Report from Young Entertainer I had an enjoyable Saturday night at Ocean Beach Motohue with crews from Eye Spy, Resolute, Renascence and Head First. Trev and Jos on Eye Spy made a nice lamb dinner and we all enjoyed a few amber liquids and told stories about our finest moments on the water. I was smart (for once) and went back to Young Entertainer to enjoy a 'few quiets' before turning in. Tomorrow would be a big day as I was going to race Young Entertainer home single handed! A 'D' was made to start at 10.30. The wind was 6-12 knots from the South West - luckily a little bit more South than West! I got the main up, got ropes sorted and went about setting up for the start line. I hit the start line and unfurled the head sail. All seemed to be working ok. CCYC boats had gone through our start line on their way home from Waiheke. I saw some guy called Phil and a big pretty blue boat flying someone else's flag.... I knew I had to be on my game as Trev and Jos on Eye Spy would surly hunt me down and pass me as I struggled to get Young Entertainer on her game. But the wind gods were looking on favourably - I managed to get Entertainer in her sweet spot and I was off! I started to get pretty excited when I started to pass other yachts that were racing with crew (no disrespect to them). GPS speed was showing between 6 and 8 knots for the first 45 mins! Cool as! I could see Eye Spy picking off CCYC boats too - one slip up and he'd be on me. I got it wrong at North Head - no not because I had a chat to Stevo and Michael on Stranger who were motoring home - it was because of the container ship that I was on a collision course with! I decided to get outa there and lost some minutes but saved some bother. Hitting 9 knots through town and sending it. Under the bridge with 12pm news on the wireless and over the finish line at 12.30! Sweet TWO hrs from Ocean side of Motohue to Tiakata finish line. Now time for a beer cause I was a bit stuffed after what was a very cool race. Well done Eye Spy for sending it and being only 10mins behind. Report from Eye Spy: Well………no hundred mile race. No-one keen to come and play. So we headed down the harbour in preparation for the return wayward. Just so happened that we were nearly in time for the CCYC cruising race. Our motor was turned off 5 minutes prior to the start time which meant we were well behind the line and next to no wind. Twenty minutes later we still hadn't crossed the start line and were surrounded by the sound of anchor chains rolling over the fairleads of three of our competitors. Jos and I stuck with it and soon had "Eye Spy" moving from puff to puff. By the time we were at Chelsea Gaucho was the only boat in front of us. This is a no extras race isn't it? "Gaucho" was flying a Genniker! While we were pondering this development "Wild Horses" snuck up on us and we did battle with them all the way to the finish line off Owhanaki Bay. Because I wasn't sure of how to finish we let "Wild Horses" pip us at the post. Trevor out-clevered himself again resulting in a third on handicap. Not bad for what was a very tricky day on the water. HYC return Wayward from Motohui…… The wind was again light and shifty. A suggestion from Rennaisance to bring the start forward to 1030hrs was supported by all concerned and we headed to the start off the red reef marker. Turned out we merged into the CCYC fleet starting from Owhanaki. This gave us more to think about as we did battle up the Harbour. A close quarter race developed between "Wild Horses" us and "Cracka". The "Eye Spy" being the first to Taikata. Nice racing guys……. Where did Darcy go? "Young entertainer" showed us a clean set of heels as he charged up harbour single handed. Well done Darcy. |
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