2nd/3rd June St Malo Race - Tom, Natalie, Graham, Mark, Ralph Mason

Great to be back racing Orca after her trip round Britain and Ireland in the Royal Western YC double handed "stopping race". Three other Class 40s to race with, including the new Concise 2 with Pete Goss on board as part of his preparation for the Route du Rhum along with the World Championship winning crew tuning up for this year's Worlds in Gijon.

Not the hottest of starts, but Orca is in good shape after a couple of tacks, taking distance out of Concise 2 and pulling away from Les Conquerants de Normandie and Partouche until tacking too far into the Island shore and letting the former through. But back into second by Needles Fairway and then set off on a long starboard tack across the Channel. After staying on the left hand side of the course we pick up the freeing shift to come into Casquets on Saturday morning in company with the two French boats, only to lose them - probably because we're not smart enough about the tide - when the wind goes light on the way down to Guernsey. And then the wind stops altogether and the tide turns, just off Les Hanois. Kedge in about 35 metres for a couple of hours, but we all need to back for Sunday evening (and one of the crew need to get the 2030 Fast Cat to Poole to keep his girlfriend happy!) so, with no sign of any wind and a forecast for nothing further south switch on the engine and come home. Good call - Les Conquerants first Class 40 in St Malo, not finishing until 2125.

25th/26th May Skagen Race - Tom, Natalie, Chris, Tom Playford, Bob Clitherow

Red beat us off the start line but we were soon past them on the beat north to a mark off Esbjerg that kept us clear of the windfarms on the Danish coast. Cracking off a bit, we were doing 10+ knots when the lashing on the tack of the staysail failed, so a bit of bobbing around on the ocean followed while this was put right. Wind steadily built as we headed north, as we freed off a bit further off Nissum. But D ring on innner forestay failed, resulting in staysail and tack and baby stay flicking back and tearing mainsail. Reset the staysail on the forestay and monitored tear, which seemed to be holding. Wind continued to strengthen to 40 knots and seas build in shallower (c. 15 - 20 metres) waters off the coast. With another 90 miles to Skagen, took decision to retire at Hantsholm, last deep water port for a long time. Discover subsquently that we had pulled out lead of over 8 miles on Red in only 24 hours.

14th/16th May North Sea Race - Tom, Natalie, Sarah, Graham

Played it safe on a busy start line and not in great shape after a short, lightish beat, but then stormed through fleet once big sail up on a short downwind leg, then really struggled in c.7knots for 30 miles of beating, before a long run north to Smith's Knoll and an even longer broad reach in c. 10 knots across North Sea and a twenty mile white sail reach to finish. Home hours ahead of the other Class 40s, and midde of the fleet in IRC.

1st/3rd May: Cervantes Trophy - Tom, Mark Angell, Chris Beeson, Sarah Fawcus, Graham Iles

Christophe Coatnan brought Partouche over from France and Spliff came out to play too. We made a mess of sailing the angles on the run down the Solent but made up for it when the wind came a bit further forward for a power reach to the Owers. Lost the lead in the Class 40s on the deep leg to Rustington but pulled out a healthy lead over the other Class 40s and left everyone else apart from two TP52s and Tonnerre completely for dead on the reach to A5. But two miles short, the wind died leaving us downtide of the mark, which we only rounded 5 hours later! Second on the water in the Class 40s, but down the pan in IRC having been heading for a good handicap result until 20 miles from the finish.

Warsash Spring Championship weekends

No other Class 40s wanted to come out too play so we scratched and went out for some useful crew training, introducing Mark Angell and Graham Iles to the boat

10th April: Royal Southampton Spring Solent Double - Tom and Natalie