Elaine is nursing a few bruises tonight as a result of being caught by the running backstay during a pre race gybe. As well as injuring Elaine the back stay was caught on the wrong side of the boom in winds gusting to 20 knots so we had to look after Elaine and get the backstay back on all in the five minutes before the start. Both came good about the same time so we headed off to the start line thinking that the pin end was on the wrong side of the start boat. In the pre race rigging we had missed the change from the No 2 course so we steamed down the line towards the committee boat to try to read the course flag which was inconveniently only showing on the far side. In the starters hand was an individual recall flag which I correctly thought was for us as we were running down the course side of the line. The gun went as the committee boat was abeam and we could read the No4 course flag so we tacked around the boat and went off chasing the fleet.
Now the conditions were marginal for spinnakers at the best so we opted for caution and proceeded with the No 3 jib and a full main. The first leg to Shark Island was a broad reach which is the strength for the Didi 40 cr design and in these conditions we were keeping up with the fleet. The brave ones flying spinnakers had their share of problems and a Far East 28 was spectacularly laying over in full broach mode. Even Avalon with what looked like a code 0 was not pulling away in this leg. The very tight reach back to round Clark Island was also a good leg for Passion X. The leg was about 15 degrees off a hard beat and both the SOG and GPS speeds were reading over 8 knots which is the predicted speed under ORCi for 20 knots of breeze at this angle.
Once on the long slog to round Goat Island the more powerful Sydney 38, Avalon, pulled away. They have more form stability, a deeper keel and more crew on the rail and we have come to expect they will pull away in a breeze. Occasionally i saw 6 knots on the speed gauges and we pulled away from the rest of the fleet except for the second Sydney 38 in the fleet, Utopia. We could see Utopia making up good ground and were happy to finish ahead.
The third on handicap was a very good result for the crew of five. We enjoyed our day and Elaine is still smiling.
The track to windward were pretty good as the more open waters of the outer harbour gives more opportunity to work the shifts.
Nice angles working back to Balmain from Clark Island