The Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club is joining clubs and organisations around the world by running an event as part of the World Sailing Women’s Sailing Festival. If a boat in the Rum Race has a woman on the helm for the race they will get a rum race result and a result for the Women’s Helm series.
Crew: Marion, Anastasia, Murray, Paul, Geoff.
Forecast: Southerly 15 knots, rising to 20 knots early afternoon, then easing to 15 knots this evening. Low tide 1914 hrs.
We entered Halo in the race and Marion Davies agreed to be on helm to qualify for the Matilda Cup Women’s Helm series. The race would start at 1815 hrs and the course was announced as # 23: Start – Mark 25p Shoal Pile – Finish. A short course so we would get back in time for the 25th Anniversary BBQ at the Port Nick clubhouse. The green lights were displayed on the start box indicating that spinnakers are permitted.
We cast off from our berth at 1737 hrs with Marion on helm, Murray on mainsheet, Paul and Anastasia on headsail trim and Geoff on foredeck. Our sail choice was No. 2 jib and full main.
We had a good start crossing the line just a few seconds behind the leaders and sailed over to Point Jerningham on a beam reach. We soon found that the boats which sailed farther away from Oriental Bay getting much better speed than us. Our wind dropped down to around 5 kts. We did manage to overtake Grenadier though as they were even closer to the land than us.
Once we rounded the White Lady and entered Evans Bay we finally got the wind. About 20 kts on the nose. We beat our way down the bay towards Shoal Pile. At this stage we would have benefitted from a reef in the main. By the time we got to the mark Grenadier had zoomed past us.
For the run back up we hoisted our medium spinnaker with about 16 kts of wind and managed to make up some ground on the boats in front. I think we were the only boat to fly a kite.
Rounding Point Jerningham we lost a bit of ground as we dropped the spinnaker. Foredeck man Geoff had a brain fade and dropped the kite before hoisting the jib. On the reach back to Lambton Harbour we were able to get ahead of Grenadier again as they were struggling to get speed with their reefed main and we crossed the finish line ahead of them at 1933 hrs.
After berthing Halo back at Chaffers we all went over to the Port Nick clubhouse for a beer and BBQ. The results were announced. In the Women’s Helm Series Halo came 3rd on club handicap and 1st on PHRF. And for the Combined Series we came 6th on club handicap and 1st on PHRF. Well done team Halo and our helms person Marion!
RaceQs Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1501405
Halo Log Book 