After our overnight sail to Pigeon Bay we spent more time exploring Whakaraupō Lyttelton and surrounds, filling in time before the SailGP event. We found Lyttelton to be a very pleasant place, good locally roasted coffee, locally brewed beer, friendly people and great weather.
Hiking the Port Hills
We met up with Allan Sutherland (whose son Scott owns Band Wagon, a Whiting 29) and his mate Mark who took Malcolm and me for a hike up the Major Hornbrook Track to the summit of Mt Pleasant 500 mts above sea level. We enjoyed some superb views of the harbour.
We walked over the tops past the gondola station and down the other side to Mark’s house in the hills above Christchurch for refreshments. Mark’s brick house suffered major damage in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and he had only just finished all the repairs.
The following day Allan very helpfully took us to a petrol station in Christchurch to replenish Halo’s supply of diesel using our 10 litre jerry cans. We took the coast road and over the hills visiting some beautiful bays on the way; Corsair Bay, Cass Bay, Rapaki Bay and Governors Bay where we had a pizza lunch at the Otoromiro Hotel.
At Rapaki Bay we visited the locals at the marae who told us that there was going to be a powhiri the next day for the skippers of the SailGP teams with three or four waka greeting them on the water.
Rapaki Bay SailGP Powhiri
The following day Allan and Mark joined us on Halo to sail over to Rapaki Bay to witness the powhiri.
We had a small incident just as we were leaving the marina. As we were hoisting the mainsail in the inner harbour we noticed a grey medium sized ship at the entrance which appeared to be stationary. All of a sudden she sounded five blasts on her horn which seemed to be directed at us. Oops! We quickly moved over to the side of the harbour and gave them a friendly wave as we passed by them. A few minutes later we received a visit from the harbourmaster zooming up to us in their RIB. “Who’s the skipper?” they asked. “Me“, I said. “Well, you’re in big trouble. You just passed less than 500 mts in front of the bow of a WARSHIP.” I apologised profusely and assured them it wouldn’t happen again. Oh dear.
We then cruised over to Rapaki Bay and kept our distance and observed the four waka launch and do their traditional haka and challenge. They eventually escorted the skippers ashore and into the marae. It made me think how it must have been with Captain Cook’s first encounters with the Māori when he first arrived in Aotearoa in 1769.
Meeting TeamNZ at Naval Point
Peter arrived in Lyttleton the next day and the two of us walked over to the Naval Point Yacht Club where there was to be an informal meeting with TeamNZ crew along with a sausage sizzle together with stalls and activities for the kids.
TeamNZ skipper Peter Burling was doing the rounds chatting with people. I was surprised how young he looked. I considered having a chat with him and giving him some sailing tips but chickened out!
They also had the amazing little Waszp hydrofoiling racing dinghies set up on the lawn and we chatted with some of the sailors and admired the boats.
We then went inside the clubhouse for a beer and stayed for the Akaroa Boating Club official welcome for Team France together with various French dignitaries.
SailGP Practise Day – Friday 17th
This was meant to be the SailGP practise day but the wind had come up too strong so the sailing was canceled. Peter and I went for a walk up the hill behind the port to have a look at the Lyttleton Timeball. Before the advent of radio time signals the large red and yellow ball used to be hoisted up each day and dropped at precisely 1pm to enable ships to synchronise their chronometers. It was destroyed by the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes but has since been rebuilt.
SailGP Race Day 1
Saturday woke to be perfect conditions for the first day of racing. Sunny and warm with 10 kts easterly rising to 15 kts in the afternoon. Peter’s friend Mark joined us for the day and overnight stay on Halo. We hoisted our bunting on Halo’s forestay together with our GailGP banner which allowed us have the boat on the water to watch the action.
The first race was to start at 1512 hrs but we had to be out of the marina before 1330 hrs when the exclusion zone would become active prohibiting boats from entering the race course. By 1100 hours lots of boats had already headed off to get in position in the designated Bring Your Own Boat (BYOB) area which was marked in blue on the map.
We followed all the boats out to our area and tried to locate a nice spot. It was pretty crowded with about 200 boats of all shapes and sizes from wakas to fizzboats to superyachts out there. I was a bit nervous about the possibility of Halo or other boats, dragging anchors but eventually found a safe gap. The sun was beating down and we put up our sunshade as we had lunch and waited for the action.
At 1315 hrs the course marshals came around and told us all to move south. This may have been due to a change in the course but we weren’t sure. It was then a mad scramble with all the boats repositioning. I decided to go right down the end of the line where it was less congested and we would have a clearer view of the action. We had to be careful though, not to anchor over the undersea cable which ran across the blue zone.
At 1312 hrs the racing started. Great excitement. We connected our stereo to the YouTube live streaming and were able to listen to the commentary during the racing. When TeamNZ went screaming past us we all cheered them on and honked our horns.
We were very happy with TeamNZ’s performance for the three races. A 2nd, a 1st and a 2nd.
After the racing finished we had to wait around until the exclusion zone was cleared. By this time the wind had risen to over 15 kts.
Once we were given the all-clear we started lifting the anchor. Halo started swinging round so I tried to keep the boat pointing up to avoid drifting into another boat when suddenly the engine died. Yep, we’d twisted the anchor rope round the prop. Argh! No way to clear it so I popped on my togs and dived overboard for a swim. After a few dives I finally cleared the rope and off we went back to the marina.
SailGP Race Day 2
On day two Phil Williams, Ken Tonks, Liz and Katherine joined Peter, Malcolm and me on Halo. Phil brought along some more flags including a nice big NZ flag and his big EBYMBC Commodore flags which we proudly hoisted on the backstay. The weather was looking to be a repeat of yesterday’s perfect conditions.
Once again we had a long wait for the races to start while we enjoyed a wonderful lunch provided by Phil and his team. I even got the uke out for a few songs.
Again the course marshals needed to move a lot of the boats around as they shifted the course boundaries. This time we were luckily already well positioned and didn’t need to move.
And they’re off!
TeamNZ gained a 2nd and a 3rd in the first two races. This was followed by the final with just three boats, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. The race was won by Canada with a Kiwi skipper Phil Robertson on the helm.
What a great experience it was. From the water we couldn’t always appreciate the overall picture of the race like you would on television, but it was fantastic to be up close to the sounds and sights of all the action of the the big F50 cats racing around the course at Lyttelton.
A great time was had by all.
Halo Log Book 