Many people have asked me why I go sailing and it is fair to say there have been many windy, windless and rainy days when I have asked myself the same question! The simple answer is that no two days are the same and every time you think you know it all, you normally get a sharp reminder that you don't. Off setting that, no matter what you sail, the time comes when it's your day, the weather gods smile, the crew get everything right and there's no holding you back.

Well Golden Rivet 1 was Clearwater's day and they cashed in big time. Yachts built more for comfort than speed took off like thoroughbreds and there was no catching them! 

For us the first sign it might not be our day was the engine not delivering full power, or even half power, as we left the marina. But you don't use the motor while racing so no worries, on we went. On board were George Will, Tim, Richard and a couple of newbies, Sam and Chris so we were all set for upwind in a good breeze. 

As always it's hard to wait round while most of the other boats start and when we finally got away it was in company with Young Entertainer and Eye Spy. Our teammates so no fun to be had there! A quick reach to Kauri Point and then a quick poll of the crew showed no one had done the bow work for a spinnaker before so we opted for the gennaker and within a respectable time had it up and pulling. Things progressed smoothly to Rona and while we made a little ground on the boats in front it wasn't much and in the meantime Waterwitch had sailed by which meant no Clearwater boats behind us which was bad news. Bill was looking uncatchable, with a bunch of Clearwater boats behind her and too many Hobby boats playing catch up. Bring on the up wind.

It took us a bit to get the balance right but we got there and started to pull some boats back. But they were mainly our own team members.

We were still at the back round Chelsea and Rona for the second time and a good up wind was only enough to catch up Blue Beat and Six Gun who had chased Bill hard for little reward and then had the pain of the fleet catching them in sight of the finish. 

It didn't need a calculator to work out that Clearwater had won the day but they had sailed really well in the conditions and we had no complaints. A loss maybe but a great day on the water and the anticipation of revenge come race 2. Roll on December 3rd!

Let the battle begin. David and I motor up to Taikata and debate our sail selection. The Marine forecast says 15 knots and Bean Rock is saying 23knts. Go for broke and it is the full main and the number two. We line up at the start with Wild Horses who has the better start and a bigger sail area – even with a reef in. He is stealing my wind. We follow until Birkenhead when Wild Horses drops down and we sneak in front just before Rhona with a hoard of boats not far behind. Around Rhona we head out to Watchman’s Is before tacking and we make it to Chelsea on one board with everyone else having to do at least one tack. Around the buoy and it is off the wind back to Rhona. A bit of a gust and the headsail wraps around the forestay. Rats. Plan 1 – Go around Rhona and head out and let the wind sort the headsail out. This works to a degree but allows Wild Horses and Shekinah through on the inside with Satisfaction on their stern. We head for home, tacking with the breeze against tide making things a little difficult. The 15 knots??? Seems to be around 21 to 25knts.

At Kauri Point Young Entertainer is close to the wharf with Waterwitch outside of him. YE has to make a hurried tack out as WW slides on past us as the finish line beckons. Can’t catch the leaders but maybe Nona can be the first HYC boat home. It is not to be as YE powers up and takes the line by one second.

A good day out if not the ideal conditions for us. Congratulations to CCYC, but remember, the battle does not win the war.

Round two on Saturday 03 December. Many thanks to the start boat (but can we have BIG numbers please) and thanks to the Social Committee for the lovely burgers.

 

NONA

        

The day dawned with sunshine and a fresh westerly breeze increasing as the race started. A good fleet of yachts arrived at the start line, with Bill starting first, even before the 5 minute gun. As the smallest boat in the fleet, and only two-handed, they had another 3 minutes added onto their -5! We never even saw them, except to smile and wave them onto victory, as we passed on opposite legs of the course between Rona and Meola buoys.

               

On Waterwitch we started last on 13minutes, just a couple of minutes behind a gaggle of Youngs (88s & an 11) as well as Satisfaction. A quick close fetch to Kauri Point and the kite up as we bore away into the long run down to Rona, saw us overtaking the Young's as well as our team mate Satisfaction. The beat back was eventful, and a slight contretemps with Bluebeat rounding Meola, with Satisfaction on the outside, led to Bluebeat taking penalty turns. Thank you Bluebeat for maintaining the rules. No kite on the second run down as we had lost our spinnaker halyard on the previous beat back, but boat speed was good enough without the. Rounding Rona for the second time we planned a quick tack round the mark, only to lose the port genoa sheet. Why do knots come undone just at a crucial moment? A slow tack back onto starboard, and the errant sheet reattached, we returned onto port, having let Eye Spy and Young Entertainer through to leeward. However Waterwitch with her  waterline length and narrow hull shape, cut neatly through the water as the gusts increased to +25knots. We managed to gently creep past the two Youngs and before Kauri Point also got past Denise in Nona despite her clever delaying tactics! We also got within striking distance of teammates Shekina and Wild Horses, but needed another hundred metres to get past. A great afternoon of racing on the Upper Waitamata, and many thanks to the start boat crew, who did a fabulous job, and also to Jos with her wonderful photography. 

Back at Hobby Yacht Club we were welcomed with good food from the BBQ, and thanks to Corina and Sharon for the welcome food. David Jury as Commodore of Clearwater Cove YC, was delighted to get his hands on the Golden Rivet Trophy, but only for a brief moment. They need another win before they can keep it!

