Those who did brave the damp sailing gear and stayed for the Christmas celebrations were rewarded with another great evening despite the woeful conditions. For the black fleet the longer course and late start time meant we were sailing in quite heavy rain for the second half of the race.
The racing itself was marred with some quite unfortunate incidents. We were lined up nicely on the line on port tack when a leeward yacht tacked in our water and we had to take evasive action which cost us our slot on the line and put us in the path of other starboard tackers which we would otherwise have easily cleared. When we were able to tack to port to cross the line we made up a lot of ground and passed Dump Truck and Lisdillon in a group becalmed in Humbug. We pulled through well to be on the transom of Meridian and lifting into the new breeze. Unfortunately the earlier starting fleets were all coming across on starboard and we were forced back into the shore twice by starboard tackers until we took some sterns and headed off to Long Nose following Joli. In this one phase pinned against the Manns Point shore we lost a lot of ground with Avalon, Utopia, Dump Truck, Much Ado V and Meridian all getting through by quite a distance. Ausreo, Irikudanji and Lisdillon also pulled through. We rounded Goat Island near the back of the fleet, which was disappointing considering the reasonable exit from Humbug, and set off after the fleet. Approaching Long Nose we picked up a following breeze and were able to round inside Ausreo, Irikundji and Lisdillon and not far behind Joli. On the run to Cockatoo Island we almost overhauled Joli when we attempted to pole out the genoa to port just as the wind veered ahead. In a few moments Joli drew ahead again and Irukandji steamed up from behind to go between us and Joli. Those two were locked in close mortal combat close into the wind shadow of the island allowing us to go wider and pick up wind coming over the island. Our success was short lived as we could not climb out into clear air and had to suffer disturbed air from Irukandji from which we never recovered.
Much Ado V crossed the line about 9 minutes ahead in conditions I felt we should be much more competitive. Dump Truck also did well and their bottles of wine from their handicap places were passed down the line to skippers who put up with the conditions and stayed for the festivity. The bottle of wine for third place was eventually taken by eighth place on handicap, Sweet Chariot with Passion X a surprising ninth out of thirteen starters.
I did manage it install the heat shield for the stove in preparation for a trip to Pittwater after Christmas and that was one success for the day.
Stainless steel heat shield at the side of the stove ready for a post Christmas cruise.