Crew: Geoff, John, Jamie, Leah.
Forecast: Northerly 10 kts changing southerly 20 kts.
Variable conditions for the last race of the Summer Series provided a tricky decision of which headsail to go for. Do we use the big genoa for the dying northerly and then change to a smaller no. 3 jib for the southerly change?
In the end we decided to compromise and go with the no. 2 jib to avoid having to do any headsail sail changes mid race. Our no. 2 is a relatively new dacron sail made by Linton Sails and it has proved to be good at handling a wide range of conditions.
The course was set by the Race Committee as Start – Front Leading Light – Finish. Nice and easy.
Six keelboats lined up for the start into about 11 kts of head wind. They all crossed the line on starboard tack except for Halo on port tack dipping below them but then with clear air as we tacked up Evans Bay towards the Miramar Peninsula.
Our next tack took us across the bay to NIWA. We had to call “starboard” on Tamerlane.
We then had to watch out for Sea Beagle who was coming towards us on port tack and then tacked on our bow rather close for comfort.
And now here comes Slingshot also having to give way to us as we crossed on starboard tack. We’re having fun!
After tacking off the southern end of Shelly Bay we beat our way up the middle of Evans Bay. The other boats which were by now over on the west side seemed to be struggling while we were getting a great lift.
One last tack and we rounded Pt Halswell now well ahead of Grenadier, Tamerlane and Sea Beagle but behind Incantare and Slingshot.
We now headed towards the next mark, the Number One Leading Light. John took over on helm as Jamie hoisted our medium spinnaker. We were now on a reach once we passed Kau Point and continued to pull ahead of the boats behind us. Slingshot sailed over towards Worser Bay for some reason and Incantare appeared to be heading towards Falcon Shoals light.
We noticed the Interislander ferry Aratere steaming into the entrance of Wellington Harbour. After checking the AIS tracks on the chartplotter I calculated that as we were only doing 2-3 kts we would be clear. Incantare, however, continued sailing into their track and ended up being very close to the ferry. The AIS track indicated that the Aratere did change course from their usual route by 100 mts to starboard to keep clear of them. They were lucky they didn’t sound their horn otherwise they may have been disqualified from the race.
As we neared the Front Lead we were just getting ready to hoist the jib and drop the kite when the southerly change suddenly arrived with a blast. The spinnaker and mainsail backfilled and our gybe preventer was holding the boom from crashing over our heads.
Bit of a rush now to sort out everything before we rounded the mark, just ahead of Slingshot.
It was now a fast and furious broad reach back towards Pt. Halswell in the the heavy rain that started bucketing down. Slingshot quickly sailed past us.
We crossed paths with Tamerlane and the other boats who were beating their way towards the mark while we were sailing downwind at 7 kts in the southerly which was now gusting up to 30 kts.
As we sailed past the wind shadow of Kau Bay the wind eased off (but the rain continued to pelt down).
Once we rounded Pt Halswell we were back in the full force of the southerly. We put the first reef in the mainsail and I took a turn on helm as we beat our way down Evans Bay to cross the finish line at 1521 hrs.
RaceQs Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1685624
We motored back to Chaffers tying up in our berth at 1600 hrs. After a shower and a quick change Jamie and I went over to the club for the post race get-together. Results were announced. We came first on handicap. Well done Team Halo!
Halo Log Book 