Wayard 5 - Sunday 9th February 2020

Results: 1st Near & Farr 2nd Cloud Ten Photo of Cloud Ten racing on Sunday  Race Report from Near & Farr We decided to race back from Issey bay after a lovely few days cruising with the company of Cloud Ten.  We both chose to reef... hey why not "it's easy to knock a reef out if the wind dies" apparently easy for us, not so for Cloud Ten.    Our imaginary start line should have meant that we could get to the finish line on one board.  Cloud ten had a better start than us and were much higher than us...hmmmmm they might not have to tack.  Duncan worked hard and we gained better height and Cloud ten lost height... there was no way in hell they would not have to tack.  Duncan kept muttering about wanting a "massive magical lift".... it did not arrive so we had to tack and follow Cloud tens track.  They then tacked again..... hmmm time to do some shouting ..... it was quite bizarre did they not hear me yell " STARBOARRRRRRD"...... normally the whole of the north island hears me!  They must have balls of steel..... .hmmmmm they did dip but we also adjusted course...we mentioned protesting but yeah nah we were only jesting. We tacked again and heading along the container terminal side, while Cloud ten opted for Devonport side.  For the second time we discussed knocking the reef out and this time the wind did not pick up. We decided to knock the reef out as we were never going to catch them up reefed  (they had a lovely clean bottom and our bottom was filthy.... must book in an antifoul)..... easy peasy to knock the reef out all done from the cockpit.   The larger sail area helped us gain and then over take Cloud ten by the bridge... the wind did pick up but with cracked sheets it was manageable.  We then started singing "the hokey cokey"   pull your mainsheet in, your head sail in let your mainsheet out, let your headsail out In, out, in, out You shake it all about You do the hokey cokey And you turn around That's what it's all about Woah, the hokey cokey Woah, the hokey cokey Woah, the hokey cokey It was all about trimming and singing and some bad dancing on my part.... Duncan was helming and singing while I trimmed sung and danced in the flukey wind.   They were gaining on us... but we managed to maintain our lead.  We finished ahead of Bronny and Scotty.... just!!!!  It was a great race and always fun to sail in great company.     Race Report from Cloud Ten After a great week away we ended up with the HYC crew in Izzy bay on our last night. This coincided with the scheduled wayward race home. I popped my head out in the morning and saw there was wind and made the call to up pick and go. Near and Farr answered that call and we were off. We both reefed and motored out of the bay, once next to each other we said ready set go and unfurled our headsails and started. We were pleased we had reefed as the gusts were pretty strong, the wind angle was better than expected and we were hoping to lay the harbour entrance. The outgoing tide had other ideas though, at this point Near and Farr were pointing higher and above us but we had been leading all the way. Our first tack was not flash and we lost ground and Near and Farr passed ahead of us. The second was much better and we caught back up. It looked like Near and Farr still had the edge and were going to pass in front, but next minute they weren’t and Scotty said you’re going to have to dip. I called for a big ease and went around there stern, there was heaps of room. Sam and Dunk were muttering about a protest because they had to adjust there course with big smiles on their face. Scotty and I smiled back and carried on. We were leading through the city but the wind had lighted and was down to 10-12 knots so we were going much slower. Although in the tide we stayed in the middle and had more breeze. We were nearly at the bridge when Near and Farr caught up and past us. I was wondering what we were doing wrong, then I realised they had shaken out their reef. Dam it! After the bridge the wind picked up again so we’d lost the opportunity to shake out our reef in the light. We were hoping Near and Farr might get overpowered but because it was eased sheets they were handling the full main fine. We were slowly catching them though. Once around Kauri Point the wind went to our aft quarter and that was the end of our advantage. There was only 4 minutes in it at the finish so we were still happy with our race. Well Done Sam and Dunk!