Day 41 – Cowes Week Day 6

With a blustery force three to four we knew this day would be interesting. It was a feisty start with wind against tide and a long, shy reach towards the first mark. Coming off the line in a strong position, we had a good leg and rounded the mark with the Class Five leaders. We were in a strong position on the line and made great progress, rounding the mark with the leaders, but the tricky tidal conditions saw us lose a few positions after delaying our tack back across the Solent.

After performing a fantastic bear away set at ‘Bob Kemp’ in the windy conditions we charged back to Cowes slightly overpowered, again broaching a few times as we were caught by gusts coming over the island. It was tricky work for Andy on the helm, Baris on the mainsail and Tim trimming the spinnaker.

Our personal battle with theForeign Affair, our Flying Fish sister ship, was in full force today as we trailed for the first time all week. We had them in our sights all afternoon but just couldn’t seem to catch them. A few silly errors didn’t help, but later Foreign Affair appeared to struggle with their spinnaker drop. On the last leg they decided not to use their kite. We went for ours and snuck past to finish two minutes ahead. It was a very tense yet exciting time on board. Persistence and great teamwork prevailed, but Nick was awarded ‘the dummy’ for unnecessary shouting!