Race # 7:

1st – Blue Beat

2nd – Eye Spy

3rd – Escape

4th – Waterwitch

5th – Cloud 10

Race report from Escape

(Apologies to the Beatles Day in the Life)

I sailed the boat today, oh buoy

A tiki tour round Auckland’s harbour marks

And though the wind was rather sad

Well, we just had to laugh

Will took a photograph

We ghosted round the Rough Rock mark

We thought we’d be there till the tide had changed 

The boats behind us all came past

They watched us drift away

 We weren’t really sure if we could even make it back

We raced the boat today oh buoy

 ‘‘Twas nothing like the race the week before

The leading boat just sailed away

One good puff was all it took

All we could do was look

I’d love to make the mark

Woke up got out of bed

Forgot the kite was in the shed

Fell down the stairs and had some toast

Looked up and saw there was no wind

Found my keys and grabbed my hat

Was at the boat in seconds flat

Made my way inside  and saw no kite

Everybody spoke and I went into flap

I sailed the boat today oh buoy

We found More holes than Blackburn, Lancashire

And though the wind was hard to find

We just had tough it out

Now we know just how to drive the whole crew nuts

I’d love to make the mark

Cloud 10’s race report 

Motoring out from the marina things were looking pretty glassy, not much wind around at all. The call was made by CCYC to move the start around the corner to Meola to search for wind which sounded like a good idea. It was always going to be tricky especially with the tide running very strongly there. We were allowed to keep our motors on to try and combat the tide but as soon as we turned ours off we started being swept towards the line very fast. We were a little unlucky, if we’d had 30 seconds more it would have been a great start but alas we were over and had to go back. As we were making our way back we watched some minor chaos unfold on the line and steered clear. Some boats had put anchors down but then the others who hadn’t drifted into them.

By the time we got going we were well behind but had caught up by the bridge and had some good duels and a few starboard calls going against us forcing extra tacks. Nimble caught up the fleet too after starting well after us, it looked like they couldn’t get their anchor up and remained stuck on the start line for a long time. Eye Spy and Escape were a speck in the distance never to be seen again for the rest of the race.

As we reached North Head we could see Blue Beat and Waterwitch sitting going no-where in close. We thought we had given North Head plenty of space and wouldn’t get caught but no we got stuck in a back eddy too just ahead of them. Two CCYC boats followed us into the hole and we all just sat there for what seemed like forever. Blue Beat found some wind and got away so we followed their path once we finally got moving. Again things didn’t go our way, what worked for Blue Beat didn’t work for us, the wind changed direction and the boats that had stayed in the hole longer eventually got some wind at a much better angle. The extra distance sailed cost us dearly and we ended up last at Rough Rock mark.

We put the kite up after rounding the mark in a desperate attempt to catch up but it didn’t really seem to be helping. Watching ahead we saw a few boats having trouble getting around the Northern Leading mark with their kites up and Bill missed it altogether. So I made the call to drop ours and we successfully rounded passing Bill in the process.

About this point Scotty asked for the steering stick as he wanted a go. I thought why the hell not he can’t do any worse than I had up to this point. He was concentrating hard and Spike and I were being back seat drivers giving instructions. Bill was determined to catch us and was putting every sail in his wardrobe up, he has a lot and we were slightly jealous.

It was a two horse race between Bill and Cloud 10 for last place all the way up the harbour. The wind started to die out and there was shear panic from the crew as the beer had run out. Bill did catch us by Kauri point with their big Gennaker up, we have nothing to respond to that with our only headsail slightly bigger than a number 2. Luckily it came around more on the nose and stayed constant to the finish line so we managed to drag them off to finish just ahead. A very long (6 hr) frustrating race but a beautiful sunny winter’s day to be out on the water.

Race report from Eye Spy:

I was expecting about 9-10 knts from the East and got from nothing to about 8 knts from all over.

JK and I on board today and we got to Taikata start line only to find it had shifted to Meola. Good call as there was no wind at Taikata.

Every one had motors going till the last moment to avoid jumping the start with the outgoing tide. Someone anchored in the start-line and got clobbered by Crewcial fix. Not a good thing to see.

We sat facing away from the line against the tide for what seemed like a lifetime. Neither of us had a watch so the start would have to be a guess. We hit the line well and started just after Champosa. We traded places with Champosa many times down towards North-head and pulled away from the main fleet. Escape came with us and we both got stuck in a hole just after Rough Rock. I had the wrong mark in sight for the next rounding so lost a lot of time getting back on track. Many of the fleet were now ahead and we picked off a few as we went back up the harbour under kite. The HYC boats had all gone past.

We finished just ahead of Nimble after about 5 ½ hours. Long day on the water resulting in a splitting headache. Early night for me!

Would have been easier with another set of hands. We missed Lisa and Mark our kite gurus.