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Pete Thomas sculled round the fleet in the morning saying the weather had lifted and we would do the long course. Fantastic! Lots of discussions around sail plans. I say I'm thinking full main but its skippers call.

We head out at 10:30, desperate not to repeat last years fiasco of running aground on a falling tide trying to get the peak up. All goes well and we stooge around keeping a close eye on Charm as usual - Robert almost always gets it just right!

Alison has decided to stick with the reefed sail plan and we see lots of others (but not everyone) with reefs. It seems sensible as we are going all the way out to Stone Banks.

Bang on 11:00 we cross the line right in the middle of the pack but fall quickly behind. By the time we get to Colimer there is almost no-one behind us. We had been more or less keeping up with Melvyn and Julia on Ellen but they start pulling well ahead.

I make some suggestions and Alison says we are just out for a sail. I kind of lose it at this point. She hasn't discussed this at all. I say I don't mind coming last but I don't want to hold the committee boat up for hours and I don't want to let Robinetta down when she's been so kind to us all week.

Alison relents and changes mental gear after Nancy Blackett screams past us joining the race from Wolverstone.

We shake out the reefs and unfurl the jib and she picks up. We see other boats heeling but Robinetta stays fairly upright. Its very clear that she needs much more canvas in strong winds than other boats, and that she can take it. We raise the topsail too. Revere had hers up from the start, but on top of a double reefed main. That blessed topsail sheet seems to jam again so its not as tight as we'd like but the speed picks up noticeably and the balance is OK.


We're keeping up with the fleet now, but about 10 boat lengths behind Ellen and Nancy. Amy make sure we honor the right buoys. We put a couple of tacks in to get to Pye End and Alison says the topsail isn't helping - shes remembering Southwold when Charm took hers down and we left ours up and it was a bad idea. The topsail does look like its backing.

We take it down and lose 2 knots! It goes back up again and we find we're overhauling Nancy and that Reverie has appeared from nowhere not far ahead - they must have made some bad decisions. (Pete told me later they'd taken their topsail down and shaken out one of their reefs before raising their topsail again during the race. That might have been why we caught them up here? AMC)

We catch Nancy up but then the wind backs and we make a couple of bad tacks to get to Pennyhole. The top sail is backing again so we take it down while on the last starboard tack before rounding Pennyhole buoy. It's a good decision as Robinetta feels overpowered once we go onto the broad reach after the bouy. She's making nearly six knots and we're just getting near Nancy again when we see her retire and run back to Harwich - we find out later her forestay has failed.

Reverie has pulled ahead again - boy does she heel compared to the long keelers. We follow her line to Stone Banks. The sea's rather rolly, and windy out here. Foxes is really hard to keep in sight - there is quite a lot of swell and the line is parallel to the coast so there are no landmarks. Alison is getting tired and can't keep track of our course but refuses to give up the tiller. We drift out to sea and lose further ground to Reverie.

The next buoy is Outer Ridge - there are lots of candidates. We work out which one to go for and I manage to get Alison to take a rest once we reach it. Its all simple now - just follow the small ships channel back to the committee boat and get the finish klaxon. We give Amy the helm to take us across, and she does it in fine style. Several boats including Ellen are still milling around, so we weren't so far behind the pack.

We cross the finish line at around 15:30 and are back on the pontoon at Levington by 16:00.

When it comes to the prize giving they give the Bowlocks Maximus to Rick & Kelpie II for some rigging misdemeanor on the way to Ipswich. We get the Bitter End trophy for coming last in the Presidents Race. I consider this promotion!

Another great closing dinner to the cruise, although a little more subdued than last year and the food at the Lightship was really pretty poor.