Who was out this weekend?.....

14th out of 31 finishers, 45 entrants in the Monohull division. Admittedly last of the fasts, but the swimming escapade thanks to a gybe drop gone wrong didn't help.

It was superb fun seeing just what the boat can do on a big race course. We had a few rather juddering landings off the front of some oif the chop (though not properly airborne). Two sail fetching along the outside of Sheppey was rapid- at some points the spray was painful as it hit that hard.

Final legs (course marks: Medway Noumber 5, West Shoebury, Finish at the end of the pier east-west) didn't feel so great, pretty sure tide was slack, but we made slow progress across the estuary and slogged somewhat up to the line.

Notice that there's now apology over the start timing- things seemed to go haywire, and I think in the end we all rather started by consensus...

Medway Yacht Club's Marathon was indeed the best for years. Mostly reaching, mostly planing, as evidenced by the winning 800's 2hr13 elapsed time (for 26 miles!). Too bad the over-the-top weather and forecast on Saturday appear to have put a lot of people off. By Sunday morning they'd revised the forecast down to a nice 14mph gusting 20, but that came too late for most, apparently.

Just goes to show, don't trust the forecast in the days before - go along and trust your eyes!