All to soon the practice was over, we dropped all sail before heading back into the harbour.
There were people all along the sea wall waving, taking pictures. It felt like we were the stars of the show.

Once we were moored back on the dock. All halyards were coiled neatly at the mast. Sheets were coiled and stowed in the forward locker. The fore sails were stowed in their bags.
 

A hose was used to wash the decks, varnished woodwork and brass with fresh water before the majority of the crew, armed with shammy leathers wiped it all down to leave the boat looking ship shape and Bristol fashion.
 

Beers were bought on deck along with the left overs from lunch.
 

Once again we were all gathered by the forward hatch. There were about 22 of us. The atmosphere was very friendly with plenty of banter between us all.
 

A folding ‘directors’ type chair was found for ‘Woody’ being placed for him in the shade of the boom.
 

The skipper stood up to tell us that he was very pleased with the practice, that the weather was forecast to be light all week. He thought we should do well but it depended a lot on the courses set by the race officer.
 

He asked us to all be back on board by 19.00 for dinner after which we were going to hit the town again.
 

Brilliant. 
 

After checking with Grace that there were no other chores to do, Claire and I pushed through the crowds gathered around the gang plank to head back to our apartment for a shower via the hospitality tent of course for a free Prosecco and a glass of red wine.
 

It felt good walking through the crowds with our ‘Cambria’ t-shirts on. We felt part of what all these thousands of people had come to see.
 

Now we realised how good the location of our apartment was. It meant that we could pop back for a shower, change of clothes and a bit of well earned rest before heading back to the boat for our evening meal.
 

We were very happy that we were getting three meals a day on ‘Cambria’ as it kept our day to day living costs to a minimum which allowed us to spend more on drink in the evening!
 

Returning later via the hospitality tent we kicked our shore shoes off at the gang plank before stepping on-board for dinner.
 

Everyone was there, some were already eating so Claire and I joined the queue which started at the forehatch quickly moving below decks to the galley where we found large bowls of chili con carne, salads and fruit with a large basket of bread for good measure.
 

Once back up on deck we found ourselves a spot to sit. There was beer and or rose wine in the cooler. The food was delicious and the company even better.
 

‘Woody’ turned up and a chair for him was placed near the mast. Lou bought him a plate of food and a beer appeared by his side as if by magic. It was obvious that he held a very special place in the crew of Cambria. He is quite old, late 70’s early 80’s maybe. Very charming, very knowledgeable, with endless stories of his life mostly spent it would seem on sailing yachts of all shapes and sizes. 
 

He told us about his rescue from the stricken yacht ‘Drum’ owned by Simon le Bon from the band Duran, Duran during the 1985 Fastnet race.
‘Drum’ was designed and built to compete in the 1985 Whitbread round the world race and was entered in the Fastnet race for crew training, equipment testing and fine tuning of the yacht.
The weather was quite bad but ‘Drum’ a 70ft Maxi yacht was designed to cope with much worse.
 

Not long after the start, just off Falmouth the keel failed, detaching itself from the yacht resulting in the yacht capsizing trapping most of the crew inside.
Woody was lucky to be on deck at the time, scrambling over the guard rails onto the hull as the yacht slowly went over.
 

Some of the crew, including Simon Le Bon were trapped inside for about 40 minutes before a Royal Navy search and rescue helicopter from 771 squadron arrived on the scene with divers to help them get out.
 

The yacht was salvaged and repaired.
 

Incredible.
 

After dinner we helped clear away the plates while Lou, Toby the chef, Grace along with the rest of the regular crew cleaned the galley which included a floor cleaning race!!
 

The crew left the boat in ones and two’s meeting up in the same bar as yesterday evening. 
There were more crews out now and it was great to see everyone talking, catching up with friends not seen since the last regatta.
 

We had a bit of a bar crawl along the front before ending up back in the one we started in.
There were a lot more people in town now. Most bars had music or a band. The atmosphere was fantastic.
 

Another late night!!
 

My bed felt wonderful back in the apartment, Claire and I were knackered. It was all I could do to kick my flip flops off before I fell into a deep sleep.
 

 

6th September. Race 1
 

After saying Ciao to my friend the doorman through a mouthful of croissant Claire and I made our way to ‘Cambria’s’ gang plank. It was hard to find as the crowds were lining the quay so we just headed for the tallest mast!
 

We gently pushed through the on lookers before kicking our flip flops into the shoe basket and stepping over the wooden spinnaker pole, this was becoming second nature to us now.
 

We made our way to the forward hatch saying hi to the other crew members. Claire took our rucksack with our valuables in down below stowing them under Grace’s bunk.
 

We needed to be off before 11.00 to get out, get the sails hoisted ready for the start.
The practice had paid dividends as we all knew where we should be and what we should be doing.
 

The course set for us was a long up wind leg following the shore in the direction of Genoa, rounding a buoy to port for an even longer down wind leg, passing Imperia heading in the direction of San Remo to another buoy rounded to port before a beat up to the finish line.
 

The wind was very light and I couldn’t see us doing very well as although we carried a lot of canvas we carried a lot of weight too. Cambria weighs in at 160+ tons!!
 

There were about 50 classic yachts in the regatta so the race course was going to be quite busy.
 

There was two starts. The larger, faster yachts were off first with a second start 5 minutes later for the smaller yachts.
 

It was really great to see so many classic yachts milling around for the start. What wasn’t so great was the small power boats and RIB’s racing around us as well trying to get that perfect picture. Some of them came very close calling for us to look this way and that!! It really was annoying sometimes.
 

