You can just read Jumbucks name, blue hull / grey kite clear air right on the pin

Great racing with an equal balance of beating, reaching and running, through light, medium and heavier winds.

With 20 109s racing IRC Div. 3, we had fun wherever we found ourselves in the fleet.

Got a top, top start, believe we were 2nd 109 to get away just behind 'Just So' in clear air on time and the pin, to then run out of water just as we overtook them a mile down the course. Dumb, dumb dumb. From first 109 to last 109 in one stupid non thinking moment as we lurched to a standstill kite up, on the mainland shore bricks.

Took us nearly 50 minutes to use the sails to turn us facing away from the shore, and by leaning her right over, sail off the rocks and begin the game of catch up.......two point two keel and two metres of water clearly don't work!

Luckily a fluke in the weather as all the wind died away off Lymington turning the Solent into a 170 boat parking lot, got us back in the mix.

Did good with the new lightweight AP headsail, beating down Channel in the evening, and took the risk of going inside rounding Portland Bill. Almost made it. But didn't.

All looked good sliding through but as we slid past the lighthouse, with just 200 metres to go, the wind disappeared once more and we found ourselves sucked back into the Race and enduring a 2 hour battle to sail clear. Our course on the plotter as we were pulled here and there by the tidal flow and waves looked like a snakes trail. Finally got clear but only after we had gone south 4.5 miles and backwards on our rhumb line by a mile or so.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. So nearly got back ahead of a big bunch of 109s sailing further south outside the race, to find ourselves for the second time in the event, almost out of the back door.

Took another 4 miles before the wind settled to allow some good sailing again. Once up to speed, first reaching then beating across Lyme Bay, clearing Start Point early Sunday, and then not so good beating up to the lighthouse in very very little wind, meaning we slid around it mid arvo. Think we had sailed through four or five 109s last night, but one got us back on that last beat.

It was clear from the AIS that those 109s who set a course just south of the Portland race, then sailed deep further offshore towards Start Point, did better than we did.

Sunny sky for rounding Eddystone Lighthouse, winds picked up to 10/12 knots, allowing us to trim the kite and new staysail hard to get Jumbuck zipping along downwind - following a long line of spinnakers heading towards the eastern horizon.

On this homeward run we did really well. Really really well. Guessing we were maybe 15th 109 rounding Eddystone. Off the wind, we found we could sail deeper and faster than the other 9s we could identify, so before long overtook the one that led us round the lighthouse. By nightfall across Lyme Bay we closed on another large group who were north of us, and powered past.

As we adopted a line slightly to seaward of most boats to gain any tidal advantage on our way up to Portland, we couldn't find every J on the AIS. But believe we got back to around 10th spot through that night with the combo of tide, hard crew work, and right sails. Very dark. Winds hovering 15+ with 20+ knot gusts slowly going forward.

Crew work was good. Almost each two hours Callum and Graham got soaked on the bouncy foredeck as we first replaced the kite with the Code 0, then with the heavy, and finally peeling to the new lightweight headsail. It allowed us to maintain great pace as we sailed a line direct for Anvil Point and well south of the Portland race.. As a grey dawn broke we found ourselves eyeballing most of the final 109s we needed to catch not far in front. We were all feeling well chuffed with our catch up and celebrated with a full fried sausage, egg, spam and beans breakfast before resuming the work of catching that leading group.

As we shaped up for Anvil Point in a spattering of rain under a very grey sky, the breeze went really soft and the adverse turning tide had a real bearing on the tactics.

We chose a tighter line than most in front, up in towards the high cliffs west of Anvil Point, choosing to risk wind loss but trying to avoid the worst of the tidal outflows near Anvil Point ahead. It worked for us. Being able to sail higher angles going in gave us pressure and good pace in the light winds, and once up between the cliffs and the races, dialled down to sail freer and use our Code 0 to punch trough the two adverse races with some power.

It seemed others below us were under canvassed and struggled to get through those races, allowing us to slide inside and overtake a big bunch of yachts, including six more 109s, to sail out into Christchurch Bay as the 4th 109 in our fleet.

God it felt good, but sorry folks. That's as good as it got.

The remaining three J's - Jaganda Too, Joleen and J T'Aime, were in very close company and all obviously working as hard as we were. They each maintained their 2 mile lead as we all trimmed, trimmed and trimmed again sliding downwind across the bay to the finish boat at North Head. We crossed late morning, slid up on the now incoming tide to Hurst and the Solent, and the team agreed Yarmouth for a quick drink and race debrief would be a good idea.

With TCFs applied, our result was 14th in the fleet of 38. But more important, 4th of the 109s in.

Lessons learned...
Try NOT to hit the rocks.
Don't risk inside at Portland Bill if your in, or even close to, an adverse tide.......
Always hold down the clew when furling the headsail.
Don't use staysail below 7 knots of wind.
Think ahead on sail changes and use all the crew between watch breaks.

So excellent work by crew of Rob, Callum, Chris G, Allan and Graham. Top job.

On. On.