Latest News

Joanna Love writes, 'Last Friday’s Twilight was one of the best races we have had – a strong wind; very few tacks and great crew work!

The weather was chilly and from the South. Love Child (Division 3) crossed the start at a cracking pace towards the NB2, tacking earlier than we have in the past which gave us an extra 100m, due to a lift around the NB2 mark. The breeze (17-26 knots) swung then to the SSE easing slightly beyond NB2 with gusts out of Rose Bay as expected. Our notes for the ‘outgoing tide in a Southerly’ told us to stay in the middle of the harbour as much as possible.

A large Disney cruise ship we noticed was manoeuvring under the bridge, we presumed to leave the harbour. Could we make it to SP mark and avoid the ship?

It was a reach to the mark with the wind maintaining a good bit of pressure and moving around nicely to the SE, which assured us a straight track to this top mark. Rounding the SP mark we decided to stay on eastern side to avoid the fleet coming towards us.

Heading towards SI mark is always a hit-and-miss for the crew of Love Child as our boat loves a strong breeze. It’s usually on this fluky leg that we find the other boats gain on us. Up went the whisker pole and the steady breeze took us; down went the whisker pole, the breeze had died down, only to have to put the pole up again 5 mins later!

Rounding SI mark; there was the cruise ship, now anchored off Point Piper and right across the channel. Fortunately for us, we were out in front and passed by the ship at a steady pace just before it was moved back, through the rest of the fleet, towards Circular Quay. The finish line was in sight but so were Onaview, Indigo and Coco, chasing us down. Our luck with the breeze helped us over the line first but it was tight, with a margin of seconds between us all.

Congratulations to the Division 3 boats who kept our minds focused on the line rather than the bar!'

See the results