The warm night and light breeze tempted a large crowd to stay for the post race BBQ at the Greenwich Flying Squadron. Hopefully the pleasant atmosphere and good food made up for the disappointment of some of the crews who found themselves a few hundred metres short of the finish line when the breeze died. Indeed at 10 pm when I was putting Passion back on the mooring at Woolwich there was no detectable breeze.
Sitting on the start line like a Laser does not work for a 6,400 kg yacht and so we were passed by Gwhizz and Saoirse to leeward and Izzi to windward. While we made the tight reach into Humbug in good order once we turned for the broad reach to Cockatoo Island we were blanketed by the following fleet. In one of our least successful downwind legs we were passed by the whole fleet. Normally we would give Cockatoo Island a wide berth but the wind was still fresh and we had the full rig up so I chanced a line a little closer that usual and we were rewarded with a lift above the tail enders. Now we had an outgoing tide to help and after crossing tacks twice with French Connection we ended up on the right side of a lift which gave us a good gap. In front we had Tartan, Saoirse, Worlds Apart, Izzi and Gwhizz to catch and they were a long way in front.
In the beat around Goat Island we passed Tartan who stayed on our hip all the way back to Humbug. Worlds Apart with their distinctive large mainsail with the Jeanneau logo was not far ahead and Saoirse was in between. Izzi was up near Worlds Apart and finished ten seconds in front of her while G Whizz was out in front all alone. Luckily for us Saoirse and Tartan went too close in to Greenwich and slowed in the wind shadow. By the time they escaped from the windless zone we were well away and enough away to beat them on handicap. The rest of the fleet struggled home in dying breeze so the early finishers were the handicap winners on the night. For our troubles we collected the mandatory bottle of wind at the results presentation.
Light airs and an outgoing tide produce some good tacking angles.