For a light air night we had quite an interesting sail around the western islands. At the start we positioned ourselves at the club end of the line but in the light conditions had trouble tacking to the line at the start signal. That meant we had to take the stern of Takana and then the stern of Saoirse. All was not lost though as the yachts that carried on on starboard right up to the club found the same light air that had prevented us tacking quickly. And so it was that Aggrovation and Takana lead us out of Humbug by a small margin. Worlds Apart did not want to be left behind and made good time through Humbug to make it a foursome. There was plenty of shifts on the tack towards Cockatoo Island and on the work along the Southern shore of Cockatoo and it was Worlds Apart that prevailed. We were not far behind Aggrovation and with the big black genoa poled out felt we would catch up quickly. The out of the blue Izzi appeared and carried fresh air right down on top of the two of us.
From Spectacle Island to Clarkes Point there was nothing to separate Izzi, Aggrovation and Passion. Just ahead Worlds Apart was maintaining a handy lead she had taken at Schnapper Island.
Now some would call it luck and others cheek but our tacticians noted the breeze was fresher on the south side of the course and there was a large wind shadow in the lee of Onions Point so I was directed to take the long way along the Greenwich shore. As luck would have it the wind followed the shape of the shore and we were able to carry the genoa poled out for much longer than we had expected.
When we had to drop the genoa to starboard it was a big shift so we were now beam reaching to the finish.
In that cheeky finish we passed Izzi and Aggrovation to score a second fastest behind Worlds Apart.
Meanwhile back in the fleet the breeze had sprung up and the huge margin we had over the fleet disappeared and none of the early finishers featured in the handicap honours.