The Te Ākautangi Matariki Festival is jointly run by Tai Tonga 41 Outrigger Canoe Club and Evans Bay Yacht & Motor Boat Club with over 50 boats of all types and sizes registered for the event.
Thursday – Deliver Halo to Evans Bay Marina
As the regatta would take in three days of events we decided to dock Halo in a spare berth at the Evans Bay Marina thanks to the generosity of Matt McCullough who has recently sold his boat Wakarere.
The only issue, Matt warned me, was that the berth has no mooring lines. Also, the marina has no floating jetties or fingers in between the berths which complicates things.
Murray came to the rescue. We got permission to borrow the club’s small support boat and rigged up some temporary mooring lines.
We then drove back to Chaffers Marina and motored Halo round to Evans Bay. After a bit of jiggery pokery we eventually got the boat securely tied up in her new berth. All set for tomorrow’s racing!
Friday – Yachting Regatta Day 1
Crew: Geoff, Murray, John, Jamie.
Forecast: N 7–12 knots. Gusts up to 16 knots.
Today, Matariki Day, is a public holiday in New Zealand marking the start of the Māori New Year as the Matariki cluster of stars (Pleiades) appears in our night sky. As I was having breakfast at home it was promising to be a brilliant day.
Today’s race for the keelboats would be a long harbour course. At the regatta briefing conducted by the club Vice Commodore Phil Williams and Race Officer Rick Martin, the course was announced: Start – Mark 5 (Somes) – Mark 11 Korokoro – Finish, with start from the Committee boat Pania and finish at the club Start Box.
Back at the boat we rigged up our heavyweight No. 1 Genoa and spinnaker sheets and cast off from the berth at 1134 hrs. We hoisted the sails and did a few practice tacks thinking that the five minute warning signal would be at 1155 hrs.
All of a sudden we heard the horn and saw our fluro green class flag flying from Pania about ten minutes earlier than expected. Luckily we were already in a good position. Some other boats were not so lucky and got caught well behind the start.
We started quite well just behind Incantare and Grenadier and headed off towards Snapper Point in about 12 kts of NNE. After two more tacks we were clear of Evans Bay. Our big genoa was pulling well and we were able to almost catch up with our friends on Grenadier as we beat our way up the harbour towards Somes Island.
After rounding the two top marks, bowman John hoisted our maxi spinnaker and Murray took over the tiller for the run back. Grenadier had by now extended their lead over us.
We crossed the finish line at 1345 hrs, five minutes ahead of Tamerlane. Sea Beagle, Expresso and Saracen came in behind Tamerlane. A great result for team Halo!
Race Qs Action Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1724930
After we docked Halo back in our Evans Bay marina berth, we were kindly invited to join the Grenadier crew for a yummy afternoon tea.
Day 2 – Matariki Classic
The Matariki Classic race is open to all the boats of the festival from the little Optimists up to the big keelers. We would race in a lap course in Evans Bay within a time limit of 2.5 hours. There were 49 boats entered in the event including 13 keelers. There were also 19 entries in the Waka Ama division which ran a separate course.
Forecast: S 9-15 kts gusting up to 18 kts.
Crew: Same as Friday.
At the race briefing the course was announced by Rowdy who had found his voice after being sick the last few days. There were four laid marks plus a Lap Mark near the start box. Start time was 1100 hrs. The wind was currently a light northerly but predicted to change to southerly late morning.
We then rigged up the boat, deciding to go for the heavy No. 1 Genoa which had worked well for us yesterday. We cast off at 1016 hrs following Grenadier out of the marina. Lots of excitement!
We hoisted our sails and cruised around the start area. The wind was 4 kts northerly. With so many boats in the race our strategy was to keep well clear of the melee at the start. The problem of course would be when everybody converges on the first mark.
Would the wind change before the race started? We could see a band of dark clouds coming in from the airport.
The northerly died out but still no southerly as the countdown started. The windsock at the airport had now changed to southerly but nothing here yet. The fleet continued to drift around with some boats bumping into each other. The breeze very slowly turned east, then all of a sudden, six minutes into the race, the southerly came. Wham, 10 kts. We’re all racing off to the first mark!
