First - Eye Spy second - Young Entertainer third - Six gun Justice Race Report from Six Gun Justice The last wayward of the series and we were rarring to go.. pity that there was not wind. We motored out the the start line and if it had been a race we would have won this as we were first out there! We were then joined by Eye Spy and waterwitch. However received a call on the VHF from Young Entertaining who were standing (?!) by as Satisfaction had engine problems.. so we decided to delay the start until 10.30am. Just before the start we were joined by Young Entertainer and we all hoisted our sails.. and then the start... we drifted past Waterwitch and so did the others... drifting.. drifting. Entertainer and Eye Spy were drifting much faster than us.. and they slowly went into the distance. It seems that the justice and waterwitch vessels were attracted to every fishing boat by Kauri point... drifting.. bump..hmmm luckily the fishing boat which also had a jet ski tied to it were very nice to us and to Gary who got their line under his rudder... bumper boats!! I made a call to the HYC boats suggested due to the lack of wind that the finish line should be the harbour bridge... but Gary M assured us that the wind would fill in. And it did and we saw Eye Spy and the Entertainer take off. We continued on our jolly way and chose to go cityside to take advantage of the strong tide.. Waterwitch were still in our sights and were so up until we passed Issey bay. Hey ho .. and then my singing/wailing started "Alllllllllllll by ourselvessssssssssss" at which point Duncan suggested a cold beverage and I quietened down. We continued on our way slowly but surely and eventually joined the others in Owhanake.  Great to be out on the water with our friends. Thank you Gary M and Niall for being the start boat. Also great to see so many of the other HYC boats join us there too!! Race report from Eye Spy………….. Wayward again yeah! Eye Spy has a part time crew for this race. Jess, Dalon and Tash on board for what appeared to be a drifter to Owhanaki.  After the race my crew needed to take the ferry back to their car at Devonport prior to driving back to Hamilton for work. After the start all were pretty close and it wasn’t till Kauri Point where Young Entertainer and Eye Spy started to gain a lead over the other two boats. A lack of wind also means a lack of steering……….Duncan and Gary experienced this as we looked back to see both boats tangled up with a fishing boat and a jet-ski. Fun n games eh……… We finally got some breeze just past the bridge and did battle with the Young11. The lead changed a couple of times but at the end of the day the bigger boat got line but we were only a couple of minutes behind. Thanks for a good battle Darcy. The rest of the weekend was spent chilling out in the bay. Thanks to all for a great weekend. Race report from Young Entertainer We woke to a beautiful Easter Friday but the lack of wind was a concern. We had a high tide thou so at least 2 knots of boat speed was guaranteed! We set off from the marina with Satisfaction but half way down the channel the mighty Satisfaction stopped dead in her tracks. We hung with them until Phil announced that he and Marit were all ok - just a slight fuel issue... Gary M set the race start back to 10.30 to allow us to join in. Water Witch, Eye Spy, Young Entertainer and Six Gun Justice started the race in zero breeze with full outgoing tide. We were on the move with Eye Spy and Entertainer a few lengths ahead of the Witch and the Justice. Around 2 knots of boat speed on GPS! Clearing Kauri Point we had 0.5 knots of wind on the beam which gave us about 0.1 knots of boat speed through the water - cool - we were making way! We caught up to Trev and his good looking Eye Spy crew and managed to pass them. We had to negotiate many anchored fishing boats and managed to miss all of them - no so easy with little or no steering and a strong tide! There was this one bloke on a nice new jet ski all set up for fishing. He was anchored too..... we found him... I asked him to 'FEND'!!! He was cool with it.... Eye Spy missed him altogether.  Looking back we could see the Witch and the Justice going sideways and trying to hit as many fishing boats as they could. Looks like they both hit the same fishing boat. We found out later that one of them tried to hit that nice man on the anchored jet ski...but he was cool with it. We made good around Rhona with Eye Spy still tailing us. Under the bridge and the call was made to carry on as we could see some breeze coming. Outside West Haven we got 10 knots of breeze! Sweet! Beam reach! We were outa there. We made some ground on Trev and I made the comment to Cristin - 'well we wont see them again'. Wrong. Entertainer had pulled out a massive lead but the wind moved aft and Entertainer slowed. We chased the wind back to the beam but our course was way off. We had to gib back to Issie bay from Browns Island. It was a good move as we were heading to Ophanake and I knew the wind would increase once we were passed Motohuie. We gibbed back to course and low and behold.... bloody Trev was sending it to leeward. we covered them and once the wind increased we got into a duel. Wind on the beam - fast but off course, then gull-wing - slow and on course. Trev and his crew threw everything at us but we did what Trev always told me to do... keep your boat between the opposition the finish. We sent it into the finish line at 7.5 knots of boat speed with Eye Spy behind us by 3 1/2 mins. Awesome racing! Well done Cristin for trimming the boat - Entertainer gets a bit heavy sometimes in fresh breeze. Water Witch and Six Gun Justice brought good wind with them and finished soon after. We all had a good few nights at anchor with Morning Glory, Stranger, Shekina, Satisfaction and Cracka joining in. |
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