Forecasts had been pretty variable all week with some strong winds forecast for Saturday onwards so prospect of a difficult return leg.  Red flag course out through Hurst as it would have been a difficult start against a strong tide and little wind at first.  Good start out by Gurnard and tracked Long Pierre and Raffles down the Solent on a building tide.  Made up some ground at Hurst as Long Pierre seemed to go too far over to the main land side and let Raffles through but they were nip and tuck at Bridge with us 4 minutes behind.  Big spinnaker up as we rounded Bridge and held it pretty well until we decided to gibe. As it was getting windier we dropped the kite, gibed and then hoisted the 90% which went really well getting us to the finish with no problems.  Just behind Long Pierre by 17 seconds but Raffles way out in front although quite pleasing that all three of us were ahead of the other two classes.  Pretty rough return on Sunday with up to 39 knot gusts and a knock down.