Results: 1st Mindbender 2nd Eye Spy 3rd Blue Beat 4th Nona Race report from Eye Spy: Turned up to the club to find the wind and skies about what the forecast predicted. I dodged the showers and got the ODM in position then delivered my crew to Eye Spy. My crew today is Mark, JK and Sam. We hear its gusting 35knts in the Gulf so we decide on No.2 headsail and full main. I also spend time delivering crew to MindBender. This extra time saw us a little late for the start…….good excuse eh. Interesting tho, there were two boats behind us at the start, We had BlueBeat in front and MindBender and Nona behind. Just 88s today. No-one else came out to play. Saw Mark Patterson on board Nona (welcome back mate) he has made difference on that boat in the past……..interesting. So we head on after Blue Beat and he proves hard to catch. We see that Blue Beat, MindBender and Eye Spy are very similar in speed. We try to get over the top of BB but that plan is easier said than done. I try a few “dummy” lunges to windward and that doesn’t work either as Gaza has Mark looking towards us and calling the moves. I decide to sit a couple of boats lengths to leeward till we get towards Kauri point then make my move. We head back up to BB and he points up towards MindBender. We dive down again and hope he now tussles with MindBender. No such luck and we round Kauri together. Kites are hoisted and I find myself in an 88 sandwich. Not the most comfortable of places to be with a kite up! BB keeps close on my port side and we need to soak down to keep Chelsea to stbd. He holds us up and we realise we need to slow in order to get the other side of him. Not as easy as it sounds and we end up passing him instead. Our drop was good but we hadn’t tightened the headsail halyard and could tack right away. Turned out it was a good move and we passed BB during the beat to the next mark. Positions remained the same during the 3 x roundings of Rona and Chelsea then the kites went up again at Kauri for the run home. BB were slow to hoist so we increased the distance between us. Couldn’t catch MindBender who beat us by about 20 seconds. BB about a minute or two behind us and Nona a few minutes behind BB. Where’s your kite Denise? Thanks to the tower team. Good course but could have been longer. Given the forecast, who was to know it would turn out to be such perfect sailing conditions. Mindbender Race Report. With the boat owner out of town this weekend it was all up to the boys on the end of the tiller and sheets. Fortunately I was able to cobble together a few crew who welcomed the relief from diaper duties for a couple of hours. Course 4 saw us over the line very late behind Blue Beat and Eye Spy and settled in behind on our way down to Kauri. Trying to stay wide and out of the tide we made a little ground to the 2 leading 88s with Trev playing tactics with BB heading them higher to the breeze. Trev’s race tactics had us sail the long way around BB, we were high enough to the breeze to pop the kite slip past both Eye Spy and BB by the time that we got to Meola. Off to Chelsea and then Rona 3 times, we doused the kite on a heading to Rona, $%^$# we didn’t need to drop! the boats behind are still carrying through, back up with the kite and we were away still in fortunate to be in front. Bit of a wind shift saw a nice reach for the second track back up to Chelsea for the second rounding. From there back to Rona and cover Trev through to Kauri and up with the Kite once more. Up the ditch bobbing away in a dropping breeze had us sailing to hold position with Eye Spy coming down on us every now and then.. Into the moored boats with a nice little buffer to Trev had us across the line for the gun and Handicap win. Thanks to Nigel for tower duties and to Trev for being crew transport. Looking forward to the first Wayward, hopefully the weather comes good and Nigel, the boat owner will be aboard. Race report from Nona Roll up to the Club and it looks decidedly wet. Ok, That part of the forecast is right, I wonder about the 15 knots NW to S. My crew is David (snowbunny) Meek and Mark Patterson. They inform me when we get onto the boat that they are carrying shoulder injuries. Reluctantly I leave the spinnaker sheets below.........eeeeeeeeeeeeee. We go for a number two as bean Rock is 22kts to 17 and Tamaki 23kts to 18. We hit the start line last in 8 knots of breeze NW, so maybe it is a bit brisker around kauri Pt? The course is Meola (P), Chelsea (S), Rhona (S) – 3 times around Chelsea and Rhona and home. We have 2 hours of incoming tide as Mindbender stays wide and Blue Beat and Eye Spy play games closer in. We position ourselves between them but behind. Around the Meola and fleet hoist spinnakers and we two sail down to Rhona concentrating on tidy rounding’s and tacks. Heading back to Chelsea and the wind shifts south wards and instead of putting in one tack to make the mark we do it in one board and note the rest of the fleet are two sailing back to Rhona, no kites. After our third rounding of Rhona we sail closer to the land than the fleet ahead in the hope of utilising the remaining incoming tide and reduce the amount of water that we are covering. Around Kauri Point the fleet hoist spinnakers as we two sail ( in softening winds) to the finish. By this time the sun is shining and there is remnants of blue sky. The wind throughout the course ranged from 3.4 to 13.8knots. We finish behind,1 - Mindbender, 2- Eye Spy and 3- Blue beat. Thanks to the tower and the Social committee for the hot food. Lets get a big fleet out for the Golden Rivet 1, Saturday 29 Oct |
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