Excellent start about halfway down the line and had a very good beat to the forts with only Alchemist and Raffles ahead of us but we made up some distance on the approach.  Sheets eased to Bembridge and again after rounding the buoy and set up for a power reach across the channel.  Good Easterly breeze all the way and we were clocking between 7 and 9.5knts for most of the way with only a few lighter patches.  Approaching the finish the wind veered and became lighter, up ahead some of the bigger boats were having to put in some big tacks to make the finish but we only needed about a 100m board to get in.  Hadn't seen Raffles since sometime over night so as we hadn't heard them radio in assumed they had finished well ahead but did see Alchemist coming in behind so were assured of second.  However, when the results were posted Raffles were only 14 minutes ahead so we got them on corrected for a very satisfying victory.  Good day spent in St Vaast on the Saturday and some debate on when to head home as the forecast for Sunday was a bit grim so eventually stayed Sunday as well and came back over on Monday when conditions were very sedate albeit rather wet at the end.  Made it back in time for a curry but it did mean we had to come across the Solent on Tuesday morning in a force 8 which was manageable except for recovering the launch at Calshot.

GPS Track