It was a shame they didn't accept our 2017 ORC Certificate for the first of this seasons 5 Clubs at Moraira, but it only meant we went out to do the second race in the series with a little more focus.

This race took us south from Villajojosa, about 30 miles down the coast from Calpe. We took a days training session last Thursday and moved Jumbuck down to La Vila, and headed out on Saturday in very light conditions.

Upping our game even meant we eased off our rig tension for the days event. A coastal run from off La Vila a further 15 miles south to end at Club Nuatic Campello. The two clubs also overlay this 5 Clubs event with the Trofeo Carritxal, meaning we had the coastal race down Saturday and a complex almost circular race set for Sunday.

Got a good start in Saturday's 5 Clubs, short bash to windward then a long but shy run. Worked out well for our assymetrics and we carried the large A2 shy at 120/130 degrees right down to the rounding mark off El Campello, and the surged to the finish as we ran deeper still. That got us a first place in Division B for the 5 Clubs, but as we were only minutes behind the larger division A yachts, also saw us placed as the leading boat in the first part of the Trofeo Carritxal (which is calculated over the whole fleet).

All new 2018 certificates have been reworked to a revised formula, and whereas last year where we felt we were severely disadvantaged in our rating against bigger boats especially those tha carry symmetrical kites' this year, it's apparently changed in our favour. Aurora (First 36.7) finished near 2 minutes ahead, but was placed behind us, and Pajuelin (Salona 37) was less then 2 minutes behind, which last season would have see her placed higher. I did check with race committee that they'd done the calculations correctly, and was assured all was in order.

So a nice drink or two in Campellos tidy little rural marina and clubhouse, and off for an enjoyable evening watching SCOTLAND THE BRAVE give England a good trashing in the six nations. God. Went to bed feeling feeling satisfied.

Sunday saw fresher winds from the ESE and a complex course send us windward, then directly leeward, then a reach out around a fish farm, lengthy run inshore, long cracked beat back to the farm, round it again once more to run inshore, then beat to the finish off the Club. Good job we did have bigger boats to follow, as not sure we would have got it right had we been leading.

We did it all well. With the eased rig we had much more power upwind and easily legged it with some bigger boats, but upshot was we were very close to the leaders by the finish and also achieved first place on day two, meaning we were awarded overall 1st for the regatta.

Great result. Just as long as they've got the ratings right. If they have an we retain the difference, we will be hard to catch for the rest of the season!

Well done to all the crew, shown above left to right Rob Mitchell (bow), Gary Illingworth (mast), Kevin Moss (trim), Eric Degerland (nav and strings), me, Edo Volker (main) and Nigel Robinson (trim).

And maybe a big thanks to ORC for sorting out their rating system!

Looking forward to the next event, but we will all be missing Nigel (who flys back to work in UK shortly). He's added a lot to our performance and look forward to seeing his return after the summer.

On.On.