Hi all, It was great to see the Keeler’s out on the water on Sunday in a good breeze, compared with recent weeks of having either no wind or lots of it, or the influence of the long weekend. I was very pleased. My apologies for the oversight of the long weekend in our Winter racing program; with the combination of racing with CCYC I did not realise before the start of the series there was scheduled racing that weekend. Trev Higgins kindly put a race day report together for me, thanks Trev! See below. Thanks to the House committee for putting on the BBQ yesterday and for their excellent efforts in organising the Prize Giving. Also, thanks to all who helped to make it a great night! The next Keeler race is scheduled for the 30 June 2019, 1300hrs MF Local Race. The next Dingy race day is scheduled for this Sunday 23 June 2019, 1030hrs, with a 0915hrs sheds open. We are also likely to have 1x possibly 2x Opti’s to trial as a part of our due diligence on the purchase of our new ‘learn to sail’ fleet. Race Report by Trev Higgins - Escape Once the odd shower had passed through it was a good day for sailing with good breeze and a bit of tide making things interesting. The course was Start- Bayswater- Meola- Rona- Finish Four club boats in combination with a good number from Clearwater Cove meant there was always someone to pace yourself against and the Mark Foy start handicaps saw some close finishes. With the wind straight down the harbour, spinnakers were the order of the day for the downwind legs while the upwind legs suited most boats number 2s. While most boats flirted with the mud at some point and the rum bell was ultimately not required some of the near misses were skin of the teeth stuff. Escape made the most of a full crew and a good start time to lead from start to finish while Firsty made her usual late run from the back of the fleet to pick up firstly Slipknot and then Eye Spy (on the short reach to the finish) for second. Slipknot by her own admission had too many headsails to choose from, chose the wrong one and had to settle for 4th. All in all, a great day out on the water. Best start went to Firsty! Results: Race 5 1. Escape 2. Firsty 3. Eye Spy 4. Slipknot Best Start: Firsty Overall Series Results 1. Firsty 2. Slipknot 3. Escape 4. Eye Spy Happy racing Regards Sean Munro HYC Sailing Captain race reports from winter series race 5 - Sunday 16th June 2019 Race report from Escape (regarding both fleets not just HYC) No worries about a lack of wind for this race. A lack of water was today’s story. Low tide at 12.30 meant we were on the boat and motoring out early but even then the depth sounder read 0.1m as we left the marina so we were just in time. On board with me were Gina, Pete, Will and Richard and our first aim was to dodge a shower going through and we almost managed it. Almost. No lack of water there! That done we settled down to getting the boat ready and with plenty of time we were relaxed when the start rolled round. A quick reach to Kauri Point and then for the first time in quite a while we were flying a blue kite instead of a white Gennaker. It was dead down wind and the occasional gust gave us enough of a roll to keep the skipper on his toes. But the kite did it’s job well enough for us to drop Eye Spy further astern, catch and pass Water Witch before the bridge and make inroads into the leading boats. The team pulled off a great drop and we rounded Bayswater smoothly in 5th place for the combined fleet, first for HYC and settled in to see what we could do up wind. Plenty of breeze against a strong incoming tide made for a choppy but quick beat through the bridge and on to Meola. We squeaked through the bridge with a few metres to spare avoiding the need to put in another two tacks and caught the Lotus at the same time. The next few tacks were uneventful but up ahead a crash tack by Satisfaction had us wondering if they had hit the mud but they moved smoothly on so it must have just been an illusion. A couple of minutes later and the depth sounder was doing a quick countdown so we threw in our own quick tack and when I looked back I could see a swirl of brown water where our turn had disturbed the mud. Close call. 4th around Meola, a quick gybe and we were hoisting the kite to chase Satisfaction when it got a bit interesting. The halyard was caught behind the spreader and trapped there by the main. We found that out when the spinnaker was halfway up and starting to fill. Cue a scramble to sort that and then to make it more interesting the depth alarm started to ding. When I looked at it it was at 1.0 m and falling fast. As we crash gybed it hit 0.3 and it bottomed out at 0.2m. 20cm between us and a sudden stop! On a positive note it cleared the spinnaker halyard so when we gybed back a minute later the kite went straight up. No more drama followed for that leg. A conservative drop and we rounded Rona still in 4th place. Some issues with the headsail took a couple minutes to sort out and then it was just sail it as well as we can to the finish. Satisfaction and Bill were just in front at Kauri Point while Nimble was almost finished. It was a drag race to the finish and Satisfaction showed us a clean pair of heels so we had our sights on 3rd but in the end Bill beat us off and we had to settle for 4th on line. First of the Hobsonville boats was a pretty good consolation prize though. Thanks to my crew and to Clearwater Cove for running a great race. *********************************************** Race report from Eye Spy: Today is a good day for racing. Wind Guru predicts 10-18 knots and we have three on board. Lisa, Nicole and me the skipper. The start was not as close as I could have been but I was told not as bad as it has been. Sometimes the obvious should be kept silent eh. Many boats have already started and we see Slipknot, Firsty and Champosa waiting for their start. They are a fair way behind. They are fast and start at these times for a reason. The leg 1 to Bayswater was a little frustrating as we decided not to run a kite as we needed a few more sets of hands. Those who ran a kite made gains but we hoped to make our own on the upwind legs. Our sail choice was a good one. Number two and full main worked a treat. Balanced and not overpowered in the gusts. Wind getting to 20knots at its peak I am told. After rounding Bayswater we see Firsty has made big gains. She is ready to pounce. We hold position for this leg and the next downwind as the kites didn’t get hoisted for a while. This is going to be close! Firsty does one less tack on the leg to the finish and sneaks past just prior to the finish. This was not too upsetting as given the handi-cap system we should get some relief. So……..we finish third in the HYC fleet. Don’t think we saw Escape all day………….well done Trev and team for coming first. |
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