Despite the forecast for no wind a light south easterly breeze sprang up as we passed a pod of dolphins on our way to the starting area. The dolphins were enjoying the sunny Sydney day and bow riding the passing ferries and breaking off to jump out of the water.
We set the black carbon genoa with the backstay very slack to induce a bit more luff round hoping to go quicker in the light reaching conditions and it seemed to work.
At the start we had observed the first fleet get off the line cleanly and thought that our fleet would behave but it was not to be. Living edged luffed Izzi in front of us right up to the start boat leaving us two second short of being able to bear away for the line on the gun. The go round was expensive as we were last off the line alongside Rainbow for a long loose work to the top mark just inside the Sow and Pigs. The work back to Rose Bay via Steel Point was tighter and here we picked up the back half of the fleet in the shifty conditions around the point. Into Rose Bay we crossed tack with Rainbow a few times until going our different ways to the far corners of the Bay and coming out almost on par. Crackerjack suffered in light air on the wrong side of the bay and fell well behind.
On the broad reach to the finish line we did better closer into shore than the fleet and made up ground passing Izzi and almost catching Rainbow.
The handicap result was a fifth place with a casual in the mix so we will score four points for the day. This is an excellent result considering the time given away at the start.