It is starting to feel like the twilight sailing season now that we have had our first decent breeze and a longer course. Before the race the wind piped up to 20 knots and with plenty of gusts we opted for the safety of the No3 jib and the mainsail depowered with lots of backstay tension. At 1803 hours, two minutes before our start time the breeze died leaving us with a slow passage out of Humbug for a run around Cockatoo Island. We played catch up on the inside of the fleet and entered the working phase of the race mid fleet sandwiched between Much Ado V and Infotrack. Pretty soon Infotrack cleared away with good boat speed and we spend a lot of the work dicing with Much Ado V while Joli, Jackpot, Utopia and Dump Truck had a closer race at the front of the fleet.
Lisdillon caught us on one of the many shifts but after we took their stern we experienced a very fortunate lift and cleared Long Nose making up all the ground we had lost to Lisdillon on the last phase.
The series of reaches and runs back to Cockatoo was in variable conditions and we seemed to get our fair share of favourable angles to arrive at the west end of Cockatoo inside Much Ado V and not far behind Utopia and Jackpot.
Lisdillon also enjoyed wind from behind and made ground on the fleet.
After a long time in the doldrums around Cockatoo we emerged into fresh air and took off at seven knots to windward but by now Utopia and Jackpot were well into Humbug.
We have had better transits through Humbug but were pleased to hold out the fast finishing Lisdillon who was enjoying a particularly fast work up the channel.
On handicap it was a well deserved win for Joli from Lisdillon, Dump Truck, Utopia and Passion X.
Our No3 jib was the correct choice for most of the night but there were plenty of light patches, particularly around the end of Cockatoo where there was not enough wind to blow the mainsail under the backstay and a larger fuller jib would have made us more competitive. What did work was frequent adjusting of the backstay to power up in the lulls and depower in the gusts.
Back home looking at the results there was another pleasant surprise waiting as we were elevated to second place last week after the omission of some of the fleet. As usual these events are all about neatness and punctuality and less about sailing skills and we generally do well just by turning up and trying our best.
Much Ado V goes past for the first time off the start line
Infotrack still in sight after rounding Cockatoo the first time
We did well with the small jib held out to windward
Lisdillon crosses on a favourable lift
Much Ado V goes past again on the second Cockatoo Island rounding
We get our own lift along the Snails Bay shore to pass Lisdillon
Catching Much Ado V after a good run down
the Cockatoo Island shore for the second rounding. Utopia and Jackpot not far ahead
The Finish line at last