With Fastnet next Sunday, not wishing any breakages, but with non Fastnet crew wanting to take part, we shortened our planned Cowes Regatta to four races. One Saturday, two Sunday, one Monday (today).

Took the boat over Friday arvo. Its always buzzy parked up right in the centre of Cowes as the boats come piling in with battle flags flying. We had a berth booked in Cowes Yacht Haven - right alongside the party village.

We enjoyed beautiful weather over the weekend, winds a bit light for the first day, heavier later. And despite being severely handicapped on sails we did ok on our first race outing.

Bit stupid of me not to check beforehand, but the 109 fleet at Cowes Week doesn't race under IRC handicap. Why didn't I know that!!

Instead it uses the J109 class rules, where you can use a No 1 and No 2 headsail (which we don't have) and you definitely can't use stay sails or Code 0s or jib inhaulers (all of which we do have).

So bit of a mismatch between our boat and the rest of the fleet. Like putting a hotted up VW up against a bunch of Porches. But hey, that's the way it was, so Friday night we resolved to focus on the parties and not get too stressed on the race course.

But then we actually sailed Saturday tactically perfect, just managing to hang onto the closely contested fleet coats tail upwind, then always gaining some back on the light downwind legs. Then luck played its part and when the wind actually did die late arvo we elected to head island side heading offwind to the finish, when the majority went the other way, and we found ourselves in the right place at the right time.

Right enough to slide over the finish line just 30 seconds behind the fleet leader. So whoopee. Despite being under canvassed we got Race One - 2nd Place.

But have to say its a noisy class fleet. Lots young guys hollering and barging at starts and each mark rounding, and I suspect the week will see lots of protest hearings. From what I could hear / see, a few of them could well do with some racing rule lessons.....

We had enjoyed a big night on Friday in the Haven Village, but had an even bigger one Saturday evening on the back of that 2nd place. Good job too, as we didn't see it repeated Sunday!

The day dawned with fresher winds and a very sloppy Solent. We were right up there for a front line start (to try and get our noses in front and some clean air) but were a bit too aggressive.

As it happened we didn't go well anyway, simply lacking the power to blast upwind through the chop as we only had our smaller headsail, but we were gutted after completing the race mid fleet, to then learn we had been disqualified for being OCS! So Race Two - awarded a 19th Place.

They then ran a second Sunday race and it was even windier, plus we didn't get so aggressive up front, so again saw the rest of the fleet simply go away from us upwind. They all had height and speed on us using larger headsails. Most frustrating.

But never giving up, we were not doing it all wrong when we had an problem retrieving the kite allowing it to slide right under the boat and stop us dead in the water. Luckily no damage but it allowed those few behind us the chance to overtake - and there's little room for error in such a tight grouping.....

So Race Three - only a 15th Place.

So a little more sombre in the pub Sunday night, but then the loan offer of Sardonyx old No 1 and 2 for Monday was made, an today saw us out on a very wet course with sails the same size as the rest of the fleet. Admittedly old sails, with a few patches, but both were a definite power improvement on just our No 3.

Got a great start and away we went. Can't tell you how good that was to move upwind with pace that matched the others.

Conditions were blustery with significant shifts, but enjoyed very close racing at the front end of the fleet around the west Solent. Bad visibility, and wet weather always in the offing.

With minimal errors and lots of effort on the last long offwind leg, we managed to slide over the RYS finish line still in the lead bunch, and with less than 30 seconds separating each boat. Very very close.

So Race 4 - we got a respectable 6th Place. Not bad considering we were using old sails, and cant thank Sardonyx enough for lending them to us. They said afterwards that up the first beat when we got ahead of them, they were beginning to regret the gesture, but latterly they did get back ahead and led us in...........just rewards really.

So after three days, that's Cowes Week 2015 all over for us.

Was good to mix it with the other top class boats, and feel confident we can match it with them when we've got the right crew, right sails, and always, the right luck......

All our team did really well.

As it stands today, Jumbuck was standing at 9th out of 18 in the fleet. Half way up the list even after one disqualification and sailing 3 of the 4 races with much smaller sails. For me, that's a satisfactory result - and nothing got broke before our Fastnet.

My thanks to Rob, Chris, Chris, Sue, Allan, Wayne - and blow in young Richard for our last race.

A fabulous long weekend and forget what I said about nothing getting broke - my wallet in the race village certainly did!