With the forecast for a stiff breeze we set the No 3 genoa and a reef in the main for the first race of the Greenwich Flying Squadron Twilight series. We were not the most cautious as Flashback with their repaired mast on it first outing had two reefs in the main but the rest of the fleet was fully clad in big jibs and full mains.
While the breeze was fresh we sailed above our handicap and a good start got us out of Humbug first with Sydney 38 Avalon below and the J112e Meridian above. A big persistent shift helped us against Avalon but we gave up a lot of our lead on Meridian who tacked below us for the leg to Goat Island. As the breeze eased we were overrun by Avalon and Joli while Meridian established a handy lead. Much Ado V went a bit low going into Balls Head and had to pinch for the mark so much that we held our ground. Joli tacked away from the point rather than pinch and did better at maintaining speed in the dying breeze. At this point we got desperate and took out the reef in the main forgetting to get the port backstay on correct side of the sail. Once around Goat we quickly dropped the main below the backstay and rehoisted it correctly in a move that seemed to lose very little time.
We were still down 14m2 of sail area on the run home compared to our No 1 genoa but to our surprise we held Much Ado V and were alongside them just metres from the finish line. With the reduced rig we still hit over 8 knots on the run home although this was tide assisted.
Up in front Joli ran down Meridian and Avalon for a close fastest times victory and a first on handicap.
The surprise of the night was that we were only 54 seconds from first place, 11 seconds from second and 8 seconds from third.
A cautious Passion x sandwiched between Joli and Avalon. Photo from the GFS facebook page courtesy of Mark Palmer
A more cautious Flashback from the GFS facebook page courtesy Mark Palmer