beneteau cup pwllheli 2005 and fast 351s !!

well what a weekend, pwllheli beneteau cup. have taken part for the last two years and last year retired with wounded pride. this year friends volunteered to come with us, well what a fantabulous time we had. my 351 is a big fat cruiser (caravan?) and looked upon with a degree of sceptisism by the 31.7 pocket rockets, anyway saturday, sun and plenty of wind in the straight race and we finished in the middle of the pack, quel surprise, in fact dead chuffed. sunday dawns cold and cloudy, muzzy head from the bash the night before, go to the briefing for the pursuit race (handicapped from the race the day before, heh heh) and find we are starting + 11 mins, dont forget we have the likes of bene 473s, dehler 395s competing against us and of course the pocket rocket 31.7s. any way 8th off and away we go, right on the limit, first boat a 31.7 going from broaching to wandering, get past him safely, get the others in our sights and bloody hell we round the windward mark in the lead!! get to the down wind mark and still in the lead, the big boats are chasing us now but we are keeping them at bay, get to the windward mark 2nd time round and round it still in the lead, getting blase now and watch the serious ones trying to pop spinnakers and making a balls of it plus as they make a balls they hamper the big 473 which is starting to make inroads in to us, wha heyy, get to the down wind mark and still there!! the 473 is now the threat with 3 pocket rocket 31.7s snapping at or heels.  get the big overlapping genny poled out and we are still holding them off. last mark now for the dash for the committee boat, damn one of the pocket rockets sneaks past, john on the helm go's for the inside line at the mark and shouts " my water" and gets a mouth back, i say what did you say john, "oh something ive heard racers shout" any way did the trick next thing the 47.3 comes whistling past, blast!! then another pocket rocket sneaks past and the third is tryng to come up on the windward side, spot the finsh buoy is nearer then the committee boat and head for it, the 31.7 trys to steal our wind but it doesnt matter cause we are nearer the line than him and bingo we got him by half a boats length!! havent had so much fun for years, (sorry david e)
what a superb day, our floating caravan beat some of the traditional winners!! cant wait tilll next year, who says bene 351s are slow!!
stu