It was certainly a wet day for the last race of the Covid 19 curtailed West Harbour Winter Series. Many decided that with no chance of winning they would stay home but for those who ventured out it was not an upleasant race. After the first lap of the course the breeze died so we practices setting and gybing the asymmetric spinnaker. The first windward work was a good test of boat speed and but for tacking too soon in a knock we were sailing above our handicap. The first downwind leg we two sailed the course while Matagi, Ophir and Avalon were slick with their spinnaker work and drew well away. The second windward work was a bit unkind as we were knocked along the Hunters Hill shore well below the line of the yachts ahead. Still we managed to hang onto Odyssey and Omnishambles until the reach home. Despite setting our asymmetric spinnaker, Odyssey with a masthead code zero drew away. I would like one of those in my Christmas stocking please Santa.
From there it was a lonely sail to windward back to the finish line and a pleasant surprise to find that we had beaten Omnishambles on handicap.
Today added a bit more confidence in our windward working speed post the rig changes and the spinnaker practice was useful. We did pull the sock down before raising the genoa for the windward work and found we could do that very quickly with very little time spend bare headed. It was certainly good practice ahead of going offshore in two weeks time.