The forecast for the Wednesday night twilight race at Greenwich Flying Squadron was for thirteen knots at which wind speed we would have set the No 1 genoa. The on water wind was somewhat stronger and we settled for the same No 3 jib we have used for the past three weeks but this time opted to keep the full main for the whole race. Flashback did well through Humbug and they had a large genoa poled out to get a jump on the fleet. The rest of the fleet was tightly bunched on the reach to Cockatoo and for the run around the Island.
We had 69 yachts on the water for the evening and it seemed like all of them were beating up the Hunters Hill shore towards Goat Island so the first work was a nervous one as we ducked and weaved and tacked to stay out of the way of right of way yachts. At one stage we had to tack away from a stalled port tack yacht and plead for water from an approaching starboard tacker who kindly responded.
At Goat Island we were hot on the heels of Joli and Lisdillon but hit a light header approaching the turning mark which had us two tacking at a very slow pace.
The run back around Cockatoo was straight forward until we reached the western end of Cockatoo and had to negotiate the wind shadow of a large cruising yacht which we could not abuse because they had friends on board. Instead we exchanged pleasantries and waited to negotiate the wind shadow.
We enjoyed the next work to Goat Island without the traffic of the first leg and at times seemed to hit our windward target speeds of 7 knots in 18 knots of breeze. At times we were heeled 30 degrees and tracking quite well but could not make up any of the gap to Lisdillon and Joli.
Dump Truck who had a late start was behind but not making up a lot of ground so we were using them as a guage of performance. Again we had to two tack around the end of Goat Island and lost a lot of ground in the process. A couple of good squirts on the way back to Humbug raised our spirits momentarily but like the yacht in front we took a long time to get past the wind shadow of the hill.
We finished perfectly in the middle of the fleet with a fourth on handicap but a long way back from third. If the handicap system does not catch up with Lisdillon after two wins it will after three. They have sailed very well these last few weeks and deserve the results. Congratulations to Jackpot which is doing very well with the new owners on board and took fastest time and second place from Flashback second fastest and third on handicap with Much Ado V across the line in third fastest.