Saturday was our first double handed semi offshore race. We were in a confident mood after doing well in the RSYC Thursday night series and beating JOY JPK 10.10 from Scillies to Falmouth at the end of our 2 weeks training camp. ... (Well I thought I was going on Summer holidays but Matthew Beecher had other ideas). 

We had looked at the weather but not hard enough as we chose the J2 and full main. Wind picked up to 18kts before the start so we quickly reefed to reefed J2 (=J3) and 1 reef in the main.

 Start was busy but we snuck in at the pin end of the line. It was very very tight between keeping clear of other boats and not getting swept with 3 kts of tide onto Gurnard cardinal but I made the gap.  I was very very pleased to be one of the first boats over the start line and happy it was witnessed by Sophie Palmer in a rib who was whooping her support. The beat up to the first mark was slow though and we lost the advantage, The sail plan was simply wrong.

 Next leg was a short reach, not enough time for anyone to deploy another sail but easy for us to unreef the J2 and we gained a few places as we powered down  to the island. For the next beat out to Hurst we unreefed the main and were doing OK, we came past both Mostly Harmless and Mzungu which is usually a sign of doing well. The next tack a familiar looking cruising boat Quintessa was crossing just ahead with David Sauven and crew aboard, as we tacked onto Port I hoped I was ahead on the next tack.... or at least I hoped I was ahead enough that David would let me through .  However we then had a very dodgy tack outside Yarmouth where the outboard sheet lead got caught and left us heave to for a minute or two.. Advantage lost over Mzungu but Mostly was still behind. Beat out to the Needles and the wind was now 23kts... for sure too much for our J2 and no amount of backstay was saving the day. However we crossed tacls and stayed ahead of Mostly.

 The waves at the Needles were significant and that is where Mostly got past us as their slim hull (and correct sail plan) slide through the waves and we were overpowered, Round the Needles fairway and onto a downwind sleigh ride. Almost everyone was white sails but  big shout out to Rob Craigie and Deb Fish on Bellino who hoisted there A5.. a bit messy but once set they powered past the fleet, We kept to white sails as were were very powered up at times decided to save the A5 for back in the Solent. 

At North head the angle hotted up and Purple Mist had a mini broach and  tried to take out Rick Tomlinson on the Photo boat. They powered away the rib just in time.  

Once through Hurst it was straight to the A5 Spinnaker. The hoist and unsnuff went well but during the J2 drop the cleat on the J2 Leech captured the leech of the A5 causing a tangle... nicely caught on camera by Ross on Ayaya. Anyway after some tugging and dropping we untangled and we were off to the finish.

 Final result Mid fleet: Class 2 12/ 24, Double handed 17/42, Sunfast 3200 3/6, Female Helm 5/7,  We still retain the youth helm trophy( though he didn't touch it!! 1/1!

Next Race August 1st RORC Round the Isle of Wight