What a race!! Flair IV, fresh back to the Solent following a rest in her winter home in Poole, got off the line cleanly and led the fleet for the first two legs.

We established enough of a lead to save our time on the fleet we then got caught out by a couple of starboard tack, tail-end charlies in the J fleet. Having taken far too much time to clear ourselves from them and having been drawn far too far left we found ourselves lying second on the water to our old foe Quokka (Elan 37) and with Deliverance (Dehler 36) right on our tail!

The next couple of legs saw us close in on Quokka and start to draw away from Deliverance but the clincher was a beam reach in 18-20 knots that saw everyone else two-sailing and we chose to carry on with our kite. This saw us power underneath Quokka and re-take first on the water.

All that was left was the beat to the finish which saw us fail to establish a corrected victory by a mere 15 seconds and with Deliverance coming in just after with a 5 seoncd deficit on us this made for one of the closest finishes for a long while, 20 seconds spanning 1st to 3rd. Great racing!!