The Solution.

1 minute to go the rudder cleat did something weird, it sort of sprang open, never seen the like of it, I half hitched it quickly and got into the line up, not exactly where I'd planned some bloody laser had gotten where I wanted to be, so I clean started starboard end of a slightly port biased line but a flier would have just seen a tack straight into the bank and a wind shadow so the strategy I wanted was to be as high up as I could on starboard make it to the other bank where with a bit of luck the port tack should see me clear ahead and rounding first, with the EPS it would have been a racing certainty and the rest of the race would have been me just trying to get as far ahead to claw that 3 minute lead over the Lasers, 6 over the Solo/Streakers and 9 minutes over the Miracles, which is next to impossible but I keep on trying.

But today it's different she's quite quick the solution but not EPS quick and although the plan worked, i turned about every port tacker but the laser behind me who I'd stuffed off the line and forced him to tack off in a stupid error rather than let him follow me into the bank call water to tack and hopefully drive him below the 1st mark on port, instead what happens, I line up on the layline, it's tight he flacks me over and is joined by a couple of other starboard handers who weren't has high up but I didn't have the boat speed to phase them and had to flack back again, I hate starboard handers, so i went round the top mark fifth, behind the laser, a rooster, a miracle and the other solution.

But here's the thing, it's a race I'm having to fight on pretty even terms and there's a solution ahead, same boat showing me I'm not the hot shot I think I am, but the good news is I'm at last ready for all this, don't actually need the boat speed friend to deal with them and after a couple of laps, the sheer liveliness of the boat, it's tacking speed, it's offwind slight edge, a couple of good tacks and water calls and I've over taken all but the solution and rooster in third and still catching up, enjoying every moment.

The boat is a much better close quarter device, it tacks on a sixpence, the sail just flacks straight over and it picks up speed a lot quicker than the EPS. I'm going to say it's actually a bit quicker in and out of the transitions than our friends the *eros. Upwind in the early part of the race I could out stuff the lasers, but after the disasters I'm about to describe and the wind notching up another force things were not quite as keen.

Now, I did I mention the night before was the club dinner and prize giving? Or the fact they had one of my favourite lagers on draught and I'd had a few the night before, nothing to worry about when things are going OK, but when your world suddenly becomes complicated....

The centreboard coming up, I thought I'd dealt with by tying it off to one of the footstaps, the cleat on the wiggle stick having hiatuses and giving me weather helm feel I hadn't fixed, still not sure why it keeps flipping, the outhaul undoing itself because of a peculiar arrangement I've clearly not sorted the way it should be, the foot of the sail slug coming out was just a bonus to the laser boys who take no prisoners if you're distracted and so it was they both got me back, but it didn't matter, I got my best windy result ever 5 th over the water 7th on corrected and I know there's so much more I can now achieve.

So the verdict is, I like it, it needs a good bimble, the centreboard tightening up, a bit of shock chord to stop the foot slug coming out, a hook on the outhaul, a limiter sorted so I can accurately gauge exactly how much sheet to apply, I did over sheet and stalled a couple of times, but all in all first race in quite puffy conditions, it started force 3 went through 4 and probably had a few gusts of 5 by close of play and even if I'd lead from start to finish as I'd done the previous week in the EPS, I'd have gotten a 9th so a 7th aint bad, it's not what I thought I was in for, it was looking good 2nd possibly 3rd until things started falling apart, but not to worry it was fun.