Tidy tracks to windward but our big move was off the breeze and at Steele Point
Sunshine and a light Nor’easter made for a stunning day on Sydney Harbour. We wanted to be at the boat end at the start but a late knock meant we were below the boat and did not have the speed to make it to the crowded line. Larrikin held back so that they could take the windward edge of the fleet and at first that looked like a good move. Allegro tacked back to the windward side early and she too looked to be in a winning position. Aggrovation was also above us and with the lifts moving further ahead. When the breeze knocked we tacked back to the line of Larrikin and managed to tack back ahead of her . She was now in our dirty air and having trouble breaking through. Izzi a little further back was in clear air and managed to climb above us on the next series of lifts. We tacked back to the shore side of the course on a header that lasted too briefly and rounded well astern of Aggrovation with Izzi in the middle and Larrikin astern.
On the broad reach back to Steele Point we did not fare well. Rainbow came up from astern and Aggrovation and Izzi cleared out. Still Larrikin was close by and Ellipse who normally clears out was not getting away.
At Steele Point it is our normal practice to go wide to avoid the wind shadow. We have gone wide in about 200 races at RANSA and done well. Today the breeze was dropping over the hill quite close into the shore and there were random dead patches to leeward. Coming up with wind and speed we headed high and almost straight into the dead patch next to Aggrovation. We then carried on with momentum until we reached the new wind. This time it was our turn to hold the windward position and stay high until we reached the Rose Bay rounding mark ahead of Aggrovation. We got away with it this time but will probably not try it again for another 200 races. Now we were square running to Point Piper and in the process running down on Izzi and keeping up with Larrikin.
I had forgotten that windward and return legs had been our strong point after several weeks off reaching up and down the course and doing quite well. At the mark we had an inside overlap on Izzi and Larrikin was just clear ahead. Now that Larrikin was in clear air she started to move away on the leg around the island. The last long leg was almost square to the naval buoys and we did relatively well keeping clear air from Izzi. On the windward side of the course we could not make the mark without gybing and rather than try to gyby the big black genoa over we kept on until the line to the mark was tight enough for us to leave the genoa poled out to leeward and then gybed back at the mark with the genoa already poled out. This move gained quite a few seconds on the fleet to the extent that we caught Ellipse and pulled away from Izzi and Aggrovation.
We were happy to beat Izzi and Aggrovation over the line and were content that we had beaten Larrikin on corrected time. The sixth place was a surprise as we just edged out Rainbow by three seconds and Izzi by eight. Allegro finished fifth and took one point back from us but we could not be beaten before todays race and after it we cannot be beaten by a wider margin.
It would have been a stunning day even without the sixth place. No one who has the good fortune to be able to sail on the Harbour on such a day can be unhappy with any result in the race.