Crew: Marion, Anastasia, Meredith, Patricia, Katherine, Geoff.
The 2023 Evolution Sails Women’s Regatta was hosted by Waikawa Boating Club Friday 15th to Sunday 17th Sept. Attended by 250 women from all over NZ, the vast majority from outside Marlborough.
Day 1 – Friday
Halo was back in the Waikawa Marina berth after the previous few days Cruising in Queen Charlotte Sound. The first social event for the regatta was a cruise on motor boats to McAlister Cove for a “Taste of Marlborough” wine and food tasting. Halo’s crew along with Murray, our support crew, were allocated the motor boat Trieste and we motored up to Blackwood Bay. Great turnout of people and in spite of the cold afternoon we all enjoyed the socialising, the wine and the delicious samples of mussels, goat cheeses, meat, salmon etc.
In the evening the crews and supporters from the Wellington boats Tamerlane, Grenadier, Annie, and Halo all met up at Café Cortado in Picton for a great dinner.
Day 2 – Saturday
Early start with 7 am coffee at the coffee cart followed by breakfast at the Waikawa club and then the official welcome and race briefing at 9 am. There were three divisions. Being one of the smallest boats in the race Halo was allocated a handicap of 0.6650 in Division 2.
We then went down to the marina and prepared the boat for the day’s racing. Forecast was 15 to 25 kt NW so we rigged up the no. 3 jib and cast off at 0930 hrs. Crew allocations: Marion on helm, Meredith on mainsheet, Anastasia on bow, Patricia and Katherine on sail trim. I aimed to just keep out of their way as Marion ably led the team and we motored out of the marina towards the start line.
Race 1
This was to be the long harbour race of the day. Course was Start – Allports Island – Luke Rock – Allports Island – Finish with the 5 minute warning for division 2 at 10.30 hrs. As we were preparing for the race and doing some practice tacks we noticed the NW wind was coming up pretty strong (25 kts at times) so decided to put our first reef in the mainsail.
We had a pretty good start on starboard tack.
We then sailed close hauled towards Allports Island. Got some good lift as we neared the island and then turned for the long broad reach up to Luke Rock with the wind now gusting into the 30 kts range. We shook out the reef and had great speed, at times over 8 kts, up QC Sound and almost catching Grenadier who was ahead of us. We passed one large boat who was having problems rounding up in the wind but with Marion’s steady hand on the helm and Meredith working hard on the mainsheet Halo kept a stable course.
As we passed the headland between Kumutoto Bay and Blackwood Bay the wind suddenly died for us and we slowed down to under 4 kts dropping well behind Grenadier and others who were (cleverly) in the centre of the channel.
We rounded Luke Rock at 1140 hrs and began sailing close hauled back up to Allports. As we were putting the reef back in we noticed some commotion over to starboard. A smaller boat (who we later found out was Unleashed, a 7m trailer-sailer) had capsized and a number of boats were assisting them.
Once we had our reef back in it was a fairly hard slog upwind but were able to pass Grenadier on our last tack.
As we neared Allports we once again got good lift as the wind swirled around island.
On the run back down to the finish Anastasia on bow rigged the spinnaker pole and we sailed goose-winged to cross the finish line at 1246 hrs.
Our total race time was 2 hrs and 13 minutes which unfortunately meant we had exceeded the two hour time limit for the race. We weren’t the only ones though… 8 of the 13 boats in Division 2 were marked TLE and we were all given 5th place.
Race 2
The next two races were short round-the-cans courses. Race 2 was announced as Start – 1 – 2 – 3 – 2 – 3 – Finish with a quick turnaround from the previous race. The wind had eased off so we shook out the reef but were unprepared for the start and were a bit slow to get started. We were unable to catch up with the fleet during the race but enjoyed a bit of a duel with Tamerlane on some legs.
Race 3
Race 3 was announced as Start – 1 – 1A – 4 – 1 – 1A – 2 – 3 – Finish.
The last race of the day saw us much better prepared for the start and Marion did a great job maneuvering us into a good position to cross the start line on starboard just a couple of boat lengths behind the faster boats.
On the last loop we were following close behind Tamerlane and Tiamana and saw them both miss mark 1A and head straight for mark #2. We continued correctly round the mark.
We then did our only spinnaker hoist for the day. The medium kite. All went well although it was a short leg and in no time we had to douse it again before rounding marks 2 and 3 and then crossing the finish line.
We did consider whether we should lodge a protest against Tamerlane and Tiamana but we were all tired and cold and decided a hot shower and a cup of tea was a more attractive proposition!
In the evening we all attended the Saturday night dinner at the club room followed by a most excellent presentation from the guest speaker, Viki Moore.
Day 2 – Sunday
As forecast the weather turned to custard on Sunday, gusting 40 kts in the marina and 60 kts with williwaws blowing clouds of salt spray into the air out in QC Sound.
After breakfast we had the race briefing at 9am and it was announced that racing was cancelled for the day.
At 11.30 we had the prize giving. Huge crowd filling the clubroom and flowing out onto the decks.
Halo won an award. The boat which had had the most fun and spent the most time on the water! A Magnum of Méthode Marlborough kindly donated by sponsors No. 1 Family Estate. We’ll open it with the crew when we get back to Wellington.
Halo Log Book 