After ‘threading the needle’ round Mark 1 we were neck and neck with Grenadier while John on bow prepared the spinnaker.
Around Mark 2 and Grenadier hoisted their kite very quickly and got ahead of us. As we continued the run up the bay they were able to pull further away from us.
By the time we reached Mark 3 the fleet had spread out which made sailing a bit easier. We enjoyed a duel with Black Mamba and Liquid Asset on the reach across to Mark 4 and then back down the bay avoiding the Waka Ama paddlers.
We had one close call when we were on port tack crossing the bay. Our big genoa was obscuring our vision and we didn’t notice Black Mamba coming towards us on starboard tack. Thay had right of way but only I heard their shouting at the last minute and quickly bore away to avoid a collision. Ooops.
We completed our first lap in 61 minutes. Then after rounding Mark 1 and Mark 2 it was time for John to hoist the spinnaker again. We were much quicker this time.
We were surprised to see Sea Beagle had caught up with us until we found out that they had not rounded the Lap Mark. Once they realised their mistake they later retired from the race which was a shame.
The wind continued to increase to over 20 kts at times. We were now a bit overpowered with our big genoa and full main but we pressed on. We completed our second lap in 49 minutes. We’re getting better!
On our third lap we once again hoisted the maxi spinnaker for the downwind run and had a great sail round the course. We completed our last lap in 47 minutes dodging the moored boats as we passed right in front of the start box. Go Team Halo!
With the race over we doused the sails and motored the short distance back into the Evans Bay Marina. A thoroughly enjoyable day’s sailing. The only casualty being our genoa which got quite a large tear on the luff. Time for another visit to Brett at Linton Sails!
After packing up the boat we invited the Grenadier crew to join us for teas and coffees on Halo. Thanks guys for bringing the scrumptious sally lunn!
At the prize giving back at the cubhouse the results were announced. The fastest boats on handicap this year were the little 420’s and the top prize went to Glenn Armstrong in a 12ft skiff. Halo came in midway in the fleet at 20th place.
RaceQs Action Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1725237
Sunday -Yachting Regatta Day 3
Forecast: NW 11-20 kts gusting up to 23 kts.
Crew: Great to have Murray, John and Jamie back on Halo today.
A bit more wind forecast for today promising an excellent day’s sailing to complete the regatta. The long harbour course for the keelboats was to be the same as Friday’s route up to Somes Island and back. An earlier start with first warning timed for 0955 hrs.
After rigging up our No. 2 Jib we cast off from the marina at 0928 hrs and motored up to where the committee boat Pania was marking the start line near Greta Point.
We started just behind Tamerlane and just edged past them as we beat our way up the bay in the 13 kts northerly wind.
The sun came out which warmed us up nicely as we sailed close hauled up the harbour towards the No. 5 mark west of Somes Island.
Halo’s Pirouette! As we approached the Korokoro mark 11 and were preparing the spinnaker we suddenly got into a wind hole and got knocked. “We’ll need to do a quick tack to get around the mark“, I announced. But by the time we started our turn the boat had stalled so we ended up going the other way and doing a full 360 degrees turn. By now Sea Beagle was coming up fast behind us. We just managed to clear the mark in front of them. Fun and games!
We then hoisted the medium spinnaker for a fast run downwind. The wind was over 20 kts at times giving us highs of 7.4 kts boat speed. We were thankful we were flying our smaller medium kite.
Sea Beagle were able to pass us with their asymmetrical spinnaker flying while we enjoyed a close duel with Tamerlane all the way home.
Halfway across the harbour we had to do a spinnaker gybe. John did a great job on bow with me and Jamie managing the sheets and Murray continuing to steer a steady course on helm.
We crossed the finish line just five seconds ahead of Tamerlane. A fun day out on the water!
RaceQs Action Replay: http://raceQs.com/event/1725236
We then motor sailed Halo back to Chaffers Marina before driving back to the EBYMBC clubhouse for the food, drinks and the final prize giving with presentation of trophies.
A wonderful weekend of sailing. Many thanks to the team at EBYMBC for putting on this great event.
Halo Log Book 