Last day of the winter series and (in the only slightly censored words of one of my crew) a sunny day, not too much wind, two races and the chance to throw some stuff up at the front down-wind.

Crew for the day Ginny, Pete, Richard and my nephew, Ben - up from Wellington to try sailing in less than a gale-force wind.

Talk of the election kept us occupied on the motor round to Hobby and we had a broad range of opinion on the boat. No one completely happy, or completely unhappy for that matter, and no battle of the generations ensued.

Still half asleep after a late night and an earlier than usual wake up, we were not first, but not far from the line when gun went. Certainly close enough to admire the optimism of the Firsty crew as they sailed merrily on - despite being so far over the line that I needed binoculars to see them. Sure enough, the horn and flag soon beckoned them back and we couldn't resist a bit of banter as they came back past. 

A slowly delaminating genoa and an inability to get the best from the boat on my part made for a frustrating reach to Taikata, and then a poorly chosen angle to Meola compounded the problem. Eye Spy and Blue Beat had made good on their better starts and Firsty had got back into it as well. The team got the gennaker up well, but the wind was too far aft for it to work well on a straight line to the mark. We had caught Blue Beat and the gennaker gave us the pace to get past - just not quite in the right direction, as we kept the angle “hot”. Blue Beat dipped our stern and sailed straight to the mark, but a slick drop and gybe put us round Meola hot on their heels and we soon got over the top. 

Eye Spy were the next target, but we didn’t catch much on the short tack to Kauri Point or the two-sail reach back towards Taikata. I had high hopes we could get them with the gennaker on the run along the mud to the finish. It was a great ride and tense in a couple of gusts that threatened to round us out (exciting enough for you Ben?), but in the end it was ‘close but no cigar’ as Trev beat us to the line not too far behind the Firsty boys.

Race two followed quickly and we managed to win the start… only to see it all wasted by sailing into a hole! “First to last in five boat lengths” was Pete’s succinct description, so once again we were playing catch up.  It was a two-sail drag race to Kauri Point and, disappointingly, we made little progress on catching the 88s - let alone Firsty, who were starting to do a horizon job. 

We'd learnt from the earlier race and threw up the kite instead of the gennaker. It was enough to get past the mighty Nona. It was light enough that a bad gybe would only bring embarrassment rather than disaster, and the team pulled it off with aplomb so there’d be no rude comments in the bar later.

The drop at Chelsea was good work done well, and the genoa held together on the up-wind leg, but we didn't gain much on the 88s in front - and Firsty was already in another postcode - so it wasn't looking like line honours for us. Turn Meola, kite up, kite down, round Chelsea and beat back up to Kauri Point. Blue Beat was close enough to give us hope of catching them and our tacking technique had got better - albeit at the expense of Ben getting a chance to catch his breath. 

We caught Blue Beat and a luffing duel ensued. Verbal blows were traded, parentage questioned and then we'd passed. The rest of the race passed like a formula one race: lots of effort, but no danger of anyone passing anyone else!  We moved clear of Blue Boat, but didn't look like testing Eye Spy at any point and Craig and team in Firsty were so far ahead they were probably feet-up at home. 

That’s how it ended and another winter series is ticked off. As with the election, the results leave us neither happy nor unhappy, but it's hard to fault a sunny day, a fair breeze and getting to throw some stuff up at the front.