Crew: Emma, Murray, Jamie, Dean, Geoff,
Forecast: Northerly 12 kts gusting 19 kts.
We cast off and hoisted our genoa and full main with Emma and Dean on sail trim, Jamie on bow, Murray on mainsheet and me on helm.
The course was announced by RPNYC Race Control over the VHF as: “Start, Mark 4 (s), Mark 25 (p), Mark 5 (p), Mark 4 (p), Finish“. We called in to to register for the race with 5 POB.
Then the call came in that there was “a large marine mammal” in the harbour and that we should sail with caution! It was later confirmed to be a humpback whale. Tanith van Dyk took some wonderful photos – the first shot features Halo in the background. How cool is that!
They later gave us the all-clear as the whale had swum away. We did a timed practice approach to the start line using a transit from the ferry Strait Feronia conveniently berthed on the west side of Glasgow Wharf.
The 5 minute race countdown started. Our idea was to start close to the container terminal to give us good height for the beat to windward to Ngauranga. We ended up arriving a bit early to the line together with a bunch of other boats and a ‘General Recall’ was announced.
The race was re-started five minutes later. This time the fleet was given the ‘all boats clear’ as Halo crossed the line windward of much of the fleet. We settled into the groove close-hauled up the harbour. The fast boats, including the trimaran St Laurence, forged ahead of the pack.
The wind was variable and shifty from 7 kts up to 19 kts. No time to relax! We made it to Mark 5 just behind Pork Chop but ahead of Grenadier and Lady Mink.
Jamie hoisted the medium spinnaker while Murray took over helm for the run down to Evans Bay.
We gybed the spinnaker as we entered Evans Bay to head directly towards the Shoal Pile mark. Grenadier behind us, cleverly pointed higher initially and then sailed directly to the mark without needing to gybe.
Nearing the mark we were a bit slow dropping the kite so we had had to keep going past Shoal Pile a bit before we could gybe round the mark.
On the beat back up Evans Bay we did two tacks to clear Pt Halswell and to hopefully be on the layline to the West Somes mark. In the steady 16-18 kts of northerly our new genoa was pulling well. Lady Mink was now ahead of us but we were pointing well.
We did our final tack to round Mark 5 just behind Haumuri and Lady Mink. Unfortunately we just clipped the buoy amid shouts of ‘protest’ from the watchful crew on Lady Mink. We had to do a 360° turn to clear the protest before setting course for the Ngauranga mark.
Haumuri and Lady Mink were well ahead of us by the time we rounded Mark 4 for the final leg down the harbour to Lambton Harbour. We saw the boats ahead of us flying their spinnakers. Jamie had our our medium reaching kite rigged up ready to go. After some discussion we decided to go for it.
Things soon got a bit hairy with the shifty wind gusting from 7 kts up to 20 kts and swinging around from dead downwind to reaching. After going into an infamous ‘death roll’ and then a broach blowing us off course towards Aotea Quay, we dropped the kite.
We eased our way in between the Container Terminal and the beacon to sail across the finish line at 1453 hrs just ahead of Grenadier who were gaining fast on us with their spinnaker still flying.
After dropping our sails we motored past Grenadier for a friendly wave to Phil, Bill and Tania before docking Halo in her berth at Chaffers.
eStela Race Tracker Trial
Since the demise of RaceQs we are trialling a new race tracker system, eStela.
Here is the track for Halo and Grenadier (named Tamerlane as they were using Bill’s tracker): https://estela.co/en/tracking-race/15743/rpnyc-winter-series-27-july-2025
Results
Back at the Port Nick club socialising over a ‘pie and a pint’ the results were announced. Lady Mink came 1st and Halo came 3rd on handicap. Another great result for Team Halo!
Halo Log Book 