The sisters, from Great Waldingfield, had two firsts, a second and an eighth place in the four races sailed. Here Emma reflects on how they took the title.

The Nationals started at Llandudno and began with a northern onshore wind of about 15 knots creating a rough sea.

After the briefing, which was very short on safety advice given the sea conditions, we set off on the long trek down the promenade to our boat and got ready to launch through the crashing waves.

It was only possible to launch the 54 boats off one slipway one at a time. We were the first to be launched. Launching took two hours and inflicted serious injuries to three adult helpers – one with a broken hand, a second with cut fingers, and a third who was washed off the slipway and suffered from shock.

By the time the race started the wind had picked up to 25 knots and the waves were over three metres high, so visibility was lost in the troughs.

We got a good start in the middle of the line in the front row and worked hard up the first beat to round the windward mark in third place. The next leg was a run and being light and using the waves to our advantage we very quickly overhauled the 2005 Mirror world champion Ross Kearney who was the boat ahead.

Shortly afterwards Ross saw a sailor in the water and altered course to effect a rescue. The leading boat got lost sailing past the leeward gate, so we started the next beat in the lead.

Again we worked hard to keep the boat moving over the waves and pulled out from the pack behind us. It was on this leg we realised how the rest of the fleet were struggling as we passed boats that had capsized and were still on the first leg.

I could roughly remember where the windward mark was having rounded it some 20 minutes earlier. We then rounded the mark and pulled the spinnaker up. I couldn't see the gybe mark, so all I could do was to sail towards where I expected it to be and hope.

Half way along the leg Martina spotted the buoy and I was not far off with my guess so it was only a small change of direction to lay the buoy. The gybe mark was under the cliffs in a big sea, and when we finished the gybe we were aiming at the pier.

I luffed up to the lay line of the leeward mark and we continued to pull out on the rest of the fleet. We surfed down the waves and rounded the final buoy and sailed through the finish line to win the race.

The race officer then abandoned racing for the rest of the day, so as boats finished they sailed in. Helpers were expecting three races, so they were not ready on the beach with enough people to lift boats out of the water and no trolleys were in position.

We came in under control and the boat was lifted out onto the beach, but I can't say the same for the rest of the fleet.

Immediately after we were ashore Ross, who was following Natalie Roach, caught a wave and ran into the back of her boat, holing his boat and breaking her mast.

Things did not improve for the rest of the fleet with a further 10 masts being broken and further damage inflicted to the boats, most caused by waves breaking and pushing the boats onto the beach.