With our awesome crew of Jude and Cristin we were set for Golden rivet race one.  Main aims to have fun, stay safe and not come last.... 

We decided to go with full main and our No2... and there was a debate about our spinnaker (and that is how it stayed as it was rather fresh out there).

We hoisted our sails are did timed runs to the start line, the tacks and gybes were awesome!  Bill started eight minutes before us and we could not even see them when we started.  Time for us to start and we were all very happy with our start.

Everything was going well on the justice but we could not catch up with Bill and her huge main and No.1.  We tweaked everything but still no gain.  Hey ho we were second round the first two marks.  But the fleet were catching up with us quickly.  And one by one they maneuvered past us.  Ah ha this is a team race.... we may not be able to keep up but we can make it harder for them.... all we needed was a boat to play with.  Just by luck we spotted are large blue boat ... we tacked over and then "STARBOARD" we yelled!!!! They heard us (no suprise if you have ever heard me shout... ) and tacked... we still had to dip them but we slowed them down and they lost places.  Good work crew.  At some point after this the vang went bang... which meant we could not crank the main sheet on as hard.... hey ho we are all safe.

We did take note that it took a while for some of the boats to overtake us... so we cannot have been doing to badly.

Finally we finished, one minute behind Blue beat, less than a minute and a half behind escape... so luckily for my crew they did not have to endure me singing my song "allllllllllllllll by ourrrrrrrrrrrselves" as we were not!

So in conclusion two out of three aims achieved - we had lots of fun and we stayed safe.  We were however last but WE did win the start!

Thank you to our totally and utterly awesome crew of Cristin and Jude!!

Well done to CCYC for winning race 1...... now the competition is really on..... bring on the next  race on 3rd December!!  And thank you to everyone who made the day possible.

Race report from Eye Spy:

 

Been looking forward to this one. I have JK, Greg, Stu and young Mackenzie on board for this race. We got on board Eye Spy and rigged up with the No.2 headsail. The wind was forecast to be 15-20knts so we even considered a reef as we didn’t want to scare our new crew. Motoring towards the start line and running the freezer at the same time the engine alarm started going off so the main went up forgetting all about the reef. Maybe at the bottom mark? 

Being a Mark-foy start we did a timed run from Island bay wharf. 3 minutes, OK. Too busy watching others starts and ended up starting 1 minute late……..bugger.

We only had WaterWitch starting behind us so we had some catching to do. Up with the No.2 two kite soon after Kauri Point and we gained a few places as some opted to go without. After a tussle with Escape we settled in for what was to be a fairly uneventful upwind leg to the finish. We had Eye Spy fairly powered up but it wasn’t the conditions needed as our optimum is around 12-15knts. Over the course of the race we had gained two positions.

The result went to CCYC well done.

 

Well done to Greg who performed a manuevour worthy of an Olympic gymnast. Commitment saw him rescue the mooring hook from the drink. Maybe not thought through tho as he realised he could not get back on deck.  So………. JK to the rescue holding his legs in order to gain the leverage to get back on board………….funny!

 

Lets hope for a few more vessels out there for the second race. Bring it on………

 

Nigel and I teamed up to contest the Golden Rivet race with our team mates from Hobsonville Yacht Club. We had a plan... we wanted to start the race, finish the race and have a bit of fun doing it. We knew the wind was going to be upwards of 20 knots so we planned for a reef in the main to help us on the upwind legs. Two handed no extras was the game plan and the reef turned out to be a good idea.

Thanks to Nigel and his Rolex we had a very good start - third best start! We reached of towards Kauri point with mates Eye Spy and Escape on either side of us. Entertainer was flying and we cleared our mates - who where both setting up for a kite run. We gull winged deep down wind then come back across the track on a tight reach. Good plan and it set us up nicely for the the rounding at Rohna. We stayed out of everyones way and smashed back up to Pile - on the wind all the way. Bloody hard work doing all those tacks two handed. Nigel had his hands full and at one stage he disappeared... I went looking for him and found him three meters away at the bottom of the cockpit! Awesome - he never let go of the helm! We had some great tacks and some poor ones too.. to keen to get it done. Darcy: 'Let the f#@*in sheet go NIgel!!' Nigel: 'You're standing on the bloody thing Darcy!!' 

We where doing ok back down wind and rounded Rohna again. Then this big blue boat appeared out of nowhere! How the hell do you hide a boat that bloody big? Satisfaction had tacked to port on us and hadn't made way after the tack. We powered up on starboard and even though Nigel had the tiller up around his ears and I dumped the main it wasn't enough. Crunch, crack, f#*$! We are all very lucky that Young Entertainers bow sheared Satisfactions boarded platform clean off! No other structure or hull damage to either boat. Regardless of who was right or wrong Phil and I had a hug and hand shake and we agreed to repair the damage to Satisfactions platform and share a drink or two. Heading back to the finish line was all hard work. Had to dip Waterwitch once and then tack away on the next cross. That cost us any chance of beating them across the line. Still we finish first for HYC - sorry Denise and Dave on Nona - you guys sailed a great race two handed - we pipped them at the line. Got second fastest boat around the track too.. Well done Nigel!

Well done Clearwater Cove for winning the first round and Bill did very well.... we will be back for race two.