With a scoreline of 6,2,6 after the first 3 races, things were looking tough. Incognito had an impressive 1,1,2 and we knew we had to dig deep. Some impressive mast tuning, tighter & smarter sailing, and early nights for the key crew left us on the last day with just having to beat Incognito and finish in the top 3.

Final day, and Incognito decided to engage us in a match race start. With some of the UK's top team-racers aboard Playing Around, this proved to be a bad move, and we quietly tempted them to hold onto our tail until too late. A quick tack around and we were off. We both started late (as we planned), but importantly, ahead of Incognito! We managed to get some boats between ourselves and Incognito slowing them further, as we both climbed up the fleet.

Finally we broke clear at the head of the fleet with Philosophie, who then unfortunately ripped a spinnaker clean in half. Down the final run we were neck & neck with Philosophie, but importantly 4mins ahead of Incognito.

The finish was a non-event - no gun! We knew we could not be OCS, so what had gone wrong? We nervously headed ashore, unsure weather to celebrate just yet. Finally, the results came up, and a retiring yacht had inadvertantly crossed the finish line, assumed by the Race Officers to be the first boat. We had finally won Cowes Week!

Thanks to a great crew, Pete, Manda, Bethany, Nick, AJ, Alex, Jack, Roger, Rupert, Sarah, Simon, Bruce (part time) we'll be back stronger than ever next year!