The forecast suggested 12 knots gusting 14 knots for the second Junior Offshore Group covid-19 compliant race, this time out to the west. However, we were greeted with 16 knots as we headed over to Cowes for the start, building soon to a steady 20 knots, with gusts of 25 knots after we left the Solent. It was not a difficult decision either to tuck in a reef shortly before the start or to delay hoisting the spinnaker on the return leg until we reached the flat water after Hurst.
It was a challenging enough day in a 35 foot boat in Class 2. We take our hats off to the crew of Eros, the smallest boat in the fleet, raced by a crew from Greig City Academy, and winner of Class 3 with the best corrected time in the whole fleet. Having started 15 minutes later, it wasn’t until Yarmouth that Mostly Harmless passed Eros, which was keeping pace with much larger Class 3 boats such as a Contessa 32.
Mostly Harmless struggles to hold her time upwind in a breeze (especially racing double handed against boats with crew on the rail) and had difficulty until Needles Fairway Buoy staying ahead of the Sunfast 3200s (which rate below J105s). However, we made good progress on the downwind legs back to the finish at Gurnard, recovering to 5th from 20 starters in Class 2 and 8th from 40 double handed starters.