 Race report from Eye Spy Race 9 of the CCYC Winter Series “Big Boys Race”. The course was simply to take Motohui to starboard and return home. I turned up at HYC to a pretty bleak morning. Gill arrived and we discussed our options for the day. Neither of us were too keen on the prospect of getting wet n cold but our itch to go sailing just had to be scratched. Unfortunately other crew members could not make the race so two handed it was…….. The forecast was to rise to 25knts from the south-west so we hanked the No.2 headsail and motored of towards the start at Taikata. A good fleet of 9 boats appeared out of the showers. My instinct was that our battle would be with Mac-attack. This would prove to be correct and Appaloosa joined the party as we sailed down-wind with kites up. The three boats got a bit of a lead then just past North-head the wind disappeared altogether and even appeared to change 180 degrees so down with the kite. All the boats towards the rear of the fleet caught up and we lined up again for what appeared to be a restart. When the wind did reappear it was again from the southwest so kite up again. The kite was dropped soon after the reef at Motohui and the race upwind began. Appaloosa was untouchable and we found ourselves in a battle for a distant second. The harbour was busy but we found a clear path through the many race fleets in our path. Waterwitch joined the battle for second and rounded Kauri point with one less tack. We crossed the line less than a minute behind Mac-attack putting us 4th across the line and second on handi-cap. Well done to Gill who was a busy crew. Thanks to the CCYC race team and other competitors. |
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