EBYMBC Special Event Sailing 2 December 2023 – Win for Halo!

Crew: Geoff, Murray, Anastasia, Paul, John.

Forecast: Variable 5 knots. Northerly 10 knots developing in the morning, rising to 15 knots in the afternoon and 20 knots in the evening.

Anastasia and John joined me at Chaffers and after rigging the sheets etc we cast off at 1100 hrs. With John on helm we hoisted the mainsail and sailed round to Evans Bay. We held off deciding which headsail to use. We were thinking that with up to 15 kts wind our heavy no. 1 genoa may be the best choice. We tied up at the Evans Bay wharf at 1150 hrs.

Murray and Paul joined us and the course was announced: Start box start – Somes Island (S) – Ward Island (S)- Falcon Shoal (S) to finish. We cast off from the wharf at 1235 hrs and during the pre-race practice we realised we were being overpowered with the big genoa and quickly changed down to the smaller no. 2 jib. Crew positions were Paul and Anastasia on sail trim, Murray on mainsheet, John on bow and Geoff on helm.

The five minute countdown was at 1255 hrs. As we made our final approach on starboard tack we found we were in Coriander’s bad air as we crossed the line. We quickly tacked away to port to get clear air.

We lost some ground on the rest of the fleet as we tacked up Evans Bay. Dipping below other boats three times before we cleared the bay didn’t help. Once we cleared Pt Halswell we made good speed close hauled towards Somes Island almost catching Grenadier and Coriander with our no. 2 jib pulling well in 15-18 kts of wind. The Awatere ferry was entering Wellington harbour. No problems for us but Gordy and Juliet’s fast Matatoa ahead of us had to dip behind her.

Before rounding Somes Murray took over the helm and I went on the bow to assist Anastasia with rigging the medium spinnaker. We cut in as close as safely possible round the rocks off Mokopuna Island and Anastasia quickly hoisted the spinnaker for a very pleasant run down to Ward.

(Thanks to Grenadier who took some nice photos as we sailed past them – they didn’t have their kite up).

We gybed the kite as we neared Ward Island. We had the idea that we could reach the spinnaker towards the next mark but as we got out of the wind shadow of Ward Island it was quickly obvious that we would need to douse the kite. We then sailed on a fast (for us) beam reach getting up to 8 kts at times down to the Falcon Shoal mark. By now we were extending our lead ahead of the other boats including Grenadier and Coriander, with only Matatoa out in front.

We rounded Pt Halswell and enjoyed a nice fast broad reach down Evans Bay to cross the finish line at 1531 hrs.

Paul took over the helm to motor-sail Halo home to Chaffers. Back to the club house for a post-race beer and get together with the other crews.

Vice Commodore Phil announced that there were no official results due to it being a ‘special event’ but that Halo had won the race on handicap. Great work team!

As Matatoa had their AIS transponder running I was able to record Gordy and Juliet’s track for comparison. Interesting to see they tacked well over to west of Evans Bay at the start of the race which seems to be a better upwind strategy.