EBYMBC Summer Series 16 March 2024

Crew: Geoff and John.

Forecast: Easing to 10 kts late morning and then to variable 5 kts turning to NW 10 kt late afternoon.

Just the two of us on Halo today for what was looking like a great day to go sailing. We rigged up the sheets and then cast off from Chaffers at 1100 hrs. Hoisted the no. 1 light genoa with full main and sailed round to Evans Bay with “Ernesto’ helping out on helm. We used the autotack feature which worked well for two handed sailing.

We tied up at the Evans Bay wharf at 1200 hrs for lunch. The race was to use the Mark Foy/Pursuits staggered-start with Halo starting at 1313 hrs. Pretty quiet at the club today with all the dinghy sailors at Wellington Centreboard Champs in Plimmerton. The course was set as Start – Mark #5 Somes – Mark #11 Korokoro – Finish.

We cast off from the wharf and circled around waiting for our number to appear in the start box window. The 5 kts breeze was coming from the south so it would be a downwind start and we decided to hoist the medium spinnaker as soon as we crossed the line.

We timed the start well and crossed the line close to the Shoal Pile end of the start time a few seconds after our number dropped.

We engaged the auto tiller and hoisted the kite with John on bow and me handling the spinnaker sheets. Wind had increased to 10 kts by now.

Grenadier were on the same start time as Halo but we noticed they were a bit late getting away. They were positioned over at the startbox end of the line which seemed to work better and they were soon passing ahead of us. I showed John how to trim the spinnaker sheet and he was soon trimming like a pro.

As we neared Pt Halswell we heard the Strait Feronia calling Maritime Radio on ch. 16 logging their trip report. I looked back and we saw them fast coming out of their berth. A quick AIS check on the chartplotter showed we would be too close to their track. I decided to pull away to starboard to wait for them to pass. All good except the kite somehow got caught around the forestay. I jumped up to the bow to try to un twist it. Was unsuccessful so decided to drop the spinnaker. Not as easy as I was hoping. I got knocked on the head with the spinnaker pole and the kite ended up flying like a flag from the top of our mast, no doubt to the amusement of the people on the ferry as they steamed past!

Once we were clear of the Strait Feronia and had the kite stowed, we hoisted the genoa to continue on a broad reach toward the Matiu/Somes Island mark. Time for a cup of tea and some chocolate! The Interislander Aratere was closely following the Strait Feronia out of the harbour behind us.

We then heard a boat call Race Control to report that the Somes mark no. 5 was missing in action. The revised mark was then announced: go to the north-west corner of Somes. After we reached the virtual mark we then tacked into a close reach towards the Korokoro mark.

The wind was dropping to under 5 kts as we rounded Korokoro at 1432 hrs.

From Korokoro it was a close hauled beat in the light breeze to the finish line. Or so we thought…

As we neared Evans Bay the wind died out as it turned to the east and backed slowly round towards the north! Time to hoist the spinnaker again for a slow cruise towards the finish line.

We crossed the line at 1601 hrs, stowed the sails, and motored back to Chaffers Marina. A great day’s sailing!

Our result was knocked back by our spinnaker kerfuffle to avoid the ferry but we still got a respectable 4th place in the keelboats division which puts Halo at 2nd on the season results table.