1st Firsty 2nd Eye Spy 3rd Six Gun Justice Race Report from Six Gun Justice: Having received our new No2 from tony... we decided going out for the weekend would be an excellent opportunity to test it out. So off we went on Saturday afternoon to sail to Rakino to meet Firsty and Eye Spy. Not huge amounts of wind for our No2 but enough to test it and get to grips with how to trim it and the fact that the justice can now point much higher than before. We caught up with Trevor (with a little help from the engine) and then decided to try to race him toward Rangi.... wow we can point high. To my disappointment we did not over take the Y88 (duncan explained later that evening that we were not racing .... what??? and that maybe I had sent my expectations a little too high!). We got to west bay... and admired the rainbow and had a few refreshing beverages with eye spy while discussing the new sail. We were the scratch boat for the race (we decided to take advantage of the double handed rule and started at 9.54am)... we were surprised to see Eye spy up and about when we left... we thought they may have decided to handicap themselves the previous evening ;-) There was not much wind so we put our main up while still on anchor, then anchor up, No1 up and a couple of circles and we were off at 3.6 knots wooohooo! We goose winged and put the pole up and looked behind us to see eye spy with big red and slightly further away Firsty with big yellow. Hmmmmm wont be long until they catch us up. Eye spy passed us just before Rangi lighthouse and then Firsty just after. We decided that Trevor must have been spending too much time with darcy as he seemed to be washing the end of his boom as he headed towards North head! Off the two bigger boats raced.... would Firsty pass eye spy?? Into the harbour it was not great and the increased traffic made it a bit of a washing machine. We continued of an eventually lost sight of the others as they went under the bridge and past Kauri point. The wind picked up by the bridge for us and we were doing 7.3 knots.... great speed but the only way we would catch them up would be with a jet engine.... I thought about singing my song "all by ourselvesssss!" but decided that might give Duncan a headache! Finally past Tiakata heady down and main down. Super quick pack up... back into the marina, lines on and off the boat (pity there is not a price for the quickest boat pack up). We came third!!! or as Duncan put it last... I like to call it third! Thank you chaps for a great weekend.... just wait until we get to race with our no2!!!! Race report from Eye Spy: As I headed out of the harbour with Mark and friend Nathan on board we noticed a nice breeze building from the north east. We were currently under motor and Six Gun Justice was catching fast so we raised sails and shut the engine off. Twenty or so tacks later we were dropping sails prior to anchoring at West Bay Rakino. This was a great opportunity to throw instruction towards Nathan who had not sailed before. I went to the two other skippers to ensure they were clear about the sailing instructions and we decided on a early start to the race as this would avoid battling against the tide. So…………….we settled down to spag- bol and a few not so quiet ones. Not surprisingly we slept a little late. 0930hrs in fact. The scratch boat starts at 1000hrs!! Up anchor, no breakfast and sails up. The kite went up soon after we crossed the start line and we set after Six Gun Justice. We caught and passed them just before Rakino Light and tightened up to get round North-head. Eye Spy likes this and increased speed to double figures. The big yellow kite on Firsty was getting bigger. It was going to be touch n go as to who would finish first. If either of us made a mistake it would be “curtains”. Yes…………..mistake from Eye Spy saw Firsty gain enough to pass us just before the finish………damn!! Thanks to the two other crews for making it a great weekend. Nice No.2 headsail Six Gun! |
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