EBYMBC Wash House Race – 5 April 2025

Crew: Geoff, Eduardo, Murray, Jamie.

Forecast: Southerly 10 kts.

A beautiful Wellington day for the last race of the EBYMBC Summer Series. (The sponsor of the series is The Wash House, a commercial and domestic laundry). Eduardo and Jamie joined Halo at Chaffers Marina and we rigged the no. 1 heavy genoa and full main. With Eduardo on helm we had a nice sail round to Evans Bay where Murray joined us.

The keelboats race course was announced as, Start – Mark #5 Somes – Mark #12 Ward – Finish, with on-the-water start at 1300 hrs.

Our crew positions for the downwind start were Murray on helm, Eduardo on bow, Geoff and Jamie on sail trim. We struggled to see the countdown flags on the committee boat and by the time we got closer, the rest of the fleet was already over the start line. Oops.

We quickly hoisted our maxi spinnaker and crossed the line, behind Grenadier and Tamerlane but ahead of Slingshot. The SW wind was directly from behind, at roughly 180 degrees, so we were running before the wind on a “dead run” all the way out of Evans Bay.

Thanks to Phil on Grenadier for the great photos:

We cleared Pt Halswell and continued sailing towards the Somes mark. As we got out into the middle of the harbour the wind was backing towards the south. Jamie and I played the spinnaker pole and sheets to keep the kite trimmed while Murray steered our course directly to the mark. Slingshot were now going well with their gennaker and sailed past us.

Usurper, the leading boat, called over the VHF that the mark was missing. The consensus was that we should replace Mark #5 with rounding Matiu / Somes Island.

Jamie and Eduardo hoisted the genoa and stowed our spinnaker before we rounded the rocks north of Mokupuna Island. We then tensioned the sails to sail close hauled towards Ward Island in about 15 kts of wind.

We got to the layline and tacked to easily clear Mark #12. Upcycled, ahead of us, tacked a bit early and had to do two extra tacks to round the mark.

Then we were on a close reach to Ward Island. We noticed the leading boats pointing well south of Pt Halswell but we decided to take our chances sailing closer to the Kau Bay wind shadow.

The tactic sort of worked and we were able to keep up good speed across Kau Bay but as we neared Pt Halswell we got caught in a short wind shadow. Tamerlane, ahead of us, were now pretty much stalled as we slowly sailed past them!

Then it was close hauled up Evans Bay across to the west side. We enjoyed a good lift as we neared the Balaena Bay point before tacking at the last minute. Tamerlane were unable to catch us.

We sailed back across the bay and tacked to cross the Pania finish line at 1505 hrs.

A great day’s sailing!

Cups of tea, coffee and snacks were enjoyed as we sailed back to Chaffers. Back at the club later the results were announced. Grenadier took first place on handicap and Halo came third.