With just two days to go to the shortest day of the year it really is mid winter but you would not know from the sunshine we had today. As well as sunshine we had enough light breeze to do the full Friday Afternoon race at Balmain.
After our private good wind last week resulted in a first place the handicap system gave us a whack around the ears and had us starting last of the regular series competitors.
Our start time coincided with a change in the wind with the masthead indicator going the opposite way to the wind at boom height which left us floundering for a couple of minutes. Once the breeze settled it was a light air reach around Snapper and Spectacle Islands and a good long beat to Goat Island against a strong incoming tide. With light flukey winds against the strong tide the tacking angles look somewhat awful but occasionally the wind shifts were large enough to improve the tracks on the chart.
Two visitors. Avalon and Matagi kept us company on the work to Goat and we managed to hold out Matagi for most of the first lap by which time we had started to pick up the tail end of the fleet.
At the end we had passed eight of the 22 starters which was pleasing considering the big increase in handicap and the couple of minutes lost at the start due to the change in the wind. We were third fastest of the regulars behind Irukandji and Van Demon but no match for the visitors Avalon, Matagi and the new X4.3 Min River.