This was our second time doing the regatta in sunny Nelson. There were 35 boats registered for the regatta including four Wellington boats, Gucci, 88%Proof, Matatoa and us. We entered Halo in the cruising division which suited us well and had a blast with the four days of racing. On day three we raced across to the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park for the overnight anchorage and a great BBQ beach party hosted by the lovely people at Tasman Bay Cruising Club. The wind came up on day four and we had a fast race back to Nelson.
We didn’t win any awards at the prizegiving (apart from a spot prize of a bottle of rum!) but a great time was had by all.
Day 1 – Saturday 20 January
Crew: Geoff, Tunch, Murray, Anastasia.
Forecast: Northerly 10 kts gusting 20 kts.
After a night’s rest recovering from sailing from Wellington to Nelson we were ready for the first race of the regatta. Round the buoys racing for the racing keelers division and a longer passage race for us cruisers.
After a cooked breakfast at the “big red” TBCC clubhouse we attended the race briefing from Tam, the Race Officer. Most of it was concerning the instructions for the Romeo and Juliette racing divisions. Any questions? Yes, I piped up, “for us out-of-towners, where are the cruising course marks located?” The response was, “the course will be announced on ch. 77 prior to the start“. OK… It all seemed a bit vague for us Wellingtonians who are used to having a map with all the race mark locations published. Oh well, I guess we’ll just follow the others 🙂
We went back to the marina and after preparing the boat, cast off from our berth at 1000 hrs and motored out of the harbour.
We eventually located the committee boat, the yacht Coo-Ee. It was flying the AP flag meaning racing was delayed while we waited for the wind to come up.
Eventually some light southerlies arrived and the cruising division course was announced with a start time of 1150 hrs after the Romeo and Juliet division starts. Unfortunately we couldn’t understand any of the mark names so resigned ourselves to playing follow-the leader. Halo was the smallest of the cruising division boats so we were not too worried.
We hoisted our no. 2 jib with full main and with Murray on helm we followed the other boats up to the north cardinal mark. We then turned left and headed towards Mapua. We eventually figured out the mark was the Starboard Channel Pile at the entrance to Mapua
The light southerly breeze was coming from behind us so we were on a broad reach. Some of the other boats were sailing with gennakers. We decided to pole out the jib and hoist a second headsail, the no. 1 genoa, which worked very well for us. We were doing around 6.5 kts and caught up with Kakariki, a Davidson 31, before we reached the mark at the entrance to Mapua.
Now was it a port or starboard rounding of the mark? Nobody seemed to know. We decided to follow the boat in front on a starboard rounding. (We found out later it was meant to be a port rounding).
Then it was back to, presumably, the north cardinal.
We were making very slow progress beating into the wind and about half way across we noticed Eluder, a big Elan 43 ahead of us, had stopped and was pointing towards us. What the heck? We eventually stopped too when the wind totally died.
After half an hour of sitting in the lumpy seas going nowhere we decided to withdraw from the race. We advised race control and motored to Nelson and back in the berth at 1550 hrs.
That evening back at the clubhouse we enjoyed a nice dinner. I met up with Richard Borrell, previous owner of Halo. He competed in the infamous 2011 Round-North Island Race. Read Halo’s story here. We had a good chat and I learned some useful history of Halo including that our medium spinnaker was purchased as a reaching sail for that race. Good to know!
Day 2 – Sunday 21 January
Crew: Geoff, Tunch, Anastasia, Jim.
Forecast: Northerly 10 kts gusting 15 kts.
My friend Jim joined us for Sunday’s race. Once again the AP flag was flown as we circled around the start line waiting for the sea breeze to come in. It got pretty hot so Jim stripped off and went overboard for a swim. I followed him in but more modestly with togs on :)
Eventually the northerly breeze came in and race control started the cruising division race at 1238 hrs. With Jim on helm and no. 1 genoa hoisted, we crossed the line on port tack – more by accident than design. It actually worked out well for us. Rather than fighting it out with all the other boats we had clear air all the way to the first mark. After rounding the second mark we then headed over to the Mapua mark again.
With knowledge I had learned from Richard last night, we hoisted our medium spinnaker for the broad reach across the bay. This time it was Zara Maria a Lotus 9.2 we were duelling with. Our reaching kite went really well and we held our own all the way across to Mapua.
We dropped the kite and gybed around the mark – correctly on port this time – and then it was a close-hauled sprint in winds up to 15 kts back to the finish. Zara Maria were now able to get ahead of us but we held off Kakariki, beating them over the line by 3 minutes.
As we crossed the line someone on the committee boat called out to us, “Nice looking boat!” 🙂
That evening Jim and Lindie very kindly invited the crew back to their place for a BBQ. A wonderful evening of delicious food, wine, some songs – and a beautiful sunset.
Day 3 – Monday 22 January
Crew: Geoff, Tunch, Anastasia.
Abel Coastal Forecast – Variable 10 kts. NW 15 kts developing in the afternoon.
