Flica II pipped at the post

madforsailing's Andy Rice sailed on this classic black hulled 12m

Well, it didn’t go our way. We had a great start in the final race, but so did a lot of other boats in the 12-Metre Classic Division as we rolled off the line for the deciding race of the Prada 12-Metre World Championship.

After a load of protests on Friday night following a heavy-traffic start line for Race 4, we were lying first equal going into the final day. Our chief rivals Nyala and Sovereign had both been disqualified for misdemeanours at the start of the morning race on Friday, so their backs were against the wall. But we suffered our first poor result of the regatta too, after a shocking start, and finished 10th in Race 4. Might as well have been a DSQ, so all top three boats were pretty equal going into the last day.

Nyala started just to leeward of us and held their position out of the start, while we tacked off to duck some boats to get over to the right. The boats that had carried on towards Stokes Bay picked up more breeze and were soon sailing over the rest of the fleet. We were not looking good on the island shore.

Sovereign and Nyala rounded first and second, and we were some way back in sixth. Things were looking desperate. The breeze picked up after a slow start to the day, to build to a healthy 14 knots - lovely sailing but not ideal for trying to pull through the fleet.

With the race committee shortening course, we could only look on as our rivals maintained their positions to the finish, with Sovereign winning the race and taking the series overall. We were a disappointed third, but at least our owner Alex Falk had the distinction of being first amateur driver against a class field that included the likes of Torben Grael and Achim Griese. We had done OK.

When we got back into the dock at Cowes, it was time to crack open the Stella, throw a few people in the water and swap T-shirts with other 12 sailors. Australia II had sailed for the last time, they played their battle tune: "I come from a land down under", and people whooped and cheered as they pulled into the dock.

It was a week that had thrown every type of condition at the fleet, and the racing had been close and tough. By and large the right people had won, and everyone celebrated the party of the century regardless of where they finished on the water. The 12-Metres, the Classics and the not-so-old ones, all look Jurassic by comparison with the ACC boats that have replaced them, but we enjoyed some of the best racing of the Jubilee.

Russell Coutts and his gang on South Australia might have been playing golf after securing the Grand Prix division with a race to spare, but for the rest of us it was nailbiting stuff to the very end. A fine celebration of America's Cup tradition.