Race Report from Stratus With our bottom unfouled Light breezes forecast We fancied our chances Of not coming last Start was a cracker Crossed the fleet on port tack Spent the rest of the day Trying to keep them all back Clear skies and flat sea Fading lust for a win Replaced by desire For blue cheese, beers and gin Well done to Waterwitch, Firsty and Eye Spy who got past our 70 ft beam.  Photograph taken aboard Stratus Race Report from Isis Weather forecasters? 20knts? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. southerly? Guess that why we flew the spinnaker and the Gennie for hours on an easterly heading! The day started with promise, a better start this time, but by the time we reached Kauri point it was already decreasing, long day I thought to myself. With Kentucky Woman starting late and catching up fast I thought we would be passed, but as the wind died, up came the centre board and we actually started to pull away and even overtook a boat call H C’S a lot larger than us! He was most miffed! We slowly sauntered down the harbour as we rounded north head the wind totally died, for at least an hour it looked as if we were heading out to sea some small areas of pressure only just kept us moving and then we began a two hour rock dodging trip around the underside of Rangi. There was a point just before the wharf when we nearly called it a day and fired up the motor as Kentucky Woman chose exactly the wrong moment to steal our wind with a large cheese grater type rock 10metres to port thank goodness for centre boards. She never got past though and we even pulled out a 10ish boat length lead. And so we drifted towards the shortened finish. Line Spinnaker went up Gennie went up running out of poles and halyards .Wash from Blood@#@#@#@#@##@#@# stinkpots kept bogging us down but at least we never completed a 360, close though! Saw some others doing dougnuts, must have been hungry?? KW pulled out at Illonian rock and we finally finished and headed back to the club to catch up with Trevor who appeared to be suffering from concussion. There is a reason they are called BOOMS!!!!!!! Till next time ISIS out. Race Report from Nona Nona arrived at the start line, ready to go and eyes focused. Set the start clock at 5.00mins and begin manoeuvring around the 18 odd boats in the start zone. Hear the hooter - yep must be one minute to go. Wrong. Everyone has left. Something to work on. Cross the start in 10 to 12 knots - this is promising. Call Starboard (loudly) on a CCYC boat and its around Kauri Point heading for the centre span. Nimble and Satisfaction are dogging our heels and we finally shake off Satisfaction at Chelsea. The wind is dropping slightly 8-6 knots and it is through the Bridge. Ahead and to starboard Eye Spy and Blue Beat are playing so we stay in our own play pen on the port side of the Harbour.Past Devonport and it is noted that every fizz boat must be putting to sea. We limped to Northern leading as the wind disappeared. The fleet was neatly divided in two with yachts drifting down Browns Is and Rangitoto. We decided to go down the middle. The tide (we gratefully thank all 6 hrs of the outgoing tide) gradually takes us towards Islington Bay and past Blue Beat. Then the call goes out - shorten course - Yessssssssss. Now how do we get to the Yellow buoy between Rangi and Motuihe? Got it - turn beam on and give the tide a greater area to move. We get to the finish finally as Eye Spy, Firsty and Stratus have motored past on the way home. It was certainly a race of two halves, wind and no wind. The second half was like pulling teeth. Thanks to the Crew John, Bronwyn and friend Scott and I will bring water next time for the Earl Grey. NONA Eye Spy Race Report: Well well..........looked like the weather forecast might be accurate for this race. The wind built from the SE and we were off. The start was not as good as I would have liked but the Eye Spy crew of JK, Mark and Gary got to work trimming to chase down the lead boats. We could see Blue Beat and Stratus doing battle and this worked in our favour for a while. As it turned out I got sucked into joining in and the Higgins clan had two 88s to deal with. We finally got passed Stratus after the bridge and noted that the "old salt" on Waterwitch was hugging the port side of the harbour. The other two 88s and Gaucho followed. Conditions were getting lighter and we could see a little more pressure on the right. We stuck to our plan and forged on only to fall into a large hole off Browns island. Many drew closer by hugging Rangitoto but still had to get back over towards Motohui where we were. Tis going to be a long day........looking back we see Stratus facing the wrong way. No steerage huh? Mark noted that the VHF was not on. Someone must have bumped the switch and in doing so we missed the call to shorten the race. We tacked back onto starboard and fortunately was able to cross the line before drifting past the yellow mark. Finish time 1326.40hrs. What's up with the missing paint on the end of the boom Trev? That's now on my forehead!!!! So that's why they call it a boom...... Its now Tuesday and I am still very tender...........you'd think one would learn where such a large hunk of metal was eh. Race Report from Blue Beat Blue Beat had a good start, then we crossed paths with Stratus ( this is a 70 foot wide boat ) it must be because it is so hard to get past Winds where good until north head then the float started and we just managed to float across the line Great to be on the water Race Report from Firsty Had Tim, Bruce and Tod on board for the first Sunday winter race on Firsty. We were meant to have 1 more, but when he phoned saying that he was still 10 min away at 20 to start time we decided that 4 would be enough for the day. We could not wait any longer and had to go. Started about 5 min late, but hey, we weren't the last to start! Started into a sou easter slowly picking off the ones who had started in front of us as we drifted down the harbour moving from one wind patch to another. Finally managed to get the Young Entertainer just after the bridge. Stratus and the Young 88's proved more difficult as the breeze began to drop off as we drifted out of the harbour. Proving how hard it is to get past a Young 88 on a light day it took a lot of effort to get past Eye Spy just as the wind died completely. As we were contemplating pulling stumps news came over the VHF that we would finish at the ferry lane buoy in Motuihe channel. It was only 200 metres away but took an age to get there, Finally finishing behind the Water Witch. Very disappointing to hear that the Young Entertainer wasn't going to compete in the HYC race, only entering the CYCC race. Cheers - Craig on Firsty. |
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