It was one of those perfect winter days that reminded me why winter is for boat building and summer is for sailing. It did not help that we were a minute late for the start nor that we had a crew supplemented by two young men who had been pressed into service for the afternoon not having sailed before. These were small handicaps compared to the fickle fluctuating breeze. Now you cannot be upset with fluky conditions as everyone gets a turn of the roulette wheel out on the course and the warm, sunny conditions were most pleasant but as far as memories of the sailing are concerned I will show the tracks and then call in the “Men in Black” Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith to erase it from your memory. First the tracks where the short section between Cockatoo Island and Hunters Hill are as near as I can recall the worst set on record.
Tacking into an outgoing tide with light shifting wind
And now Tommy and Will to erase the memory.
Look at the light please
Despite the late start and that short spell of poor tacking angles that you can no longer remember we managed to finish sixth on handicap and are now in second place in the series so some of the other yachts must have had a bad day. Talking of bad days, Elaine heard Out of Africa call up on the VHF asking where the finish line was only to be told the time had elapsed and there was no finish line. Perhaps we should send the Men in Black around to them. Now I mentioned winter is for boat building so here is the progress report on the next Passion.
The building jig for the next Passion with eight of the fourteen legs already set in concrete.