Crew: Geoff, Murray, Patricia, Malcolm, Meredith.
Forecast: Variable 5 knots, northerly 10 knots developing in the evening. Sea slight.
Following the terrible storms of Cyclone Gabrielle up north the previous week, Wellington harbour woke on Saturday morning to almost flat calm conditions but dirty brown water.
With just enough breeze for racing we cast off from Chaffers at 1108 hrs and hoisted the No. 1 Light Genoa for a sail round to Evans Bay where we tied up at the wharf at 1145. Murray and Meredith joined us at the club and while enjoying a nice pie we got the race course for the day. A short round-the-buoys race: Start (Pania) – 1 – 3 – 1 – 3 – 1 – Finish. Positions for the day: Murray on helm, Meredith on mainsheet, Malcolm and Patricia on sail trim and me on foredeck.
We had a good start, neck-and-neck with Grenadier but we were getting their dirty air as they slowly edged past us. We continued on the same tack almost to the layline for the top mark. Did our tack only to find Incantare coming towards us so we had to throw another two tacks before heading across to the mark.
Round the mark and we hoisted our maxi spinnaker for the run to the next mark. About half way there with the wind shifting to the west we had to gybe the kite. No sooner had we completed the gybe then we were almost on the bottom mark and had to hoist the genoa and drop the kite. Got into a bit of a mess on the foredeck which I was still sorting out well after we rounded the mark which slowed us down.
The next two beats to the top mark and spinnaker hoists and drops went much better and we finished the race beating Grenadier and Incantare on line and earning a second place on handicap.
RaceQs Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1519114
We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves as we started dropping the sails and heading back to the wharf at Evans Bay. Just then I noticed the other boats were all still hanging round Pania obviously setting up for a second race. Oops!
We quickly motored back up the bay and started the second race minutes behind the fleet. We sailed well but with our late start we never had a chance to catch any of the other boats. Anyway we had lots more good practice with the spinnaker hoists and drops. A great day’s sailing š
Lesson for Today:
From the EBYMBC Sailing instructions:
5.2. When code flag āLā over the code flag āEā is displayed before or with the first warning signal of the day, from either the Club Start Box or the Race Committee Boat, one race in addition to the races scheduled for that day may be sailed.
Halo Log Book 