Tonight was all about avoiding mistakes. The north east breeze was forecast to die out before a late southerly front so we set the large black genoa in anticipation that by the time we had run down the south side of Cockatoo Island the breeze would have abated. The sail selection worked to plan as we won the race out of Humbug. We were aided in no small part by Gwhizz going high under the Greenwich hill and carrying Worlds Apart and Agrovation with her. French Connection and Izzi went low as we did and we three emerged well in front of the pack. Izzi won the run down the south side of Cockatoo but only by a couple of boat lengths. She undid all her good work by taking the corner at Schnapper Island so close that she ran aground and we had to take avoiding action.
Izzi’s problem left us with a small gap to French Connection and with Saoirse stopping to assist Izzi there was one less close follower.
On the beat back to Goat Island French Connection got on the winning side of one shift to make up ground but then went off to the north while we played the shifts up the track.
From the approach to Goat Island all the way back to Greenwich Flying Squadron we had to contend with light shifty conditions. All the time we could see Worlds Apart making ground on us only to fall into the same quiet patch we had just traversed and so the lead widened again. As we crossed the line the southerly started to come through bringing the back markers through the fleet with speed so Gwhizz was a close second and Farrst Company made up a lot of ground to give her a handicap chance.
Respectable tacking angles on a quiet night