We were greeted with a very strong north easterly before the start of Race09. The white caps on the harbour were large, and David T estimated the wind at 35kn. It looked too dangerous to sail, but the wind eased a little to maybe 25kn by start time, and we sailed the course carefully, still overpowered, with the No2 Genoa and full Main. At the club later, Janet congratulated those yachts which had voluntarily withdrawn in the difficult conditions - we noticed Anthanta IV motoring off before the race, and no doubt there were others.
That said, once we got going, Sheer Force handled the conditions very well, the crew adapted to their new roles, and we felt quite comfortable going up the harbour. We came 6th on handicap after being about a minute behind at the start due to the extreme conditions. But for that minute, we might have finished 3rd on corrected times. As it was, only 7 seconds of corrected time spanned Spearhead, Obsession, Sheer Force and Symbiosis, so it was very tight in the 4th - 7th positions.
The race itself had 15 finishers in Division 1, and the average elapsed time was a typical 1:05:02. Sheer Force recorded a time across the line some 3.68 minutes slower than the fleet average. This is a minute better than our own average. This good result is partly affected by Cadenza's exceptionally slow race (she had very little sail up) which would have slowed the fleet average. Cadenza was 9.3 mins slower than the fleet average (as she was in Race01), whereas she is usually 5-10 minutes faster than the fleet average. There were a couple of new yachts in this Division 1 field, Estate Master and Attitude.
Sheer Force was 11th across the line in Division 1, almost 15 minutes behind Panther. Nearest to us were Chloe (2 mins ahead), and Sundowner (3 mins behind). The handicapper's predictions for the finish order was upset by the windy conditions. Cadenza was last to finish, 11 places behind predicted, and DJ2 Bos Global, Farr Lapp and Chloe finished 3-4 places ahead of prediction. My other 'measure' of handicapper performance is the extent to which the spread of elapsed times is reduced by the time corrections. Unfortunately, the elapsed time spread of 20:31, thanks to Cadenza, became a spread of 21:44 after correction, giving the handicapper a negative 3.5% score, the worst since Race04 of last year's twilights.
The table below is, as usual, the Division 1 finishers in elapsed time order.
| Results Race09 | Elapsed | Outright | Handicap | Diff fm | Mins | Rel to |
| Time | Place | Predict | Fleet | behind | Sheer | |
| Place | Average | winner | Force | |||
| PANTHER | 0:53:49 | 1 | 1 | -11.2 | 0:00:00 | 0:14:54 |
| ESTATE MASTER | 0:57:30 | 2 | 3 | -7.5 | 0:03:41 | 0:11:13 |
| OBSESSION | 0:58:41 | 3 | 5 | -6.4 | 0:04:52 | 0:10:02 |
| X3 | 0:59:53 | 4 | 2 | -5.2 | 0:06:04 | 0:08:50 |
| DJ2 BOS GLOBAL | 1:01:42 | 5 | 9 | -3.3 | 0:07:53 | 0:07:01 |
| SPEARHEAD | 1:03:08 | 6 | 6 | -1.9 | 0:09:19 | 0:05:35 |
| FARR LAP | 1:04:29 | 7 | 10 | -0.6 | 0:10:40 | 0:04:14 |
| SYMBIOSIS | 1:04:51 | 8 | 7 | -0.2 | 0:11:02 | 0:03:52 |
| SUMMERSALT | 1:05:54 | 9 | 8 | 0.9 | 0:12:05 | 0:02:49 |
| CHLOE III | 1:06:38 | 10 | 13 | 1.6 | 0:12:49 | 0:02:05 |
| SHEER FORCE | 1:08:43 | 11 | 12 | 3.7 | 0:14:54 | 0:00:00 |
| SUNDOWNER V | 1:11:35 | 12 | 11 | 6.5 | 0:17:46 | 0:02:52 |
| ATTITUDE | 1:11:43 | 13 | 14 | 6.7 | 0:17:54 | 0:03:00 |
| AMON RA | 1:12:40 | 14 | 15 | 7.6 | 0:18:51 | 0:03:57 |
| CADENZA | 1:14:20 | 15 | 4 | 9.3 | 0:20:31 | 0:05:37 |
| Corrected | Corrected | |||||
| Time | Position | |||||
| PANTHER | 1:06:15 | 11 | ||||
| ESTATE MASTER | 1:05:23 | 9 | ||||
| OBSESSION | 1:04:02 | 5 | ||||
| X3 | 1:08:34 | 14 | ||||
| DJ2 BOS GLOBAL | 1:00:32 | 1 | ||||
| SPEARHEAD | 1:04:01 | 4 | ||||
| FARR LAP | 1:03:10 | 3 | ||||
| SYMBIOSIS | 1:04:08 | 7 | ||||
| SUMMERSALT | 1:04:58 | 8 | ||||
| CHLOE III | 1:01:40 | 2 | ||||
| SHEER FORCE | 1:04:07 | 6 | ||||
| SUNDOWNER V | 1:07:14 | 13 | ||||
| ATTITUDE | 1:05:54 | 10 | ||||
| AMON RA | 1:06:42 | 12 | ||||
| CADENZA | 1:21:46 | 15 |
When RANSA updates the pointscore, I expect that Sheer Force will maintain her 8th position, equal with Anthanta. Missing another race will now bump Uplift from top position to be replaced by Sundowner. At 26 points, Sheer Force is well within striking distance of the leaders (17-21 points) which don't have any or many good drops left to save them from the effects of missed races.
| Points after Race09 | Points | Place | Lowest Drop |
| SUNDOWNER V | 17 | 1 | 11 |
| UPLIFT | 19 | 2 | 24 |
| PANTHER | 21 | 3 | 9 |
| SYMBIOSIS | 22 | 4 | 7 |
| SPEARHEAD | 24 | 5 | 8 |
| CHLOE III | 24 | 5 | 11 |
| CADENZA | 25 | 7 | 11 |
| ANTHANTA VI | 26 | 8 | 15 |
| SHEER FORCE | 26 | 8 | 9 |
| SCARLETT O'HARA | 27 | 10 | 14 |
| FARR LAP | 27 | 10 | 24 |
| SUMMERSALT | 32 | 12 | 10 |
| TOCCATA | 37 | 13 | 15 |
| GETAWAY SAILING.COM | 45 | 14 | 24 |
| AMON RA | 47 | 15 | 15 |
| LOVE BYTE | 50 | 16 | 24 |
| DJ2 BOS GLOBAL | 57 | 17 | 17 |
| OBSESSION | 66 | 18 | 24 |
| X3 | 74 | 19 | 24 |
| CHANCELLOR | 84 | 20 | 24 |
| DISTRACTION | 106 | 21 | 24 |
| PANACEA | 107 | 22 | 24 |
| AKELA | 108 | 23 | 24 |
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