Our handicap has caught up with us and in less than optimal conditions for Passion X we finished last by one second. In the fresh conditions we could only set our No 3 jib while many carried their large genoas on the down wind leg. We did manage to hold out Hanni and Crosshaven on the run despite spending much of the very broad reach come run in the wind shadow of the fleet. Only a shift to the windward side up near the top mark saved us from a very wide mark rounding behind half the fleet. Fidelis lead the way with Allegro up near the front. Unfortunately for Allegro and Passion X, Allegro caught her genoa on the mark rounding and reached away from the mark driving Passion X deep into the headland. Hanni to leeward was pointing up leaving us no where to go until Allegro tacked away. by then we were close to the rocks and calling for room to tack on Crosshaven. Crackerjack was with the early leaders and tacked early so we had a guide as to the wind direction and strength. We held our position for a couple of tacks but let Crosshaven tack to the southern shore without following. On the next lift they pulled out a half minute lead which we never recovered.
At Steel Point we put in a dig into the point and came away quite well. The next knock allowed us to tack to starboard on a good lift into Rose Bay and for a while we thought we had pulled back some distance on Hanni but she waited for the next knock and tacked across well in front. All up the work Hanni was travelling faster and higher than Passion X and her sails were nicely flattened out for the windward work. Perhaps a carbon No 3 jib on Passion X might be faster but for heavy air cruising we opted for a radial cut Hydranet and while probably bullet proof the leech does not look as streamlined as the nice flat black genoa on Hanni.
The tracks show we sailed the shifts to windward pretty well and the boat speed was up at the 7 knot mark so it is hard to know what else we could have done.
On the reach into Point Piper we did make up some time but were seven boats deep at the rounding and had to wait for the Div 2 boats to round before we could pull away behind their stern. A the top of Shark Island we had to sail around another two Div 2 yachts and it took a long time to get clear ahead for the tack to the mark for the reach home.
At the finish Fidelis was almost three minutes ahead but it was Crackerjack a minute and a quarter ahead across the line who took out the handicap result. Agrovation was half a minute behind in second place on handicap after a pretty impressive downwind leg. Senta was half a minute further back after also having a good downwind leg.
The last time there was breeze and Crackerjack won we were a similar distance behind Crackerjack over the line but this time we were closer to Hanni and Crosshaven so perhaps we sailed better.
Very good angles to windward today were not good enough in the conditions.