Crew: Geoff, Murray, Anastasia, Patricia.
Forecast: Northwest 15 knots, rising to 25 knots gusting 35 knots for a time in the afternoon and early evening. Low tide 1355 hrs.
On the morning of the race the forecasts weren’t looking too good. On arrival at Chaffers at 9am it was already blowing hard with gusts over 30 kts at times. Murray and I wandered around to the Port Nick clubhouse to see what was happening. No AP was flying and other boats were getting ready so looks like it’s all go! The course was announced as: Start – 6S Front Lead – 7S Barret Reef Buoy – Island Bay (VM) – 7P Barret Reef Buoy– Finish.
It was a staggered start for the fleet. Halo was in the 1010 hrs group and we had a good start with Overdraft and Saucy Sausage. Murray was on helm, Geoff on mainsheet, Anastasia and Patricia on sail trim. On a beam reach towards Pt Halswell the the wind had dropped to 15-20 kts. We were feeling a bit underpowered with our small number 3 jib and one reef in the main but we were getting good speed up to 7 kts. We couldn’t catch that elusive sausage though.
Our plan was to fly the No. 1 Genoa poled out for the run as we weren’t confident of using a spinnaker in these gusty conditions. We had it all rigged ready to hoist when the wind came up with some big gusts. We were already doing 7-8 kts SOG so decided to be cautious and just continue with the jib and the main. Saucy Sausage, who were flying their kite went into a broach just as they were heading into the course of the Kaiarahi. (James told us later they called the Kaiarahi on ch. 14 and the skipper kindly advised they would change course to clear him). While this excitement was happening we were able to get a good lead ahead of Saucy Sausage.
As we gybed round the Front Lead there was another ferry, the Straitsman heading towards us. We were in their channel so we had to veer off the the right to give them plenty of room. We continued past the Wellington Heads towards our next mark, Barret Reef Buoy, affectionately known as ‘Moaning Minnie’.
We then sailed on a beam reach towards the virtual mark south of Island Bay. We crossed paths with White Cavalier, who had started in the first group and were still well ahead of us. Patricia kept a good lookout so we could avoid the numerous cray pots in our path and she was excited to spot a pod of dolphins in the distance.
I had set the virtual mark in our chartplotter before the race and as we neared the mark I kept a close eye on the screen so we could round the mark at the exact point and not waste time going further than necessary. On the way back we crossed with Overdraft who was behind us.
Round Moaning Minnie again and the real fun started as we beat our way back into the harbour into about 23 kts of head wind and fairly big seas.
I took a turn on helm for the rest of the race and Murray took over mainsheet. We tacked over to Hinds Point following White Cavalier and then back across to Point Dorset. Our next tack we got a good lift toward Ward Island before tacking back towards Pt Halswell.
Once we got near Kau Point the wind was up to 28 kts and we found we were getting badly knocked with the leeway and we had to do four more tacks to get around the point – plus two mini-tacks to avoid the faster boats in the fleet who had now caught up with us. We were very happy now to have our reefed mainsail and number 3 jib.
The wind was gusting 30 kts as we crossed over the top of Evans Bay and down to the finish line.
As we were dropping our sails ready to enter our berth at Chaffers Marina the gusts were up to 36 kts. We got home just in time!
At the clubhouse there were plenty of stories to be told over a beer or two and at the prizegiving it was great to learn that Halo had won third place on club handicap.
RaceQs Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1499650
Halo Log Book 