Crew: Grant, Yarin, Murray, Meredith, Louise and Geoff.
Forecast: Metservice: Northerly 10 knots developing in the morning then rising to 20 knots in the afternoon. PredictWind: N 10 knots increasing to 12 knots. Gusts up to 17 knots.
Wellington turned on another beautiful day for the final race of the Barton Marine Winter Series.
Grant and I sailed Halo round from Chaffers to Evans Bay. The northerly was already blowing up to 15 kts and after some discussion we agreed that No. 2 Jib with full main would be our best option for the race. We tied up at the EB wharf and met with the rest of our crew. The course was announced as Start – #18 Days Bay – #11 Korokoro – Finish, starting at 1215 hrs. We cast off from the wharf at 1145 hrs with Murray on mainsheet, Meredith and Yarin on sail trim, Louise on keys, Grant on bow and me on helm initially.
We sailed up and down the start line and crossed the line perfectly on time on a starboard tack at the Shoal Pile end. Tamerlane and Grenadier crossed the line on port tack and they each had to dip below us as we sailed across their bows.
We then tacked Halo onto port but soon realised that Slingshot was looming into view towards us on starboard tack. Bugger. We had to do a big right-hand turn to give way to Slingshot – losing the nice lead we previously had over Tamerlane and Grenadier.
We then resumed our course and sailed close-hauled up the bay, initially coming in quite close to Grenadier on our leeward side before they tacked away behind us towards Greta Point. We continued towards the top of Shark Bay. After a couple more tacks we cleared Pt Halswell about 75 mts behind Grenadier.
Grant then took over the helm as we eased the sails slightly for a pleasant close reach across the harbour towards the next mark at Sunshine Bay just north of Days Bay.
By the time we rounded the mark Grenadier had increased their lead to around 200 mts ahead of us.
Then we were close-hauled again to tack around the top of Somes Island and then across the harbour to the Korokoro mark.
Before rounding the mark Yarin and I prepared the medium spinnaker. As we turned into the downwind run we did a quick hoist of the kite. Grenadier, ahead of us took some time to get their spinnaker up which enabled us to (almost!) catch up with them. Once they got their kite up we took a few photos of each others boats as they edged ahead of us once again.
The wind was a bit light for our medium spinnaker at times but it did gust up to 20 kts occasionally, giving us bursts of 7 kts boat speed. We followed behind Grenadier down the harbour into Evans Bay eventually crossing the finish line 170 mts behind them.
Race Qs Race Replay http://raceQs.com/event/1616578
After dropping the sails and depositing the crew at Evans Bay wharf, Grant and I motored Halo back up the bay to dock at Chaffers at 1523 hrs.
Back at the clubhouse the results were announced. Halo earned a respectable 4th place in today’s race and 6th place on handicap overall for the Winter Series. Well done Team Halo and thanks to EBYMBC for putting on a wonderful sailing series!
Halo Log Book 