Such is our desperation for competition that we headed down the M3 for the first race of Royal Southampton’s “Family Double Handed Midweek Series”. The heatwave of May had given way to a northerly in Southampton Water but nonetheless sixteen sports boats and cruiser racers turned out for a 90 minute pursuit race. Starting almost a quarter of an hour after the first boat and a minute and a half ahead of the J88s that were the scratch boats, we made our way through the fleet only narrowly failing to catch a couple of slower boats and being pipped on the line by one of the J88s when the jib sheet snagged as we tacked for the finish line.