EBYMBC Spring Sailing – Stuck in the Middle

Saturday 22 October 2022

The Predictwind wind map showed New Zealand stuck in the middle of a large southern hemisphere anti-cyclone with strong winds circulating around the motu but almost dead calm in Wellington. The Metservice were forecasting southerly 10 knots, easing to variable 5 knots for a time in the morning with northerly 10 knots developing late afternoon.

We departed from Chaffers Marina at 1015 hrs and motor-sailed into the harbour with Nina on helm and almost no wind and us worrying that the racing would be called off. As we entered Evans Bay a light southerly came in. Yay!

We tied up at the wharf where Murray and Vivien joined us. The course was announced to be a short round-the-buoys race within Evans Bay. Start – 1 – 3 – 1 – 3 – 1 – Finish. Mmm, not my favourite. We rigged up the light genoa #1 and maxi spinnaker.

After a pie and a chat we cast off with plenty of time to do some practise sailing in the 6 kts southerly breeze with Nina and Vivien on sail trim, Murray on mainsheet and Geoff on helm and alternating on bow for the downwind legs with Murray on helm. We did a practice spinnaker hoist and gybe which all went very smoothly.

Pania, the committee boat, hoisted the AP flag to delay the race and we milled about for a while. At 1315 hrs we were off. We crossed the line on starboard tack about 10 seconds behind the leaders, Grenadier and Incantare. Just over half way to the top mark we were just about to tack when we saw both boats tack first ahead of us so we decided to hold our course to avoid getting their bad air. This proved to be a good move as they both appeared to get knocked on that tack and we were able to pass them before rounding the mark.

We approached the top mark close in and out meaning we had little time to prepare the spinnaker and were a bit slow with the hoist but we still managed to maintain our lead on the downwind leg. No sooner had we hoisted and set the kite we were approaching the top mark and unfortunately left it too late for the drop. We had to gybe to round the mark and the genoa sheets got in a bit of a mess. While we were sorting this out Grenadier and Incantare were able to scoot inside us and take over the lead.

The race continued around the course with two more downwind runs which all went well and we finished the race 3rd on corrected time. We decided not to stick around for the next race and sailed back home to Chaffers with Vivien doing a great job on helm. A great day’s sailing in easy conditions.