24 Hour Endurance Race 27-28 March 2021

Crew: Geoff, Murray, Eduardo, Albrecht, Bruno.

Forecast: Saturday: Northerly 15 knots, easing to 10 knots for a time late afternoon and evening. Sea slight. Fine. Sunday: Northerly rising to 20 knots early morning.

This year’s 24 Hour Endurance race looked like it would be a bit more exciting than previous years due to the forecast of some good northerlies to keep us busy.

At the Skippers Briefing at 9 am Saturday the course was confirmed: a triangle start off Rona Wharf leading into two large anti-clockwise circuits of the harbour before dusk followed by as many of the smaller circuits as we could complete in the 24 hours.

At 1000 hrs with excitement mounting we cast off from Seaview Marina and sailed down towards the start line off Eastbourne. We hoisted the No. 2 Headsail with full Mainsail and did a practice hoist of the medium spinnaker. The wind was coming up and pretty gusty and we found it a bit hard to manage the kite. We decided start the race with just the Mainsail and No. 2 Jib. There was a crowd of onlookers gathered on Rona Wharf enjoying live music and a sausage sizzle and at 11 am the canon was set off by the local MP and 100 pigeons were released into the air!

Halo started in the middle of the fleet as we sailed the triangle loop in front of the wharf and then headed north towards the first mark at Pt. Howard. After rounding the Petone Wharf and Horokiwi mark we started our first downwind run to the Front Lead. With the wind still too strong for the spinnaker we poled out the Jib and were flying along at an exhilarating 7-8 kts.

Each time we completed another lap we had to call in to Lowry Bay Race Control on the VHF to confirm as well as noting down the time in our log sheet. At dusk and dawn we also had an ‘all ships’ radio sched with each boat contacted for a report on how the boat and crew were going and what we were having for dinner etc. On Halo we enjoyed a delicious lamb curry pre-prepared by Graciela.

After completing the two large laps and the sun was setting, the wind died down considerably so we were able to change up to the big No. 1 HW Genoa as well as fly the Maxi Spinnaker on the runs from Horokiwi down to Ward Island. Once it got dark we were treated to the beautiful sight of the full moon rising above the Wainuiomata hills.

Our ‘4 on 2 off’ watch system worked well with each of us getting two hours rest after four hours on watch. Murray did a great job as second skipper while Geoff was off watch and all crew shared in the helming duties.

At about 2 am Sunday morning the wind suddenly came up to 20 kts gusting 30 so the crew woke up Geoff, who was sleeping in the V-berth, so they could get the No. 2 Jib out and change the headsail.

As the sky slowly became lighter and a new day dawned we had a hearty breakfast of muesli and fruit and cups of tea. The wind stayed fairly strong and we settled into the routine of putting one reef in the main on the upwind sections and shaking it out for the runs.

As the finish time approached the Race Control started the countdown to 11 am and then suddenly it was all over. Each boat had to radio in their GPS coordinates and then downed sails to sleepily motor back to the marina.

Halo’s support team of Graciela, Sandra and Mia then joined us at the prize giving ceremony. Very exciting to find that we had gained 4th place! A great success. In Albrecht’s words, “I feel that the atmosphere on Halo is a perfect balance between being competitive and trying to tweak out the last little potential from the boat, while never becoming too serious about it and forgetting the pleasure of just sailing.”

Well done team Halo!