After the trials and tribulations of Race 4 (which I couldn’t bring myself to write about) and the fantastic success of the two crews on the Elan 340 (second) and Flair IV (third) in the Charity Pursuit Race it was back to the serious business of banging in good results in the Hamble Winter Series.

With a light Westerly and strong easterly going tide there shouldn’t have been a problem with the start line but we somehow contrived to get ourselves called OCS. Having re-crossed we set about catching the fleet and, spotting excellent pressure to the right hand side of the beat proceeded to rip-up through the fleet to be in the top five around the first windward mark. With further superb speed downwind we were able to reel in Steady Barker (Bavaria Match 38) and Quokka (Elan 37) to round third with only the X-35s X-Dream and Jazz ahead. A solid beat followed, once again taking the right hand side but Quokka recovered nicely seeing a shift to the left and rounded the next windward mark ahead. Positions didn’t then change until the final beat when our favoured tactic of staying right proved the better option and we safely saw off Steady Barker, sailed through Quokka and crossed immediately astern of the much faster rated Jazz. With X-Dream a distant first it was whether we had saved our time on the Elan 37 but after 3 hours of sailing they had made it by 14 seconds! If only Jamie hadn’t invited us back across the line………………….

With another excellent finish we may yet get to discard that unspeakable result from Race 4 and challenge Quokka for the top slot, as usual!!!