Crew: Geoff, Albrecht, John, Juliet, Hamish.
Forecast: Southerly 20 knots but 25 knots gusting 35 knots about the south coast. Becoming southerly 15 knots but southeast 20 knots about the south coast this afternoon, and variable 5 knots everywhere this evening. Rough sea about the south coast, easing this afternoon. Chance of a morning shower, otherwise mainly fine.
The plan for today was to take Halo round to the Evans Bay Quick Slip to wash the algae and sea growth off the hull which had accumulated since our our last bottom clean in September last year. John joined me at Chaffers and we motored round to Evans Bay in 20+ kts of southerly. It was too windy to safely enter the travel lift so Geoff called Sven and let him know our decision to leave the quick slip for another day. We tied up at the Evans Bay wharf and prepared Halo for the race.
Albrecht joined us, and as it was too windy for the trailer sailers to race, Juliet and Hamish also joined the Halo crew. The race course was announced as #12. Start – Falcon Shoal (p) – Finish. We rigged up the No. 3 Jib and spinnaker sheets. With a downwind start our plan was to start with full Mainsail, No. 3 Jib plus the No 1. HW Genoa poled out to starboard.
We had a good start with Juliet on helm as Albrecht and Geoff hoisted the No. 1 Genoa and we sailed up the bay. We were sailing at 7 kts but the SE wind was pushing us to the left with our poled out No. 1 and we lost a bit of ground by the time we passed Pt. Halswell at 1320 hrs. The sea looked pretty wild out towards Ward Island and we cautiously put two reefs in the mainsail while in the shadow of Kau Bay.
We then tacked our way towards Falcon Shoal at about 6 kts in rough seas still with wind of 20 kts gusting over 30 kts. After doing an extra tack to avoid the Bluebridge ferry we rounded Falcon Shoal at 1354 hrs. Back in the downwind run we decided to shake the reefs out. With the blustery conditions we lost quite a bit of ground while Geoff was up at the mast struggling with the mainsail. In retrospect maybe we should have just poled out the No. 1 Genoa as soon as we rounded Falcon Shoals.
Back in the calm of Kau Bay we put the reefs back in the mainsail (and once again lost some ground) and rounded Pt Halswell at 1313 hrs. As we tacked our way back up Evans Bay the wind had dropped a few knots by now and we were struggling to make good speed into the wind as Coriander passed us. In retrospect we would have sailed better and pointed higher into the wind without the reefs in the main. After six tacks we eventually past the finish line at 1452 hrs with only Andal behind us.
We dropped Albrecht, Juliet and Hamish off at Evans Bay and Geoff and John motor-sailed Halo back to Chaffers Marina arriving at the dock at 1536 hrs.
Back at the club we got the results. On corrected time Coriander came first and Halo came last. Interesting discussing sail selection with Doug of Coriander. They sailed the whole race with No. 2 Jib and full Main although he did admit to being over powered at times. Lessons learned but still a great day out on the water!
RaceQS Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1181852
Halo Log Book 