Just finished (last night) the last distance race of the year on Long Island Sound known as 'The Gearbuster'. Short of crew and needing this race to qualify for the season trophy, I entered the double handed class. This put me at the bottom of a class whose ratings ranged from -12 to 117. We are rated at 141 and the slowest boat in the race. The average rating was in the mid 60's. Blowing 18 to 22 kts and lumpy seas, this was a windward leeward coarse of 46.5 NM. Because we finished in darkness, I had no way of knowing how we did. Well, the results were just posted and we pulled out a 3rd place. This on top of that fact that we missed the start by 4 minutes because I miscalculated the 90 minute trip to the starting area due to the lumpy seas. I have won this race in 1999, and 2000, but against boats of similar ratings to me. I thought, after I saw the scratch sheet, that I had made a giant mistake. Well, that just goes to show that anyone, even a Hunter can play with the big guys (J-120, Tripp37, J-44, SNC52) and win.