Windrace screen shot of our afternoon sail
The boat speed is a pretty good proxy for the wind strength which was strong early and late but quite manageable the rest of the day
The officials at RANSA abandoned today’s race due to persistent gusts over 30 knots but as we were there and ready to go we had a training session.
The No3 jib and one reef in the main was a good choice for the solo sail to the heads during which time we hit a modest 10.6 knots. For the broad reach I feel we could have easily carried the full main but on the beat back to Steele point the reefed main was hanging out flogging in the wind.
We sailed the short course and went around the Point Piper mark before beating back to what is usually the finish line. For practice I put in the second reef and was pleased with that because a 34.6 knot gust hit and put us on our ear even with the double reef. The round trip took very close to 60 minutes but as we had started just after 1:30 pm it was an early finish to what was a very tidy solo sail.
I did play around with a phone app for the afternoon and it recorded our speed and direction.