Race 2 - Winter Pointscore 12 May

What a great day to be out on the water! Clear skies 12-18 knots SW breeze and flat water, it just doesn't get much better for sailing.

Twenty two yachts lined up for the start at Soldiers Point. Course C (11.7M) took us to Mallabulla, Middle Island, Wedding Cake and back to the start/finish line.  Unfortunately we hit the line a tad early however we managed to sneak in a quick 360 and get back to the line just after the gun seeing us placed about mid fleet. We had a great beat to windward and passed several yachts of all shapes and sizes. By the time we hit the first windward mark we were in 4th position. RW was performing beautifully following her recent Jenny Craig makeover. With only Daz and myself on board my plan was to goosewing downwind, but with the breeze now swinging between dead astern to abeam, plan A went out the window. So Daz prepped the Assy Spin as I nervously watched the hoards descend on us from behind. After a clean spinnaker set we managed to hold our lead over the Nelson J (J24 same handicap) until the turning mark where we gave them room inside to avoid the rocks. A fantastic spinnaker takedown by Daz saw a nice dry spinnaker wrestled into the cabin and we were quickly back up to speed on a tight reach toward Middle Island.

We soon overtook Nelson J however the whole time we also had the big Beneteau breathing down our necks. We managed to hold him out until the Wedding Cake where he slipped inside and rounded in front of us. The beat back to the finish line saw the big fella pull away slightly but RW managed to claw back some ground near the line. Overall on scratch we finished a very credible 5th from 22 starters behind the big Trimaran, an Etchell, X-332 and the big Beneteau Cyclades Goodlife 2. So how did we do on handicap......5th as well! Click here to see the race results.

I am quietly confident with a one or two more crew and the right spinnaker, we will work our way into the winners circle. So far we have an 8th and 5th place so we can only improve......as long as the handicapper leaves us alone! After two races Rogue Racing is second on the leader board.