In every sense of the word it was a fine night for our Greenwich Flying Squadron twilight race. The winds were light, there was no rain and most of the fleet got home on time.
The challenge with a light night this early in the season is to get everyone home before the winds die and the dark descends. Unfortunately the trip through Humbug, both in and out was characterised by almost no wind.
In our Black division, Utopia managed to escape from the calm and turn the corner into considerable breeze so that by the time we drifted through with the outgoing tide she was invisible to the naked eye.
Joli tried to emulate the feat of Utopia with a mini break around the point while Meridian and Passion X battled it out at the rear. Well the almost rear because Sweet Chariot was not enjoying the conditions any more than us.
On the beat to Goat Island Meridian drew away a little with good positioning for the last lift approaching Goat. We tacked early hoping for the tide to carry us around the mark and it did just that to regain a little ground. From the island our course took us down the south side of Cockatoo all the way to Drummoyne and up the river. A spell of fresh breeze kept our spirits up and we made ground on Meridian. Once around the point formerly called Long Nose we poled out the genoa with our super long whisker pole and ran out wide for breeze and then very tightly to Cockatoo Island.
At Snapper Island we had crept ahead of Meridian and could see Joli not far in front. As the breeze had swung again we poled out on the way down the channel from Snapper to Spectacle Island and just kept Meridian at bay.
Joli turned for the work home and was soon well up the track. We tacked as best we could and managed to pull clear of Meridian on the way to Clarke Point
From the point we went deepest of all the fleets but once in Humbug we had to avoid the raft up of the earlier fleets. By some miracle our momentum carried us head to wind till we cleared the four or five yachts parked off Onion Point so that we could bear away for the finish line mercifully closer to Onion Point than usual.
We did see Utopia once on the way to Snapper Island when she was running down to Spectacle but it was a distant view and a well deserved win for Utopia.
We managed second place due again to our generous handicap but to be fair it was a course that suited us with the long run from Long Nose down to Spectacle Island.
Back at the boat yard the excitement of finishing the second layer of the radius chine has given way to the steady toil of cleaning off the excess glue from the joins and starting the torture boarding. What I have boarded pleases me but I realise that I need to pace myself and mix up energetic boarding with patching and filling whenever the weather permits. Two days this week have been spent under the covers patching the temporary holes prior to filling them from the top but on one fine afternoon I attacked the starboard quarter and made good progress.
Now that the interior is well protected from the weather I have a huge list of tasks that can proceed with the first being the inside filleting and fairing.
