Race report from Eye Spy: Golden Rivet two........ Thanks to Denise for her attempt to "chorale" a race fleet from HYC. The three 88's were all she could muster and as such the chances of winning were low. 88's are historically handicapped hard and a variety of boats was what was required. CCYC had exactly that and consequently won this prestigious event. It will be great to see all on the water for the decider. Eye Spy crew was Dave and Gill. I out clevered myself a little on the start and was early so completed a 360 resulting in being 19 seconds late. Oooops We had a broad reach to Kauri point and watched all the boats in front hoisting their kites with various measures of success. Dave on the foredeck and the "Westpac" kite is hoisted. Holy sh*t!! never seen that many twists in a kite before!! The headsail was dropped in order for the kite to fill and the twists came out. Appearances are deceiving but we appeared to be catching the fleet. "Wild horses" had kite trouble and we passed them prior to Rona. No.2 hoisted and the kite came down. We were still ahead of Gary on "Waterwitch" who did a charge down close to shore. My intention was to slow him down if he came close to take the pressure off the leading 88's. We didn't get to play Gary..........maybe next time eh. The next upwind leg was a little more boisterous than expected with Gary reading 26 knots at one stage. Our choice of the No.2 turned out to be the right one and we continued to gain on the boats in front. Always kept an eye on "Waterwitch" as from experience you can never give the "old salt" Gary a window of opportunity. The "Eye Spy" crew worked well tacking upwind and we were closing down on the other two 88's. We decided on leaving the kite down for the short leg from Pile to Rona to concentrate on rounding well and the beat back to Kauri Point. Tacking Tacking Tacking and taking more places as we went. Damn good work from the crew saw us finishing only 15 seconds behind "Blue Beat" and a minute or two ahead of "Nona". A great day to be on the water! We were the fastest around the course!! Nice bottle o vino for our efforts. Thanks to the organisers, start boat and cooks. |
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