Our 5 minute gun went off as Chris bought us onto the wind with the start line in the distance. As the minute gun sounded, we were still a few hundred yards off the line but Chris had timed it to perfection hardening up slightly to pass very close to the committee boat.
 

We were off. I just couldn’t believe how well Cambria sailed in a very light breeze. 
‘Mariska’ (Sail No D5) was out in front. She is another beautiful yacht from the William Fife stable. She was built in 1908. She is gaff rigged and shorter than Cambria at 90ft but crucially weighing only 35 tons.
 

She was going slightly quicker than us for the first few hundred meters then ‘Cambria’ got into her ‘groove’ and we just sailed right past her. It was fantastic.
 

We were pointing better too which meant that ´Mariska’ and some of the other gaff rigged yachts following were going to have to tack before the mark where we could make it in one.
We passed the windward buoy for the shorter course. There were two courses set for each race, the longer one for us, the bigger yachts and one a mile or so shorter for the smaller yachts in the fleet.
 

As we neared our buoy, we started to get the huge spinnaker out of its bag that was stored on deck, getting it ready to hoist.
 

We were first to the windward mark which was fantastic. Chris held off the spinnaker hoist for a few minutes after rounding the buoy but once he gave the word there was a flurry of activity as the head of the spinnaker was hoisted to the top of the mast in its sock. 
 

A sock as the name suggests, is a cover that keeps the sail contained in a tube made of very thin cloth. Once hoisted a line tied to a zip that runs the length of the sock is pulled and the sail is released quickly filling with air. It's HUGE!!!! Around 700 Sq Meters. A tennis court is about 260sq m! It was like being on the inside of a hot air balloon and impossible to photograph.
 

Once this was set all three fore sails are lowered to the deck allowing all the breeze through to the spinnaker.
 

Claire, Ezzy and Juliette folded the sock on the deck, stowing it in the sail bag.
 

On the down wind leg most of the crew get to sit back and enjoy the ride as the spinnaker is controlled by just two trimmers under the watchful eye of Dave.
We had a good lead on the other yachts in our class.
 

I heard the now, very welcome Doodoloododoloodoo, as Lou bought the sandwiches round. They tasted better than ever.
 

Chris had to guide us through the rest of the smaller fleet as we slid past the shorter course marker. The racing rules state that the windward boat, which was us had to avoid all those yachts that were still beating towards their mark.
 

We were going well but ‘Mariska’ was definitely faster than us down wind. She was hugging the shore which was paying off as she seemed to be getting a bit more breeze there.
 

It was a long downwind leg and Mariska rounded the mark about 5 minutes before us, bugger!! Still we knew that we were faster up wind we just needed the time to catch her up.
 

We had to gybe this enormous kite (spinnaker) and mainsail to get to the mark as Mariska had done before us. I think we were all secretly hoping that they would make a mistake as they gybed, but they didn’t!! 
 

Our gybe went well, three or four crew went aft to the mainsheet to help Tam pull the sheets through the blocks at speed to help control the huge boom while the rest of us helped ease the spinnaker sheets around the forestay as Cambria gybed round onto her new course. Perfect.
 

Now we just needed our spinnaker drop and fore sail hoist to go really well for us to be in with a fighting chance.
 

As we approached the mark, Chris asked Dave to hoist the staysail inside of the spinnaker. This was to provide Cambria with some drive while the spinnaker was being dropped.
Grace was on the port staysail sheet, I can’t tell how great it was to be racing with my girl again.
 

The rest of us had to get this huge sail down as quick as possible.
 

Lou was on the halyard winch, Claire, Ezzy, Juliette helped by John were waiting amid ships opposite side to the boom. The sail bag was draped over the galley’s skylight ready for the sail.
Will and Toby were on the lazy sheet making ready to pull the clew (corner) of the sail in before passing it under the boom to the girls.
I was with Rhod, Scott, and Rowan forward trying to keep the foot of this huge sail out of the water as it came down.
Jean Me and Christoph were on the spinnaker sheets
Chris and Dave were looking intently at each other, waiting for the last possible moment to drop this huge sail before we rounded the mark because as soon as we started dropping it our boat speed would decrease until we were round, beating again with all sails set.
 

Chris just nodded at Dave who said ‘OK let’s have it down’
 

Lou on the halyard winch had the most important job. She had to drop it as fast as we could gather it in. If she dropped it too fast it would certainly end up in the water which would virtually stop Cambria as it would act like a large sea anchor with a very good chance of ripping the sail in the process. If, on the other hand she dropped it too slowly it would delay us because we couldn’t turn onto our new course or hoist the other two fore sails until the spinnaker was down. So she had to judge how well we were doing as she lowered away.
 

What can I say, it went very well indeed, Will and Toby hauled in on the sheet handing it under the boom to the girls who started to gather it in while stuffing it into the bag.
Once they had started Lou began to ease the halyard and the sail began to drop that’s when our little team on the foredeck started our work, grabbing the foot of the sail hauling it in and aft as quickly as we could.
 

All this was done in silence, not because we were a disciplined, well-oiled crew oh no. It was because it was really hard work and I couldn’t really breath let alone talk.
 

As soon as it was in, the girls carried on stuffing it into its bag securing it with sail ties while the fore deck crew started to hoist the other two jibs.
 

They flew up and very soon we were heeled over once more beating into the breeze with ‘Mariska’ firmly in our sights.
 

As the minutes slipped past it was obvious that we were gaining on her, but the finish line was close now.
 

After 10 minutes we were close but not close enough. Mariska crept over the line to win the first race.