elizabeth cup june 27th 2009

weather was predicted wsw 9 knts,weather was sunny and just right for a nice sail to bournmouth, we knew it was going to be a broad reach there and in pratice we knew it was going to be slow. we worked our angles and were ready. we decided on port tack which was scary to say the least. weducked a few boats and tacked to avoid a few others and frantic calls of starboard, all in all it went well and as far as i could see it went without incident.we rounded the short beat well down but set on our way as we decided.
the spitfires were well away in their own fleet, we decided to stay with the dart18's. dooley and miller. every time we heaeded on port we lost ground to making our way to bournmouth so we decided to gybe often, we headed toward balard and then to make the gate at old harry we then headed well out to see,after rounding the gate we heaed out to see again and went parralel to the bournmouth eye. when we gybed we were heading well left and again losing ground. we were trying to spot the mark of bournmouth by watching the groome spitfire. with a place in mind we altered track and made good speed. a few more gybes later we went around the mark in just over the hour. now for the best bit every wave we surfed in on we hit on the way back, i settled down and john was soon out on the wire. john played the downhaul well and i never lifted the main once just played the steering to suit. when the wind died we headed out on starboard for what semed along way, the condor cat told us otherwise to tack again, all tacks were down very well as i normally struggle in choppy seas.
as we were nearing old harry we forgot about the gate and headed back until we spotted it, we wernt far off anyway, the hobie 18 was tariling us all the way back after recoveri ng froma long capsize. he did well or we were struggling, memories of the poole bar bouy race again !
so now we knew we had to back for line honours over them as they had the same handicap.
they went out to sea and because of the chop we heaed close into the bay. we upped our speed and spotted the finnish. we knew they were beat and we crossed the line in 2hr 9min approx
we were glad to have done the race in what i thought were tougher conditions than in 2007
mark groome finnished in under 2hrs and said the tide and wind didnt help the speed of the race.
as i write this i am absolutly knacked and my back is killing me. roll on 2010 for the next epic race, i dont care wher i finnished, to finnish was all that mattered
mutley did me proud and its all on film i hope, wait for the link posted here.
Spud