The wet weather is slowing down the boat building. After one day of sunny Spring weather we seem to be back in the depths of Winter. Fortunately there are no deadlines with the boat building and there are still some task that can be undertaken in the relative comfort of the garage.
Half the frames mounted on the jig before the rains came
Today was wet with some particularly large raindrops but these stayed away for the whole of the RANSA Winter Wedneday race and only returned when it was time to disembark the crew.
How lucky can one be to have crew who will sail in the conditions forecast for today and I am thankful the rain stayed away and the wind made for some interesting racing.
The reach to the heads was tighter than last week so we did not do quite as well and were mid fleet at the rounding. The Northshore 38’s L Eau Co, Rainbow and Izzi performed well and were well up at the turning mark. Just before rounding we had put in the reef without losing a place. Graham had presumed we would tack on the mark and had taken the winch handle off the genoa winch so tack we did. This was a good move as it was not a tight beat and we were able to work out from under the yacht that had carried into the shore. By Steel Point we had climbed in front of Izzi and had watched as Enigma dropped below our stern. Into Rose Bay we were lifting inside Rainbow and looked to be ahead until headed. After tacking in the lee of Rainbow we watched her lift up in her private lift while we drifted away to leeward and we never caught up this lost ground. We held our position to windward except for the long waterline 40 ft Hanse, Crackerjack to which we gave rounding room on the Rose Bay mark. From there she used her long waterline length to advantage to pull away by a minute at the finish. Our approach to the finish was hampered by the leading Division 2 yacht Syonara which is a similar size and while we are quicker we are not fast enough to be able to sail through her lee and there was no way she was going to let us go over the top.
Considering the limited amount of windward working we did well to finish sixth on handicap just a minute and a few seconds behind Rainbow. Viva won the day as she revels in the fresh conditions and as Kevin said if Viva could not win on a day like today her handicap would be wrong. The other bright note is that we beat Larrikin and Luce Change around the course. Gwhizz managed a fifth on handicap showing that their handicap is now about right and they should have a better chance on point score next year.
There is not much action to show with the tracks today but it does show how far off a beat was the work back to Steel Point and how much we were able to point up as we sailed into Rose Bay.
Not much windward work today