There is something about Les Voiles De Saint-Tropez that just keeps you coming back for more. Could it be our luxury villa? The weather? The place? Or the boats that this event attracts? Personally I think they all make this regatta something very special.

With Practice Day on Sunday cancelled due to a mistral, we were relieved that things had calmed down for our first day on the water. Monday is probably my favourite day as we get to start just off of Saint-Tropez Harbour and there are plenty of boats to watch as you mill around waiting to start. The Wally Class had the first start followed by the big boys, this class had Velsheda, Mari Cha IV, Black Dragon, TP52 and about 20 others, counting down to their start sequence we found ourselves between Velsheda & Mari Cha, hmmmm, which one do I prefer? Our start got underway sometime later, after a complete wind shift making the windward mark no longer to windward. It was a good race to get the team work going.

Day 2, we had Jim & Jean joining the crew which made things easier as we had been rather light handed during maneuvers. The sea state was rough which didn't do much for everyone's stomachs but we made it through the day in the middle of the fleet. That night we went into Ramatuelle for dinner.

Day 3, our start got postponed while we waited for the Wally and Big Boat class to come back through the starting area, the best part of this was as they got closer to us the wind started to build and suddenly they had 20+knots with their light A symmetric up, bowmans were on their bow's whistling at boats to keep clear and you could hear the noise of the spinnaker sheet being eased round the drum of the winch. The Wally's were first through and only one of them blew their kite but that ended in chaos as the whole clew and foot ripped off leaving it flying from the top of the mast. Next through, close to us, was Black Dragon and the TP52, they were steaming along. By the time we started the wind had dropped down again and we had a great day out, finishing 7th on the water.

Thursday was our layday, which saw most of the crew having lunch on the beach. We met up at 5pm in the Tent area in town for the Beneteau owners and crew reception. We thoroughly enjoyed the rose and drunk it like water! We then went off to the Sube for a few more before heading off for dinner. We went to a great Indonesian place called Petit Joseph. Then it was back to the Sube to finish ourselves off before heading to bed.

Race 4, ok, so maybe it wasn't a great idea to drink all that rose and strawberry champagne cocktails the night before racing and to add to the pain it was blowing up to 30knots and the sea state was not pleasant. Thank goodness they got us off on time and once concentrating on racing everything felt alot better. We had a triangle course and we found ourselves at one mark with a 100ft Wally desperately trying to make the mark on port and tried to creep inside of us. When the bowman standing on the bowsprit was over the boat, looking down on us, saying 'I'm really sorry about this' we did wonder what was going to happen next. Luckily we sailed on and went round the mark while he caused further chaos to the 3 boats chasing us. Another top 10 finish on the water.

Race 5, our final race, it was incredibly painful with an error between the race vision and the navigator we found ourselves at the back of our class, then the whole class and fleet found themselves in a massive hole. We battled and persevered and eventually finished the final race with 15knots of wind and not at the back of our fleet.

We finished the week with a big BBQ up at the villa and attempted to finish our stock of wine before leaving but even we were defeated. A great finish of the 2005 racing season.