Crew: Grant, Nina, Anastasia, Patricia, Geoff.
Forecast: Northerly 15 knots, rising to 20 knots this morning. Low tide 1100 hrs.
We cast off from the berth at Chaffers Marina at 1108 hrs and hoisted the mainsail with #1 reef and the No. 2 Jib. We did some practise sailing around to Evans Bay before tying up at the wharf. At the clubhouse we got the course for the race: Start – #4 Ngauranga – #5 Somes – #11 Korokoro – Finish. After a cup of tea with Anastasia’s yummy chocolate, we cast off from the wharf at 1242 hrs and hoisted the sails. Grant on bow, Nina and Anastasia on sail trim, Patricia on mainsheet and Geoff on helm.
We sailed around the Shoal Pile/Clubhouse start line waiting for the start signals. Suddenly we realised it was to be a committee boat start, way up Evans Bay. Woops! We charged up the bay just in time to cross the line behind Incantare and Upcycled and ahead of Jesse James and Tamerlane.
As we tacked our way northwards we were struggling a bit to point high enough. The northerly was blowing 16-20 kts and we maybe would have been better with the smaller No. 3 Jib. We had to do an extra tack to avoid a collision with Jesse James who was on starboard tack and had right of way. Tamerlane soon sailed past us.
As we passed Pt Jerningham we saw that the Straitsman ferry was now steaming towards us. We had to do an extra tack to keep out of her way. As she passed in front of us we lost wind for a while and got knocked. We then continued close hauled up to the Ngauranga mark. The wind was very gusty and Patricia was kept busy doing a great job on the mainsheet traveller.
We rounded the Ngauranga mark at 1356 hrs and then with the northeasterly wind we eased the sails for a fast close-reach towards Somes Island getting up to 7 kts at times. We rounded mark #11 and it was then back to sailing close-hauled up to the windward mark.
As we approached Korokoro Grant set up the Genoa No. 1 ready to pole out for the run (I decided it was too gusty for a spinnaker). I slightly miscalculated the approach to the mark and we had to do an extra tack at the last minute, stalling the boat momentarily.
Once we got around the mark we hoisted the Genoa and with both head-sails flying we sailed at up to 7.5 kts down the harbour and into Evans bay. We crossed the line at 1510 hrs.
After dropping the sails we motored back to Chaffers with Nina on helm, tying up at the berth at 1510 hrs. After packing up the boat I went over to see the guys on Tamerlane and we all went back to the club for the prize-giving. Congratulations to Tamerlane for a race well sailed!
RaceQs Replay http://raceQs.com/event/1514920
Halo Log Book 