This was the highly anticipated big day. A long race north across Tasman Bay to Torrent Bay in the Abel Tasman National Park. At the 9.30 am briefing the course was explained to us.
The day started out cloudy with no wind. Cruising Division #2 started first at 1100 hrs with a nice 8 kts SW wind. We started on port tack with no. 1 genoa and full main. Five minutes later Cruising Division #1 started, followed later by the Romeo and Juliette division boats.
Tunch took over the helm as we quickly hoisted our trusty reaching spinnaker and settled in for an easy cruise up the bay.
At about 1200 hrs the sky cleared with the wind dropping down to under 5 kts and backing to the east. We gybed the main and spinnaker. We cruised slowly along and handed over the helm to the autotiller “Ernesto’ (our fourth crew member) and Tunch put out the fishing line. Very relaxing!
The wind slowly increased. The first obstruction we had to negotiate was the massive mussel farm off the coast of Motueka. We had to decide whether we would turn left or right to avoid the farm. Most of the boats ahead of us were taking the east side so we followed suit.
As we neared the border of the mussel farm the wind had backed to NE. We dropped the spinnaker and went back to sailing close-hauled with the genoa. Anastasia took a turn on helm and Tunch prepared lunch. The mussel farm limits were well signposted with east cardinal markers
As we neared land again we had to pass the gap between Fisherman Island on our left and Adele Island on our right. Keeping a close eye on the chartplotter we sailed into Stilwell Bay at 1510 hrs and did a couple of tacks to steer back out to open sea.
Our next obstruction was Hapuka Reef on port and then one last tack towards Pitt Head. We crossed the finish line at 1549 hours beating Kakariki by 13 minutes. Well done team Halo!
Party Time and Things that go Bump in the Night!
Our first task on arriving at The Anchorage in Torrent Bay was to find somewhere in the sea of boats to drop our anchor. Once we were safely settled in it was time for swims and exploring the beach.
I went for a row in the dinghy around the anchorage visiting some of the other boats. The crew of another Wellington boat, 88% Proof, welcomed me aboard for a gin and tonic. They also suggested we move over closer to them. Plenty of space for Halo they said, so we weighed anchor and relocated over the bay closer to where the BBQ would be held on the beach.
At around 6.30 pm we rowed over to the beach for the party. A great night was enjoyed by all!
After the BBQ we went back to the boat. It was a beautiful calm night and we enjoyed desert and a nightcap on deck. Before going to bed up I set up the anchor watch app on my phone.
We were all sleeping soundly when at about 4 am a wind squall arrived and suddenly the anchor alarm was sounding! It was pouring with rain and we were dragging anchor towards the rocks!
We quickly started the engine, pulled up the anchor, and motored forward to what seemed like a better position. We dropped the anchor, reset the alarm and went to bed. Just drifting off when there was a rather large bang on the hull. Oh dear, what now? Out in the rain again to discover we had swung round onto Duende, an 18 tonne steel Trewes 3A yacht next to us.
The skipper of the boat, Thomas, came up on deck. I was expecting him to give us a bollocking but he seemed unfazed and very nicely offered us to tie up to his boat. Seemed like a great idea and after setting up our lines for a raft-up and pulling up our anchor we settled back to bed.
Day 4 – Tuesday 23 January
The morning after, Tunch made a wonderful Turkish omelette for breakfast. After offering our eternal gratitude once again to our neighbour Thomas we cast off from Duende and made our way out of the bay for the start of the last race.
As we motored out towards the committee boat which was sitting off Frenchman Bay, it was announced on ch. 77 that due to the wind which had come up strong, the Cruising Division would not now be doing the Tonga Island circuit race and we would just be doing one last race today, back to Nelson starting at 1030 hrs.
It was blowing 15-20 kts northerly so we put a reef in the main with the no. 3 jib. We timed the start pretty well we thought, just behind Roma over the line. The Committee Boat then called on ch. 77, two boats were over the line (OCS). They didn’t identify the boats. It was obviously not us, so we thought, so we continued on our merry way.
Once we were heading downwind we poled out the jib, hoisted the genoa as a second headsail, and shook out the reef.
We were going well doing around 6.5 kts SOG for about an hour battling it out with Marmax, an Oyster 46 on our left and and Rattler, a 52 foot Beneteau on our right until the wind then fizzled out!
Eventually the the wind came up again, this time from the SW rising to 20 kts, then 30 and gusting 35 kts!
We were beating into the wind with the no. 3 jib and one reef in the mainsail for the rest of the way home. An endurance test for boat and crew with boat speed up to 9 kts at times as we surfed the waves and got totally drenched!
We finally crossed the finish line between the launch Transition and the north cardinal mark at 1434 hrs – beating Kakariki by about 10 minutes. Great work team Halo!
We didn’t know our exact placing as we discovered at the prize giving that night that both Halo and Roma had been disqualified from the race for ‘OCS’ (we crossed the start line early).
Oh well, in the words of another sailor I respect, “We won on fun”.
Now for our next adventure: Delivery trip back to Wellington.
Halo Log Book 