Only a couple of days after springs so decided on the hanging around the start option which work really well as we turned at 20 seconds and lead the fleet over the line.  Kept up a decent position all the way to the forts with only a couple of the bigger boats passing us.  Nip and tuck with Blazer of the run to the Owers but lost out when we hit a rough bit of sea which slowed us down and they edged ahead.  Bit of a tricky rounding of the Owers buoy due to the strong tied and unfortunately had a ring side seat for the collision between Blazer and Zxtract, also had Paracelceus up inside us but we got past them and tacked round leaving the buoy enough space.  We had hoped for a spinnaker leg back but it was closer hauled than on the way out.  Tide turned with after about half an hour of slow going and we stayed in the main channel to pick up the best of it.  A few boats headed over to the main land shore but it did not seem to pay.  We were followed into the finish by Two Frank and they got us on handicap but we did squeeze out Raffles which was a surprise as we thought they were long gone.  After the race there was a Jog do in the Cowes Yacht Museum to formally hand over Theta.

GPS Track