Tracks from a windy West Harbour Winter Series
Four of Passion’s crew for today alighted from a flight from the USA on Saturday morning and enjoyed a windy sunny Sunday back on Sydney waters.
Just as the West Harbour Winter series started at 1:00 pm the breeze gusted to 30 knots and held around the 20 knot mark for most of the day. Off the start line we reefed the mainsail without losing much ground to our over canvassed competitors. Some of the competitors called it a day early in the afternoon so we found ourselves with just a few competitors for company. On the odd occasion we were in the lee of a hill or island the breeze did fade away but not for long. The windy conditions and short runs kept most of the spinnakers in the bag for the day and we managed 8 knots on the reach under No 2 genoa and reefed main.
Conditions were a bit too windy to take advantage of the frequent wind shifts so for most of the fleet it was a matter of sailing as best as possible and waiting for the handicap results to see how they fared.
Finally the handicap results have been posted and we scored eighth out of sixteen starters. The good news is that we are now equal first of the GFS yachts with Lisdillon the new Reichel Pugh 36 and will need to beat her in the last race for an outright win.