The XODs have had a difficult week, suffering two abandonments due to lack of wind but there’s been a happy ending for the Hamble section of the fleet.

Hot favourite for this year’s Skandia Life Cowes Week XOD class was last year’s White Group winner Lone Star, sailed by the very experienced Stuart Jardine. But despite a first today, Jardine could only manage second overall in class beneath Simon Russell’s Lass, which won by a final margin after discards, of five points, despite never placing higher than third.

A delighted Simon told us, “we’re the first Hamble XOD to win the class since 1988, with the Lymington and Parkstone fleets dominating the class.

“The boat’s been out of the water since its last Cowes Week in 1999, and has since been refurbished and carries a nice set of North sails. The boat’s set up well, has a good crew and good boat speed. So despite some average starts, we’ve managed to claw our way to the top end.

“Today we had a shocking start, around 35th across the line, but worked our way up to third by the end of the first beat. With Lone Star heading the fleet we knew we had to finish at higher than eighth to keep our overall lead. We kept our noses clean and played it safe and managed to hang onto third.”