Windy

If you haven't been on a yacht since 1988 (*), you forget how noisy it can get. No chance of that today. The competitors passing within yards of the harbour wall, sails thrashing, the wind wild enough to cancel the ferry . Here they are tacking against the wind, one not in the picture having lost its foresail. They were all finding it really tough.

(*) 1988: we got to borrow a company yacht for the weekend, a 36 foot Westerly Conway. One of our friends was an experienced skipper. We crewed. We sailed out of the River Hamble, aimed for the Isle of Wight and missed. Our skipper had never sailed a twin masted yacht before and mucked up the sail settings. We ended up on the Beaulieu River, having a great evening at Bucklers Hard, emerged from the pub into pitch darkness, and had to motor the dinghy back to a moored yacht we couldn't actually see. The following morning our skipper and his partner had a blazing row and left. Can't imagine why I never went sailing again.