Then it was into The Quayside for drinks and a Bangers & Mash dinner; a few more drinks and a couple of presentations. British Sailing outlined how it's helping get more people out sailing before Jim Saltonstall, as a trustee of the charity, collected the cheque for the John Merricks Sailing Trust.

The JMST helps youngsters progress in sailing and has made over 40 grants amounting to some £65,000.

The Marine Industry Regatta put another £3,000 into the JMST bank account to carry on the good cause.

The Wednesday dawned bright and beautiful. With hardly a breath of wind. After motoring out to Mother Bank in the sunshine, the fleet set off on a course that would have been OK if the wind hadn't died.

A shortened course saw a victory for David Harding, technical editor of Practical Boat Owner, and a second place for Carol Grazebrook, sailing with an all-girl crew on the Halyard (M&I) boat.

Rockley Watersports' Rob Clarke was third.

After much bobbing around in a fitful breeze, the fleet finally got away on a much shorter course for the second race. But the wind - at best a feeble zephyr - died on the downwind leg. This, of course, brought a bit of a log jam of boats at the leeward mark.

There were some very loud voices engaged in heated discussions. Plus a few minor bumps.

First place in this second race went to Peter Gordon of Rockley Watersports. Second went to Ian Atkins in boats. com and third to Jon Wright of HenriLloyd.

After the second race, the breeze disappeared, leaving the Portsmouth Harbour Yacht Club race officer little choice but to abandon racing.

The results on two races saw Practical Boat Owner on 6pts take the Lewmar Trophy.

The two Rockley Watersports entries took 2nd and 3rd places, with Rob Clarke astutely allowing The Boss to slide into 2nd overall and taking 3rd for himself. Ian Atkins in boats. com was 4th.

It was nice to see a wide variety of companies entering this 2nd Marine Industry Regatta. And it was nice to see a change among those at the front of the fleet.

Alistair Kirkpatrick runs Beacon Park Boats, a canal narrowboat hire company in Brecon Beacon National Park.

He brought his boat home 4th in the second race. Cmdr Luke Van Beek silenced those who thought Naval officers weren't welcome on sailing boats by taking a 5th in the first race for The Royal Navy. Adrian Miles of Bruntons Propellers came in with a 9th in the second race.

The conditions were not the best for racing, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and BB already has many promises of returns next year, plus requests for information from five prospective new entrants.

You'll find the full results and pictures of the event on the regatta website at www.ybw.com/marine_industry_regatta_05 And the website offers the opportunity to post captions on the pictures - there are already some very funny offerings up there and BB will give a bottle of bubbly for the funniest caption on the site between now and May 31.

Any company wanting to be put on the email circulation list for information on next year's regatta should contact BB editor Peter Nash - email pnash@boatingbusiness.co.uk The 2006 Marine Industry Regatta is booked for Wednesday April 26, 2006.