With no results yet posted I don’t know whether to be happy of sad but with such a pleasant day in the harbour everyone was a winner. The wind was better than forecast and it hung around enough for a shortened race. Everyone had a chance to do well so the results are eagerly awaited.
We started at the heavily favoured boat end but then so did the rest of the fleet and there was no way through the tangle. Just to leeward there was a lot of noise but we were too focused on trying to accelerate in the dirty air of half of the fleet that we had no time to watch the action.
We had wanted to take the eastern shore out of the tide and did an early dig back following Amante. We tacked back when they did but found ourselves between the breezes. Joli on port was lifting across our bow while Amante on starboard above us was lifting away. More worrying was Rainbow, next on pointscore, on port crossing well ahead.We kept going on starboard hoping for some of the angle that Joli enjoyed but it never came. Never means never as we looked across the course and could see Allegro. Amante, Joli and Hanni away on the eastern shore lifting in breeze while we were stuck on the western shore waiting of that knock that never ever came. At least we were in breeze and lifting on the outside of a great arc. We were at times lifting so high that we might pass to the east of the Sow and Pigs but that did not happen so we committed to pass to the west and take the shortest leg possible across the tide to the top mark. We tacking for the mark and looked famous for a few moments as we pointed across the bows of Allegro and Amante but they lifted and we knocked a little and were forced into another two tacks and to take their sterns.
Aroud the mark we were surprised at the gap back to the fleet and very pleasantly surprised that we had recovered the distance on Allegro and Amante which at one stage was the width of the harbour. The run back to Steele Point was somewhere between a broad reach and a pole out genoa. Amante and Allegro did a bit of both but at Steele point our steady very broad reach had not lost much ground. Another very broad reach on the other tack to Point Piper was similarly conducted with Allegro having to bear away hard from the knocking breeze while Amante went high to be able to pole out more gracefully. At Point Piper we were a little closer and rounded the mark pointing above our two close competitors. At the first knock they both tacked away leaving us clear air and a fully powered up rig going for speed. On the layline we tacked and had Allegro covered but Amante coming in on starboard. As we were pretty well on the line to the mark we planned to take Amante’s stern but they had other ideas and tacked below and in front but having to pinch hard to clear the mark. That left us no gap to bear away to the mark and we were forced to wait until they slowly shot the mark and reached away to the shortened course finish line at the south end of Shark Island.
In this short period we pulled out about half a minute on Allegro but probably not enough to beat them on handicap.
Anxiously we hung around the finish line timing our competitors over the line and second guessing the scorerers on where we might finish. Hanni and Joli were so far ahead they must have first and second wrapped up while the casual Foreign Affairs was way out there with them. Depending on the finish time of the back marker we have a chance at fifth behind Allegro. Larrikin might sneak in there but we had a good eleven minutes on Rainbow which should be enough on the day. We havd been disappointed before but with such a pleasant day on the water with wind and sunshine any place would be a winner.
Caught on the wrong side of the harbour and lucky to get back.
After the race just before sunset with a great reflection of the yacht and background on the water