The forecast had been for a very light breeze but a nice southerly came in which built to ten knots at time and lasted long enough for us to complete a shortened course race.
The first leg was a runch! Some times a run and sometimes a reach so towards the top of the course I poled the genoa out to leeward to open the gap and get the foot more in line with the apparent wind. In this configuration we seemed to hold the fleet to a two minute lead on our position.
Even though the gap was not large we were well back in parade around the top mark and had a job to do to get back into the race. I took the high road and kept to windward of the fleet which paid off when the breeze lifted along the shore leading up to Steel Point. At this stage we had caught Enigma and passed Star Ferry and Silky and were catching a new shiny silver grey competitor, Mojo. Kevin spotted the breeze coming around Steel Point and guided us close in which paid off well. We continued to benefit from a lifting breeze and were looking closer to Rainbow than we had been all day.
The tracks show some nice angles up into Rose Bay and by the time we had reached away to Point Piper we were surprisingly close to the fleet bunched around the mark. From Point Piper there was just the reach to the shortened course finish line but a fading breeze and an agonisingly slow reach home meant the short distance was still a long time.
Nice tracks up into Rose Bay
For our efforts and concentration we achieved fifth place which was a mighty fine effort for the light conditions. We were beaten by our old mark boats Rainbow and L’Eau Co and their sister ship Izzi. That made three Northshore 38’s in the first three which suggests the predominantly reaching conditions suited their narrow water lines and light weight. Our new mark boat the big blue Viva does not like the light conditions and was well back.
So considering the forecast it was a bonus race and we were very pleased to score a fifth place.
You can see some photos of the race and the day below.
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