Crew: Geoff, Peter, Anastasia, Murray.
Forecast: Southerly 25 kts gusting 35 kts easing to 20 kts afternoon.
In the morning before the race Murray and I went to the Port Nick clubrooms where the official Opening Day ceremony was held. The guest speaker was former elite yachtsman Mark Orams who gave a thought provoking presentation via video link on various issues facing sailing clubs including sustainability and inclusiveness. The official opening of the season was marked with the breaking of the club burgee and firing the cannon. We then dispersed to our boats to prepare for the Interclub Race.
A special course was announced for the race: Start – 8p (a laid mark off Greta Pt) – 5p Somes North – 4p Ngauranga -16s Oriental Bay – Finish with five minute countdown at 1255 hrs.
We cast off from Chaffers at 1225 hrs with Murray on mainsheet, Peter and Anastasia on sail trim and me on helm. After motor sailing to Pt Jerningham and back and observing the white caps blowing in Evans Bay we decided to rig the no. 3 jib and one reef in the mainsail.
We counted about 27 boats jostling for positions around Lambton Harbour and then we were off! But then a “general recall” was announced over Ch 62 with too many boats (not us) jumping the gun on the line. The race was restarted with countdown commencing at 1305 hrs.
The second start went better but with lots of boats all crowded together it was hard to find clear air on the reach to Point Jerningham. The bigger boats soon sailed ahead. Halo settled into the groove as we sailed round the point and the southerly picked up considerably.
We got a good lift on starboard tack as we sailed close hauled down Evans Bay and were pleased to round the first mark after just two tacks.
After a close rounding of the mark Murray took over on helm as I went on the foredeck. We hoisted the spinnaker pole to ‘goose-wing’ the jib and then with Peter’s help hoisted the No. 1 HW genoa on the leeward side for a dual headsails rig. This gave us good speed of up to 7.5 kts for the downwind run to the Somes mark without the stress of flying a spinnaker in the 20 kts wind.
As we approached the Somes mark we dropped the pole and sheeted the jib onto port side and then quickly dropped the genoa down into the front hatch before gybing round the mark.
We then steered on a reach across the harbour towards the Ngauranga mark salling close past the stern of a Norwegian tanker which was at anchor.
After rounding the Ngauranga mark we sailed close hauled towards Oriental Bay managing to fend off Tamerlane and White Cavalier while a bit of rain started to fall.
We tacked onto the correct layline to the mark #16 but then the wind dropped and shifted knocking us back so we frustratingly had to do a second small tack to make it round the mark.
It was a then short reach down to Port Nick to cross the finish line at 1501 hrs.
As of writing, the results hadn’t been published due to a protest but we did hear on the VHF just before we finished that there were 7 boats still behind us.
A great day’s racing for Team Halo!
RaceQs Action Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1643239
Results
Spinnaker Division results are provisional pending outcome of a protest to be heard Tuesday evening.
Halo Log Book 