Very briefly we were shown on the Greenwich Flying Squadron results as leading the fastest times point score for the Spring series but after the pride there is always the fall and tonight there were seven in front and three behind.
On reflection the wind was similar to race three when we were third fastest so what was different?
At the front end of the fleet tonight the crews of the Ker 11.3 twins,Much Ado V and Dump truck, put in a very impressive performance. To windward they were particularly strong. Both yacht carried what I would call a No 4 jib and a reefed main and on the course they had the mains out wide in the gusts. Flashback had a very large crew on board and at the presentation skipper Brian paid tribute to the crew doing two headsail changes out on the course. The live ballast on the rail from the fifteen crew would also have helped in the heavy conditions.
Jackpot had their temporary secret weapon on board manning the mainsail ably assisted by a young strong winch man winding it back on. They had similar issues to Passion X and like Passion X they moved their jib cars back and played the main very aggressively. Unlike Passion X they had enough power to handle the conditions.
On the work to Goat Island, Soundtrack picked up a left shift above Passion X and lifted well above us and were never seen again until the race ended.
We had a good tussle with Lisdillon who likes a bit of breeze and was handling the breeze better with a full mainsail than Passion X was with a reef in the main.
Ausreo is a big powerful beast and once she wound up she slowly caught Passion X. She went inside us at Onion Point on the way home and then called for room to tack. There was not room to go through the obstruction so she should not have been there but once she was inside us the only polite thing to do was to give them room to tack. Another place lost on the way to the line was a bit of a dampener on an already disappointing evening.
We did hold out Fireball, Irukandji and Sweet Chariot but only by a short distance and only after strong performances by these three on the beat to Goat Island.
We did much better in race three with the No 4 jib and the reefed main. In that race we took the reef out and lost a place to Lisdillon but possibly saved a place on Flashback. Tonight Flashback was so far in front of Passion X we could not do worse than to revert to the No 4 jib for the beat and take the reef in the main out for the run back to Cockatoo Island.
With the reef in the main we could not pull the foot out as flat as I would like because the reef line was in front of a slug on the boom bag. It seems a small issue but the fullness in the main cancelled some of the benefit of the reef.
We rounded up a lot tonight which is the first time we have experienced this as a persistent and troublesome issue. I was encouraged be Steven Bradley’s observations on the performance of Jackpot in the same conditions and that was the main needed to be dumped aggressively and wound back in just as strongly. As well as move the jib cars back they did tension the jib halyard and that was one area we could have given some attention to.
Above all I think we had too much sail area for the first three quarters of the race and had we had the No 4 jib up we might have taken out the reef for the last run through Humbug.
Jackpot on the way back to the finish with no reef in the main.
Flashback on the way to the finish with a reef but a big genoa after a headsail change