There have been plenty of light nights for our Wednesday Twilight but this would go down as one of the most flukey light breezes with so many changes of direction. As for the promised breeze for which I set the No 1 heavy genoa well it was not delivered as promised but the genoa still did a good job on the evening.
From the start we were run over by Jackpot and Utopia and left wallowing in the left over breeze from which we never recovered. From first into Humbug last week we went to last and it only got worse on the way to Cockatoo Island. As much as we felt hard done by we still felt sorry for Fireball who went a few metres to windward into their own black hole from which no yachts ever emerg and they did not.
Next on the menu was Sweet Chariot who made it all the way around Cockatoo alongside Meridian only to go fifty metres to far. We flipped to the right while they flipped to the left and that was the end of Sweet Chariot. No skill required in this lottery.
Meridian went for the Balmain shore and was rewarded with a nice set of lifts to round Long Nose well ahead of Passion X but trailing Joli by a very long way. The flags on the bridge were blowing from the North East while Meridian was sailing on a South West around Goat Island. Here we were lucky to pick up a bit of a gust and run up to Meridian. We took their stern and went well wide of Goat Island which proved beneficial as we could now see Jackpot not far ahead. For the runs we set our shortest whisker pole so that we could sail with it out to leeward when required and to windward when the breeze was over the stern. In this mode we caught Jackpot at the ferry wharf off of Long Nose.
Meridian retired and motored past then Jackpot started the engine while we turned to the final leg around Cockatoo. Far in the distance there might have been yachts but the only ones from our fleet we could see were Infotrack and Dump Truck who were working their way along the Hunters Hill shore making for Clarke Point and hopefully Humbug and home. Over the VHF we could hear Sweet Chariot announcing their retirement so at this stage we were last on the course.
Along Cockatoo and back along the Hunters Hill shore we had some of the most consistent breeze of the night and hit speeds of four knots but at 10 minutes past eight and still half a nautical mile out from the finish we conceded defeat and started the engine.
Motoring through Humbug we passed Joli also putting away sails and we have it on good authority via facebook posts of the race that Utopia was 200 metres from the line at the cut off time and by my estimate 700 metres in front of Passion X. Infotrack and Dump Truck finished within the time limit so the only one unaccounted for was Much Ado V which we assume was some where in the mix up front.
For all that hard work everyone except Dump Truck and Infotrack scored a 3 points for the night and as it was a pleasant evening on the water no harm was done.
Jackpot comes to the line with speed and takes the wind out of Passion X sails
Last into Humbug and looking ahead at the fleet
The moment we tacked away from the fleet into the direction of Fireball and the black hole of no wind.
Flip flopping from port to starboard and vice versa while the fleet is heading off around Cockatoo