Jubilee wins her class 3 Jun 2006

Sarah Sullivan, Ian Simons and Rachel Young started racing at 06.50 on 3rd June on a beautiful sunny morning that brought more sun and the inevitable huge holes where the met breeze interfaced with the sea breeze. But the tide was with us (one advantage of the early start) and we sneaked round the Needles and headed off to St Cats down the rhumbline.

Clear air was all important but having the Dragons long keel to the favourable tide also helped so we gybed all the way to Bembridge. We rounded and then sat in a very depressing hole for 40 minutes hugging the island shore for the tide setting under us (he who drifts fastest as Ian said) and because we expected the wind to fill in there first – it did – and then we were on our way home on a long, long beat. The whole race took 11 hours 21 minutes but we were only 3 hours behind the fastest monohull! Two pints was it before we fell asleep in our beer and headed back to our digs for lots of pasta.

This was the first time that Rachel had competed in this race but, even though Ian and I have done this one before, the sight of over a thousand boats with their kites up is totally unforgettable.