We were promised 8 knots from the north west and a pleasant reach up and down the harbour but got as little as 5 knots at time and some pretty wide swings in direction. The reach out from the RANSA start line was broader and from the leeward end of the line we were well blanketed instead of having our nose in front. We went low for clear air and watched as the fleet above had first use of the gusts only to run into a dead spot mid leg. From below we carried the wind further up the coarse and made up some ground on Hitchhike and Fidelis but were in turn over run by Amanti, Allegro and Joli coming up with fresh breeze from behind. We rounded the mark on Allegro’s tuck but they were not about to let us go above so we were forced below for a quiet tight reach to Steele Point. Along the way Crosshaven reached lowest of all to Steele Point and did well in the process. Into Rose Bay we ran square with the genoa poled out while Fidelis and Joli went well wide on the point and came back on a tighter angle with enough speed to make up for much of the extra distance travelled. Larrikin was pretending to be a much bigger yacht and hanging on to the leaders well.
In the work to Point Piper we had a fair share of dirty air from the leaders and watched Joli power away to leeward.
The way around Shark Island was entertaining if only for the antics of the competitors in front trying to get inside rights at the mark. We thought we might make up some ground but were over run by Larrikin still pretending to be a bigger boat. Amante seems to have escaped from the front of this group for a 30 second win over Hitchhike with Crosshaven a further minute and a half back then Joli, Allegro and Passion X. Fideis and Larrikin were respectively two and four minutes further back which seemed unfair given their earlier much more prominent positions. The beat back from Shark Island was in light and flukey conditions and in a very light patch we managed to sail over the top of Fidelis while Larrikin found her private patch of nothing along the way. The wind maps for the day show non of the westerly breeze direction we were forced to contend with on the work home so perhaps the leaders had the much more northerly direction shown on the graphs.
We had no luck on the day either good or bad but the hard beat back to the finish line was a far cry from the easy single board we had expected from the forecast and the three Greenwich Flying Squadron yachts, Joli, Passion X and Agrovation had to settle for eighth, ninth and tenth on handicap.