EBYMBC Winter Series – 12 August 2023

Crew: Geoff, Anastasia, Murray, Vivien, Colin.

Forecast: N 10 knots, rising to NW 15 knots around midday.

Vivien and Anastasia met me on Halo at Chaffers and after rigging the sheets we cast off from our berth at 1038 hrs. The northerly was around 15 kts with some gusts up to 20 kts at times as we rounded Pt Jerningham and sailed down Evans Bay with Vivien on helm and just the mainsail hoisted.

We tied up at EB wharf and signed on for the race and got the course: Start – Ward Is (p) – Somes Is (p) – Finish. The 5 min countdown to start at 1210 hrs.

Murray and Colin joined us and after downing a yummy hot pie and rigging the No. 3 jib, we cast off from the wharf at 1145 hrs. We decided we didn’t need to put a reef in the mainsail. Some of the other boats had but others were sailing with full main. Positions were allocated, Colin and Anastasia on sail trim, Vivien on keys, Murray on mainsheet and me on helm.

Our strategy for the start was to come from the startbox end on a port tack. It worked well and we crossed the line a few seconds after the gun ahead of Tamerlane, Upstart and Incantare. We soon needed to dip below a couple of faster boats coming towards us on starboard tack.

We then tacked our way up the bay. The wind was increasing by now and we were struggling to point as high as the other boats. We probably would have been better off with the reef in. Tamerlane and Incantare were already ahead of us before we reached Greta Point.

We rounded Pt Halswell a bit too high losing further ground on Tamerlane and then eased the sails for a nice quick reach across the harbour towards Ward.

After rounding Ward Island we turned left onto a starboard tack rather than follow most of the boats out towards Eastbourne. The wind had continued to increase so we quickly put a reef in the main. Halo was certainly pointing better now but we were unable to make up any noticeable ground on Tamerlane. We noticed that Upstart, who were behind us, had now withdrawn from the race.

Once we rounded Somes we sailed on a broad reach on the downwind leg back home and we shook out the reef and continued with just full main and jib. We did notice Saucy Sausage up ahead flying their kite and getting into all sorts of difficulties.

At the entrance to Evans Bay we hoisted a second headsail, the No. 1 Genoa, poled out on the starboard side. We found it quite hard to hoist with the wind in the sail and in retrospect we would have been better off poling out the jib and hoisting the genoa on the leeward side.

Colin did a great job on helm as we had an exhilarating run down the harbour with boat speeds up to 9 kts while surfing the waves.

We crossed the line at 1438 hrs and dropped the sails to motor back home. We all got a bit wet as we ploughed into the waves.

Just before turning into Chaffers Marina the wind was gusting 30 kts but thankfully it dropped as we entered the berth so we had no problems docking the boat. After cleaning up we drove round to the club for prize giving. Halo came 6th on handicap.

A fun day on the water!