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Closing day - sunday 30th September 2018

posted Oct 25, 2018, 12:54 PM by Admin hycnz


Six boats raced on closing day....... however only three finished... it was a tricky day on the water for everyone.

Results (not confirmed)
1st Firsty
2nd Escape
3rd Blue Beat
DNF Near & Farrr
DNF waterwitch
DNF Cloud Ten

**more race reports coming soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!***

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Escape Race Report 

Last race of the winter series and not a breath of wind as we arrive at the boat. Today’s crew is Georgina, Pete and Tim, the same as the last race and all the races before that. It feels like putting on a favourite t-shirt, comfortable and relaxed. 

Start is at Hobby and it’s like a long time since we have been up there. The wind is slowly picking up as we motor to the start and we opt for the new no.2 Genoa rather than the no.1 which might not last the race! Wind will be from behind at the start and after a brief discussion about  kite or gennaker, we settle for a kite. We are windward end of the line and first or second to cross  and in the lead. I’m feeling pretty cocky. Two hundred metres later the kite has collapsed, Firsty has passed us to leeward and Waterwitch to windward and the crew are wondering out loud how I turned their perfect start into a pile of ...... . Hero to zero in 200 m. I love yachting.

The wind eventually comes back but is up and down for the whole leg to Kauri Point. We manage to claw back to second behind Firsty and even get a bit of space behind but the northerly has become a westerly and in the space of 150m Kauri Point serves up first a southerly then  an easterly.

We manage the change from kite to hard on pretty well and I’m feeling pretty good on the beat to Meola and then on to Chelsea. Craig in front is showing us  the shifts so we make Meola without losing too much. We try a spinnaker hoist without a pole and it’s not the best call but we get it under control with no damage done.  Halfway up the leg it’s gybe time and short handed it’s a bit tricky. I don’t help the cause by forgetting the thing in my hands is a wheel not a tiller and thereby rounding the boat up big time.  By the time I have the boat pointed the right way my long suffering crew have the kite working and the rest of the leg passes smoothly.

A good drop and mark rounding and we’re back on the wind again.  The shifts are brutal and both Firsty and ourselves  get crash tacked before finally making it to Chelsea safely. Spinnaker up with the pole this time and the long haul home against the tide begins. We stay as wide as we can and as we come back up to Meola Post we are still in touch with Firsty and have a comfortable gap back to Blue Beat and Near & Farr. 

Kauri Point is literally the turning point for the race. Firsty has stalled as the wind changes back to a westerly and is racing to get their kite down. We take the risk on cutting the corner and it’s looking promising for a couple of minutes but we get the kite down seconds too early and don’t quite bridge the gap to the new breeze. It’s only metres but the tide is running against us and the GPS has us down to 0.2 knots for what seems an age. Firsty is clear and heeling to the new breeze as she shows us a clean pair of heels. The GPS speed slowly starts to rise. 0.3, 0.4, 0.6 as we crawl past Kauri Point and then we too are away.

Looking back it’s all bad news for the boats behind  and they are still not around as  we pass Island Bay and then on through the moored boats. Firsty finishes well ahead and gives us a wave as they head home. Before long we are breathing a sigh of relief as the tower gives us a horn  crossing the line and we too head for home. 

The sail back to Taikata is warm and sunny and hopefully a sign of a great summer to come. All too soon we are back at the berth tied up and tidy and the winter series is over. We’ve had a bit of drama and a lot of fun and we’re slowly learning how to get the best from Escape. Roll on next winter just not before we have some summer fun.

Cheers Trevor





Cloud 10 Race Report

Well we started the race with a hiss and a roar in a good position and with good speed and were feeling confident that this was going to be a great day for Cloud 10. That was despite not having the HYC courses and having to ask where we were going before the start.

On the first leg down the harbour our newly painted bottom and polished hull looked to be working. As the kites started popping out we decided we’d have to follow suit in the light airs or be left behind. Our big kite really helped and we were keeping up and challenging Blue Beat and Waterwitch. That was short lived though and just before Kauri Point all the kites had to come down and we found ourselves in an awkward position sandwiched between Blue Beat and Waterwitch. We got out of that unscathed and then had to tack to Meola.

We came into the mark on starboard in a great position to mess with Blue Beat coming in on port. The breeze had increased and we were moving. Blue Beat kept coming and things were going to get close. Scotty said, “They’re coming in hot”, and started shouting starboard at the top of his lungs. They managed to get around the mark and tack underneath us, there wasn’t much water between the two boats by this stage.

More upwind work saw Near and Farr catch up and pass us, we struggled to point as high as Blue Beat so they slowly started to get away on us too. Our cruising rig set up and small headsail means this is not going to be Cloud 10s point of sail and won’t change without a considerable outlay of money for a new sail. This is not happening anytime soon so we will have to live with it.

The fleet weren’t out of our reach though and we were hoping for a long downwind leg home with our big kite up, if we went fast enough we might even be closer than normal to Firsty and Escape. Scotty was up on the foredeck doing the spinnaker work with John instructing, he was doing really well and the light airs meant that the learning mistakes were easily undone.

Our plan was working on the downwind leg and we caught Near and Farr and were looking at possibly passing them and it happened, the wind just disappeared! Our new wind instrument showed the direction going around in circles every few minutes. We had to get the kite down and mucked around a bit which meant our forward momentum stopped before the others and we couldn’t get going again.

Blue Beat and Near and Farr looked like they were going to make the finish as they finally got some wind ahead of us and made it around Kauri Point. We didn’t get that wind and were having a backwards race with Waterwitch, the crew were being really positive and pointed out that we were thankfully losing that race. We nearly got around Kauri Point but then stopped again, that was enough for us. Once we saw Near and Farr pack it in ahead of us the call was made to head home too. So sadly another DNF for Cloud 10.

It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and an excellent training session for Scotty whose sailing ability has gone from zero to hero in 12 months. Thank you John for being a great teacher and putting up with the squabbles between Scotty and I. Thanks for the team who manned the tower and Bruce for cooking the sausages to feed the hungry sailors.
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