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Peter Williams, skipper of Erica writes, 'At 9:00, our team had reduced from 8 to 6, leaving us shorthanded. Nevertheless, by the time we had assembled, we were keen to get on the water. Much of the pre-race discussion was about race conditions and who would do what. One of the first decisions involved spinnakers i.e., no symmetric, asymmetric only, to keep things simple. That decision, given the forecast wind direction and likely course would probably cost us about 90 seconds on each run.

Our pre-race measurements on the wind instrument plot, albeit around the Kirribilli start line, indicated a wind direction between 80-110 deg M, cycling about every five minutes. Pressure varied from 4-10 kts. Course axis around 110 deg M. We went with a recut J1 off the start line. With the larger boats Sydney and Denali in the race, we were cautious not to find ourselves to leeward of them at the start. We opted for a late start at the committee boat and immediately tacked for clear air, where we thought there was more pressure on the right.

Our wind direction and speed benchmarks proved useful over the first windward leg. We spent our time looking for patches of pressure and shifts, sailing “fat” at times to get to the advantage. We softened the sails and rig in the light stuff, which helped us to maintain boat speed. So far so good. At the top mark, we got a snag on the hoist but recovered quickly. We went down the south shore for the flood tide but found ourselves in relatively less pressure. Not so good. We gybed back with a wind shift to the north to improved pressure in the middle of the harbour. At the bottom mark, we opted for a leeward drop, too cautious to try a windward drop (Mexican) into the mark for a port rounding.

The second upwind leg was similar to first but the mean wind direction had shifted south by about 10 degrees. We avoided the southern shore on the second downwind leg remaining mid channel in a nice corridor of wind. We gybed on each wind shift to maximise apparent wind and VMG to the bottom mark.

The final upwind leg to the finish was no different to the second, except that the flood tide was no longer a consideration and the wind had filled in to around 10-12 kts. We hunted less for pressure and more for advantageous wind shifts. The pin end was closest, where we tacked over the line at 2:42:55.

Soon after finishing the race, I was informed by text that I had become a grandfather. Day to remember.

I have to say that the boat handling, sail trim etc by everyone on Erica was first class. We had a “good day at the office”.'

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