The conditions - up to Force 4 with a lumpy sea - made boat handling important. And with so many boats carrying inexperienced crew, and with Sunsail's fleet of Sun Fast 37s having had a hard life, some creative sail handling was seen. Such as two-corner spinnaker hoists. And one rather nice upside down hoist.

There were a few breakages;

one self-inflicted by Ian Atkins on the boats. com boat when he - rather neatly - skewered the horseshoe lifebuoy off the pushpit of the Tony Jonesskippered Lewmar boat.

Unfortunately for Atkins, the Jones boat was on starboard while he was on port. And Atkins also removed a little more than the lifebuoy from the pushpit??. .

The Simrad boat, skippered by Paul Knight, managed only to sail the first beat of the first race after the gooseneck failed at the first mark. "We were in Haslar for the entire event, trying to get the boat fixed, " Knight explained. "Our last place on the results sheet doesn't really tell the story of our day."

As the conditions worsened at the end of the third race, the Sunsail race officer wisely decided to call it a day (much to the relief of most of the crews, it must be said).

Skippered by Dan Hills, the Spinlock boat turned in the consistency with 7, 1, 2 placings to take the Lewmar Trophy for the overall win with the Henri-Lloyd boat - skippered by David Ellis - putting in a 6, 3, 3, performance for the 2nd place.

Third place was between Raymarine and Navigators & General, both of which came in with 13 points. Raymarine, skippered by Nils Joliffe, beat N&G twice, so took the 3rd, pushing Joe Field and the N&G crew into 4th place.

For a first event, 21 boats was a superb turnout and the competition at the top of the fleet was close with just three points separating the first four boats. Most of the crews arrived on the Tuesday night, so the bar at Portsmouth Harbour Yacht Club did good business and a lot of good contacts were made.

As Andrew Webster, publisher of BB , said at the prizegiving: "Power might take 70% of the boating market, but sailing is the heart of the leisure marine industry. This event brings us together doing what we're best at."

There were one or two glitches that require attention for the next event, but the feedback from the competitors has been universal in their praise for the event.

If the comments are anything to go by, we should see even more boats out next year. Get on the mailing list for that event now by emailing pnash@boating-business.co.uk