Rule Britannia

August 12, 2020

Britannia cleaned up big time today both on the upwind leg to the turn mark and spectacularly on the reach back into Rose Bay where they went right across to Shark Island for breeze and skirted the fleet.
Our goose was cooked when we planned on reaching into the line and starting behind the most windward yacht.

That was good in theory but awful in execution as the breeze died and headed so we had a slow work to the line the dirty air of the big Reve. While we were only a minute late at the line we had our fair share of dirty air until we worked out to windward in clear air. With the occasional flick back to the north we had glimpses of success until the breeze did the forecast change to the North East while we were at the back of the shift. We had to stay on the north side of the fleet and try to stay in phase and with a bit of luck we managed to come back in front of Agrovation and Crosshaven. Other notables behind were Allegro and Whistling Kite while just in front was I Super. Further ahead was Meridian, Hanni, Foreign Affairs, joli and Amante.

On the run to Steele Point we ran square while Crosshaven and Britannia went far out into the mid channel and came back around the fleet. Agrovation was slowly gaining ground and giving us a dose of wind shadow while we did the same to I Super. Allegro was charging up on the shore side when we decided to stay wide. As we watched Britannia reach away over on the Shark Island shore we tried to stay as low as possible and keep some wind across the sails. At times I Super and Agrovation looked to be picking up wind inshore but eventually the sailed into nothing as did Allegro behind them .
From there it was a follow the leaders home and the best breeze of the day was the work to the shortened course off the top of Shark Island.

The dying breeze into Rose Bay spread the fleet out so that some of the finish margins look a bit cruel. In particular the six minutes gap from Meridian and Amante and the 4 minutes from Joli hurt but then our 5 minute margin over Allegro was not indicative of boat speed.

For the day we were happy to hold out I Super and Agrovation by a minute over the line and salvage eight handicap points and hang onto equal 4th place overall with Larrikin.

The forecast wind shift put us behind the eight ball.

Comments are closed.