First - Eye Spy second - Nona third - Waterwitch fourth- Six Gun Justice Firsty - DNF Race Report from Firsty The closing day race was looking as though it would offer a perfect sailing breeze straight up the harbour to give a nice windward leeward, which is what we like. Tim, Bruce and Tom on board and Gary had given us one of his crew Connor, because he could not participate now. We seemed to have missed the start signal and had to work off the 1 minute signal, but that didn’t work so well and found us pointing the wrong way at the start signal. Still we weren’t as bad as others who were over due to a strong outgoing tide. The beat down turned out to be a lay through to Kauri Pt. As we eased sheets to meet a freeing veering breeze, suddenly the wind backed and left us bearing away and sheeting on until we got a puff from the beam which knocked us flat and hard and caused us to round up and do an involuntary tack. OK back on the right tack now, and we have lost a bit of ground to Water Witch. That narrow boat with a long waterline that loves to reach held us to the bottom mark and we rounded on her tail. Trying to keep out of the tide paid off and we hoisted big yellow at Kauri Pt which allowed us to pull ahead and make a gain at the bottom mark. On the leg up to the South Orange we made up some more time, then another kite ride back down with Big Yellow again saw further gains. Just a small loop around Beach Haven and to the finish, sees us finish before the others have made it back to the ODM. Or so we thought… After packing the sails away we timed the next boat at over 6 minutes behind us. But hang on, why are they tacking back and heading back upwind? A quick check of the course tells us that we have not completed the course. Damn!! Too late for redress now as we have started the motor. Rooster to Feather Duster in 3/10s of a second!! Sorry guy’s, it’s my fault for not reading the course properly. Well it was a good days sail, could have been better… let’s have a beer.. do I deserve a beer?? Seems there are no hard feelings from the crew. That’s a positive. Race Report from Six Gun Justice we were all set to race closing day on the mighty justice. Our crew of Blair, Mike and Cristin turned up on time on the boat.. and we borrowed sheets and a jockey pole from Darcy - he kindly also gave us his course sheet - so we had no excuses for getting the course wrong. Our aim for the race was finalised and we all agreed that our main aim was to have fun! We got down to hobby in nice time to practice our runs to the start line and organise our position on the line. We thought we had an awesome start along with eye spy.. however the crew in the start tower seemed to be in a different time zone to us! We contiuned on our jolly way.. as no idividual recall flag was displayed. We had good boat speed and were beating up past Kauri point when we witnessed what can only be discribed as a spectacular roundup by Firsty - Cristin commented that she had only seen such things on YouTube not in real life! By the time we got to Meola the others has pasted us .. . but we were still having fun and had already cracked a beer.. in fact Blair who was on tactics was on his 2nd - apparently it helps him concentrate!! We decided for the downwind legs that we would use the jockey pole and no1 - and learn the art of flying spinnakers from the others.. and also a couple of tips on not what to do! At one point I was sent to the bow to hold up the jockey pole.. however after awhile of deafening the crew with my wailing "allll by ourselvesssssssssssssss" Cristin took over! We were surpised to see that Firsty had finished and was motoring past us on her way home.. surely we were not that far behind the others.... nope they had just got the course wrong.. major bummer for them as they were winning! We finally got round the course and were heading to the finishing line.. we came to the conclusion that there would not be anyone watching us in the tower so we did our horn. We crossed the line without deafening ourselves with the horn and sailed back to the marina. Thank you to the chaps in the tower who volunteered their time to start the race. And also thank you to the social committee for a great spread! And also thank you to our awesome crew! Race report for EYE SPY: Great conditions for the Closing Day Race. 10-15 knts and sunny. Crew today is Greg, JK, Gill and Mackenzie from the junior sailing team. The start was a little confusing so we began the race by jumping the start along with Six Gun Justice. We returned to the start line and had the hard yards to do to catch up again……we like a challenge! Course 2 took us to Meola, back to ODM, Beachhaven, South Orange, ODM, Beachhaven, South Orange then finish. By the top mark we had passed Nona and Six Gun and had Waterwitch in our sights. Firsty got caught out by a good gust and rounded up through the eye of the wind and completed a lovely 360 before continuing to the next mark. Just letting us catch up eh Craig…..Round Meola and we prepared to hoist the kite. Ooooooops the kite bag filled with water and was being dragged along side Eye Spy. The kite was being dragged out of the bag and it took quite an effort from Greg and Gill to retrieve it all in order to repack and try again. Second time lucky? Twas not to be as the starboard sheet was routed inside one of the stations. Kite back down again…..repack and rehoist for what was now a short kite ride to the ODM. Going by the hoisting dramas we dropped the kite early and then set off after Waterwitch. Rounding South Orange we hoisted the kite again and all was good on Eye spy. The crew were pleased with themselves. We managed to make gains on Waterwitch and Firsty who were now a fair way ahead. But what’s this? Firsty rounded Beachhaven and went straight for the finish!! He is what you call geographically embarrassed? It looked as if Gary would as well! I indicated to Gary we had another circuit to complete and he changed course. We rounded South Orange with Waterwitch on our tail. Once the kite was hoisted we pulled away to come first on line. Just goes to show that its not over till its over………. Great afternoon on the water and a well deserved win for Eye Spy. Thanks to my crew………..hope you guys aren’t too sore on Sunday. Thanks to the start tower crew ( bit of practise and all will be fine) and thanks to the house crew for putting on a shindig to remember…….or not in Tims case. Eye Spy skipper out……… |
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