Results 1st Firsty 2nd Phantasy 3rd Eye Spy 4th Blue Beat 5th Nona 6th Satisfaction 7th Mindbender Race Report from Nona! “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” So describes our fortunes in the Surprise 1 race. With a crew of John and David we headed to the Mark foy start with a course of Bayswater and home. Feeling lonely as the first boat away we decided go over the line and around to the others. We were so enthusiastic we did the manoeuvre twice. Finally away, we put up the small spinnaker and spent a few occasions heading to Te Atatu instead of Kauri Point. The forecast wind strength of 15 seems a little askew. The number one headsail may be a bit much on the way back – we will see. Rounding Kauri Point, the spinnaker sheet comes flying off the end of the sail. That’s good enough for me. Down with the spinnaker, up with the headsail and pole out, which seems to be gaining us some ground on the others ... confirms my thoughts on the value of spinnakers. Up and around Bayswater and it is tacking across the harbour, crossing others in the fleet. Finally we get under the bridge and head out of the tide. From Chelsea to Island Bay the wind strength in definitely over 15, at times peaking at 24 knots. A tad much for the number one as we start to lose a little ground on Blue Beat. By the time we are heading down the Hobsonville side of the moored boats we are not going to catch the front runners and we are well ahead of Mindbender and Satisfaction so we decide to check the calibration of the depth gauge. I now have peace of mind knowing that when the depth gauge reads 0.0 under the keel, there is other substances instead of water. We nonchalantly sailed into deep water, after finding that there was no throttle, the throttle cable had broken, did a 360 before the finish line to get a bit of practice and then sailed onto the mooring. P.S We all lived happily ever after. Thanks to the start tower, social committee and bar staff. Nona. Race Report from Mindbender!! For our first hit out at HYCNZ we had a crew of 3, together for the first time on the boat. Lacking in the wardrobe department opted for the start with the #3. Not the best start but got away clean and prepared to fly a kite for the first time of buying the boat. Up the kite went as did the log.. The first time that we had seen anything starting with a 9, we were quietly chuffed. Blue Beat ahead and the Spy behind with Kauri Point approaching, began talking though our first gybe and what could go wrong, fortunately everything went smoothly and we were away down to the bridge still in a close race with the other 88s. With no number 2 fell into that old chestnut of downwind sailing thinking the wind was dropping (hoping it would/could) changed out to the #1 with Bayswater fast approaching. 2nd to the mark and a poor kite drop coupled with the genoa decision saw us drop quickly to the back of the fleet. After struggling past the bridge made the call to change to #3 when we started making some decent headway upwind. For the rest of the track we tried to gauge the current flow for future reference. All in all it was a great day of fun, good to see a variety of boats and a few 88s to get out with. Thanks to tower crew for waiting for the tail end Charlie to cross the line. Cheers to Trevor for the dingy transfer to the club for more rum. We will be back. Cheers Brad Race report from Eye Spy: Mark, Gill and JK were the Eye Spy crew for the day and we decided on the No.2 headsail as the wind looked pretty heavy down at Kauri point. It was good to see seven boats at the start including the Y88 MindBender which is racing with us for the first time. Our start was at 12 minutes and we thought we were the only starter at that time but Nona decided to start with us after jumping their own start. Very generous Denise……… The spinnaker went up soon after the start and we were again trying to find clear air from underneath Satisfaction. We finally broke free of them around Kauri point and set off after BlueBeat and MindBender The forecast was for around 15 knts but was in fact peaking at around 24knts. There was a patch of light air just before the bridge and the three lead 88s were all doing similar speeds. Blue Beat around Bayswater first followed by MindBender then us. We had a pretty untidy kite drop but better than MindBender so we were able to move to second place. The two larger boats, Firsty and Phantasy were catching us and we attempted to stay out of the tide on the way through to the bridge. Firsty had the same idea……….we got past BlueBeat and crossed tacks with Firsty and Phantasy a number of times before Kauri Point. After a tussle with a vessel under motor at Kauri Point we concentrated on maintaining boat speed to the finish. One quick tack before the ODM and job done……..third place. Got to be happy with that eh.. Thanks again to the Eye Spy crew and to the other competitors. Thanks to Nona for the rummy after they decided to calibrate their depth sounder just before the finish. A great day for sailing……… Report from Firsty Since most of the crew couldn't come, Tim and I decided to do the race 2 handed. And just to save Nigel from holding up the minute markers too long we decided to take the extra 3 minutes as well. With the wind gusting to 20 knots we chose the No3, headsail with full main. Mark foy start and we were last start so we watched the others head out then finally our start. The first leg was reach, with all the Young 88's running kites and it wasn't long before they all started the involuntary starboard turn, being a little over powered. We ran low 2 sail reaching until Kauri Pt where we fan flat off with the headsail wing and wing. We were not going to make any in roads on the down wind run with no kite so we would have to work hard uphill. Luckily the tide was outgoing which gave us a few options to try to make some time. Once round Bayswater, we put one board out to the south then another north to try to get out of the tide in Shoal Bay. As we came out that appeared to go well so we did it again however being closer in to Northcote Point the wind was varying 30 degrees, and up and down, which made it hard to sail in there, so we headed out to the south side of the course. We managed to get our nose in front of Nona, but unfortunately we couldn't get past Phantasy. So we let them go. Next tack got us through the bridge, then we went to the left again to the south side of the harbour and out of the tide until we tacked under Phantasy and had to do a big bear away to avoid the starboard tack boat. We pretty much went tack for tack with Phantasy until we blew a jib sheet and had to tack back out into the tide. Once we tacked back we had lost a lot of ground and were back behind Eye Spy which we had already passed. Still this tack proved to be a big winner, as we lifted up and eventually lifted up around Meola beacon. We made big gains into PHantasy's lead as we tacked, but we are lifting up past Kauri Pt and Phantasy are not. As they tacked we manage to get past their bow and into the lead. All the way up the last reach we managed to hold off the charge from Phantasy who seem to be benefiting from weight on the rail. We could sure do with some of that today. We passed through the light winds of the Hobsonville narrows and finally found ourselves not laying the finish line. Finally the wind obliges and we just lay the finish buoy in first place with not much room to spare. It's time for Tim to treat his rope burn on his hand. I recommend holding something cold, like a Lion Red, or a similar. |
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