a day or two. And with a Fastnet campaign, our mainsheet trimmer couldn't get holiday and then our other key trimmer found her rota wouldn't allow her to do the event either. Illness, holiday and love intervened further until we'd changed from a practised crew of 8 to a scratch crew of 5 - a couple of these had been dragged in at less than a day's notice, too. Still, we could give it a go and race hard, for after all we are good in the light stuff.

Wednesday night, Jocham Visser gave a great talk on sailing the 332 - as with all of these things, you kind of know it already, but still come away having learned something. In strong winds, sailing with weight was a clear advantage, we heard. Hmmm… I spent a while talking to Armando, skipper of Dragonfly 2 (yes, the one that lost it's mast earlier in the year), renewing a friendship that first started when I protested him in last year's winter series. His aim was to beat us, he said. No chance, said I. Had we seen the forecast, he asked - strong winds were what he liked. Ah, I said…..

Thursday, it blew. A great start saw us watch the rest of the fleet pull past us, sailing more upright, faster and easier. Nine beats five every time in a breeze. We had a few battles near the back, enjoyed the sailing, but were never in contention from about 30 seconds after the start.

Friday, a similar story, except that one of our crew had to leave before the start to resolve a work crisis. We got a late replacement, but were still at 5.

Saturday, it was lighter, and we had the only real race of the event for us. Again, a decent start, though being early to the windward mark was hardly an advantage as the breeze dropped away. With some boats anchored, a kind of quiet, resigned, but good-humoured slow-motion chaos ensued, and the fleet reversed itself - we dropped from third to last, next to X-Therapist who had led into the mark. Then it was down to the slog of working the shifts, sorting out the puffs of wind from the tidal ripples, and using the same tide to your advantage in order to get back up the order. Some long legs taking us all over the Eastern Solent ended in a close quarters, nerve-testing duel of close tacking up the Portsmouth shore before launching out across the Solent, trying to time it so that you avoided the large tanker moored in the middle and were swept the right amount back by the tide. We recovered a top ten position, and a sensible shortening of the course meant we had beaten a number of our usual rivals and this gave the crew some heart. We used this new-found enthusiasm to boogie the night away at the regatta ball, along with all the rest of the fleet. Our training in Cork for the partying had clearly paid off, if nothing else.

The Sunday saw another race, followed by the prizegiving. I don’t recall much of it, either because we didn't do that well (too windy) or because of the night before, I'm not sure which.

But we learnt some very interesting lessons. It's now a highly competitive fleet, with some exceptionally good sailors racing well-prepared boats. You cannot simply turn up and hope to do well. You need to have a decent core of competent crew, and then you can be guaranteed some of the best racing in the Solent. And this is the way it should be; strong competition at the front, friendly rivalry nearer the back, and a good social scene overall. Congratulations to all who sailed; not just the top three, who have trophies to take away, but to everyone who fought out their own battles in different areas of the racecourse. As for Xcentric, we'll simply have to get our core people better organised for next year. And sufficient weight on the rail to keep the boat flat in a breeze.