Thank you to all the boats who competed in the “Golden Rivet” at the weekend. We may not have won but there is always “Golden Rivet # 2” on December 9th at 13.00 hours. 1st Taathra (CCYC) 2nd Cracka (CCYC) 3rd Champosa (CCYC) 4th Magic Dragon (HYC) 5th Eye Spy (HYC) 6th Blue Beat (HYC) 7th Nimble (CCYC) 8th Near & Farr (HYC) 9th Satisfaction (CCYC) 10th Cloud Ten (HYC) 11th Marimanu (CCYC) 12th Wild Horses (CCYC) 13th Waterwitch (CCYC) Points (lowest score system) CCYC 22 HYC 33 Best starts for CCYC 1st Nimble / Taathra +0 seconds 2nd Waterwitch +11 seconds Best starts for HYC 1st Eye Spy +1 second 2nd Magic Dragon + 15 seconds 3rd Blue Beat + 56 seconds Fastest CCYC boat around the course 1st Champosa 2nd Taathra 3rd Nimble Fastest HYC Boat around the course 1st Magic Dragon 2nd Eye Spy 3rd Blue Beat Race report from Eye Spy: Been looking forward to this one…………..went and got a hull clean on Friday so no excuses eh. We meet at Eye Spy at 1130ish and have Lisa, JK, Nicole, Yarn and I on board. We get to the start area with lots of time to spare and begin a few timed runs to the line. We have full main and the No.1 hoisted as the winds are predicted to get to around 8 knots. This should suit the 88s more than most. Our start is pretty good and we start with Nimble. We are able to ride over the top of Nimble and begin the chase. There are many boats starting before us so, lets go get em……. Just prior to Kauri point we hoist the spinnaker. It’s a bit of a learning curve for some but the hoist goes well and we continue to gain on the bunch in front. We have to jibe about at Chelsea and that goes pretty well all things considered. If we had a experienced crew we would have done another jibe before Bayswater mark but decided on dropping the kite first. Around Bayswater and begin the long leg up wind to Meola. We pick off 5 boats upwind. Loving the clean hull! Around Chelsea and the kite goes up again. No issues and we settle in for……….oooops a wrap around the forestay. I know what to do so, Lisa swaps places with me and I grab the windward ribbon. A little bit of weight and the twist is out,,,,,,,phew! Our concern was our hard work and position would have eroded away. The leg to Chelsea doesn’t take long as the wind has increased to about 15 knots at times. Just about to round Chelsea and I correct myself just in time. I was shaping up to do a starboard rounding. Port Trevor Port!! We’ve done well and only have two in front of us. We do see the two big boats charging from behind. Don’t think there’s too much chance we can hold them off but we may be able to slow Champosa to give Magic Dragon a chance. We hold our course to prevent them from tacking. They are too fast and still manage to tack and clear our bow. Across the finish line in 5th place………….2nd HYC boat home. Sadly not enough to retain the trophy but as it’s the best of three we still have an opportunity to redeem things. Thanks to the Five HYC entries. You did great! Hopefully we can entice a few more entries next time. Thanks and well done to CCYC on your team win. See you on the water where we will do battle again.  Cloud Tens race report This was Cloud 10’s first Golden Rivet, we had been briefed on team strategy by Trev and had John and Spikes experience on-board so were ready to go. Our start was really good, only 17 seconds late. I actually only figured out on Monday why our great start didn’t get mentioned at prize giving……lets just say we were more than 17 seconds late. We took off in blissful ignorance of my mistake and once around Kauri point the big kite was hoisted. Something was wrong but what, it wasn’t until we furled up the headsail we could see the problem. It was up sideways! It actually set for a second and was pulling us along but of course it had to be corrected. Scotty did the fastest packing job in history and the second time all went well. We were lucky only to lose one place in the spinnaker incident and once away again we passed a couple of competitors. We knew we had to do well on the down-wind leg as up-wind is not Cloud 10’s strong point. We dropped the kite early to avoid any issues rounding the mark and we started the beat in a good position. The beat was interesting and we did get over-taken as suspected, we had to dip Near and Farr and then they had to dip us. We were playing nicely being on the same team. I noticed that our headsail was a bit baggy on the forestay and thought someone might have accidently let the jammer go. It was fixed but then I watched it go out the jammer by itself…argh! Whilst sorting this out the GPS went for a skate from where it’s mounted, I made some comments about bloody racing and breaking things but luckily it had survived the fall. Satisfaction had caught us and we were extremely close to each other rounding Kauri point, the big blue hull looming underneath us was quite unnerving. The crew were working hard and Satisfaction were making sure they kept a position which could push us away from the finish line. A great tussle to the end and we were just pipped at the post. Not the overall result HYC wanted but a great day out on the water and the Hawaiian costumes back at the club added to the fun. Thank-you to the CCYC committee boat and the HYC house committee for the fantastic burgers.  Near & Farr’s Race report. We decided to go double handed for this race, taking advantage of the three minute rule. We ummmed and arghhhhed whether to take our new battoned number 2 off and put the number 1 on… and finally decided to stick with the No 2… hmmmmm! Our start was not the best nor was it our worst……we furled the no 2 out on the start line and off we went (with Wild horses quite a way behind us… they had the same start time). It became quite apparent that our strategy of using the no 2 was not our best decision as the first leg was a very very long leg (especially if you are poling the sail out with your boat hook). There was not much we could do without a kite but we worked hard to try to stay ahead of wild Horses Under the harbour bridge and it seemed to take an age to get to Bayswater … the longer it took the further we slipped behind. We finally got to the mark nearly at the same time as Satisfaction and Wild horses and around the mark we went. Now was our time to put our foot down on the accelerator … Our No2 could finally shine in all of her glory …. Pointing pointing and getting great height. Right time to make up some places. Down to Meola around the mark … At the top mark we found ourselves wedge between Satisfaction and Champosa… rather alarming as Champosa somehow did not see us and were jostling with their own team ….. A loud shout from Duncan “CHAMPOSA….!!! Look behind you we don’t have brakes” …phew that was close. A short downwind leg to Chelsea (thank goodness). Around Chelsea (not our best rounding someone was not fast enough on the winch.. and then the sheet came of the winch). and then it was a drag race to the finish. Duncan’s helming was exceptional …. We were gaining on the boats ahead of us and finally got ahead of Satisfaction and Cloud ten…. Arms burning … we crossed the finish line…. Yay. Great day on the water…. Next time we need to get our kite up! Anyone want to be our crew?? Thank you to Sharon and Corrina for the burgers, they were fantastic. And thank you to all the other boats for a great race.  |
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