Crew: Geoff, John, Emma, Murray, Sandra, Nicole.
Forecast: Northerly 10 kts.
A glorious day in Wellington for our last race of the season; the RPNYC Commodores and Ambassadors Invitation Race. We were assigned Nicole from the Chilean embassy to join Halo’s crew.
After re-installing Halo’s tiller (with its eight coats of varnish now completed), Murray, John and I went over to the clubhouse. Lots of activity at the club with 26 keelboats signed up for the race.
We met up with Emma, Sandra and Nicole and went back to Chaffers and rigged up the boat. Nicole brought along a huge Chilean flag which we proudly hoisted up to the spreader.
After a safety briefing for the new crew, we slipped our lines at 1228 hrs. The course was announced over the VHF: Start then around Matiu /Somes Island (in any direction) and back to the finish. Race countdown to start at 1255 hrs. We called on ch. 62 to advise our 6 POB for the race.
The wind was all over the place between 3 and 13 kts as we hoisted the #1 HW genoa with full mainsail. We did a few practice tacks in Lambton Harbour with Emma and John on sail trim, Murray on mainsheet, Sandra on bow, Nicole on general assist and me on helm.
Our start was not the best as we luffed at the last minute while trying to avoid getting into trouble with the gun sailors jostling for position. We soon got into gear, however, sailing on a close reach following the leaders.
Mel from Latitude 41 South Photography was on the support boat getting some great action shots:
Grenadier sailed a lot lower than us towards Somes and we assumed they were heading towards the east of the island. We followed the main bunch towards the west side. Once we got out of Sea Beagle‘s dirty air we were able to slowly edge past them. We were curious to see White Cavalier sailing a lot lower than us with their gennaker flying.
Time to enjoy some chocolate. Thanks John! As we neared Somes Island Grenadier was now sailing close hauled up the west side with a good lead over us.
Once we rounded the virtual mark above Mokopuna Island John leapt into action and quickly hoisted our medium spinnaker as we sailed around the back of Somes.
The plan was to sail down the harbour flying our medium kite on a broad reach. Before we came out of the wind shadow of Somes, however, we saw the boats ahead struggling and dousing their kites. We dropped ours as well and settled for a pleasant reach back across the harbour. John took over on helm and Nicole took over sail trim under Emma’s expert guidance.
We crossed the finish line at 1442 hrs. We were behind Grenadier but they didn’t get included in the results as their ambassador unfortunately didn’t turn up. We dropped the sails and docked Halo in her berth. After packing the sails and lowering the Chilean flag we relaxed with cold and hot drinks before going over to the the club.
Graciela, Eduardo and Camila joined us and we enjoyed the hospitality of the club in the setting sun. At the prizegiving we were excited to hear that Halo came second in the Ambassadors race. We were presented with the Chilean Cup by the ambassador, Her Excellency Manahi Pakarati. Viva Chile!
Well done team Halo and thanks to RPNYC for putting on a well organised and most enjoyable final day of racing for the season.
Halo Log Book 