Jonathan reports:
Six boats presented on a hot summer afternoon. A 10-15 knot sea breeze had come in; it turned out to be remarkably changeable - and its patchiness played with us all throughout the race.
Umbkumba won the start (thank you for the start John V!), crossing at speed near the ‘green pole’ that forms the pin end of the line. Corinna had crossed early and faithfully came back, making her a bit late; in Time & Tide we were a few seconds early and had to stall the boat, giving us a slow start. Umbakumba rounded our Point Piper mark first, and began the very shy reach to Taylor’s Bay, with G-Force in pursuit. Two smaller boats, Corinna and T&T, were next, with T&T closing, followed by Pleasure II and Chenonceau.
The next leg, to Sow ’n Pigs, scrambled the order. We all tacked out to the middle of the Harbour, and the boats that went further east to Watson’s Bay - all the way across - did spectacularly better than those who tacked up the middle of the harbour. G-Force made the best of it, then Pleasure II and T&T. Corinna dropped well back and had to fight to be a close fourth at that top mark. As we turned downwind, some of the constants of racing came into play. G-Force and Pleasure II goose-winged and took off; Corinna and T&T - smaller boats - could only catch them if we flew kites.
Which we did; Corinna set her kite quickly, however, while T&T’s went up only after a struggle. It came out of the bag in a knot and we struggled to untangle it, before it set. We poled to port - the usual side in a north-easter - but the wind veered west. So we gybed to settle on a starboard tack for the long run; and then a few minutes later the wind backed. Still, Starboard was the tack we wanted for the leg home so we swerved with the wind, sailing most of the leg by the lee. It all held together to the Shark Island, but Corinna had taken the lead and, though we had the speed to run down G-Force and Pleasure , our slow set meant that we had gained only a narrow margin by the time we had to turn to starboard for the leg home.
We figured we could keep the kite up on that leg, though we would be shy to the breeze; but the wind played with us again. We turned and let the pole forward, and then a strong gust tested the limits of our skills - we rounded up, a loose kicker let the pole fly and we had to scramble to sort out the mess. G-Force and Pleasure II - doing fine without a kite between them - passed us, pushing us back to fourth. Later in the leg, almost at the finish, G-Force was forced to round up to give way to some 18-footers; only that allowed T&T to pick up a place
Still, the fun was in the trying and there’s always next time. It really was a hot, humid afternoon and we all needed to rehydrate in the Clubhouse afterwards.
Across the line (let me know if have the order wrong):
- Corinna
- Pleasure II
- Time & Tide
- G-Force
- Umbakumba
- Chenonceau
See you in March
