Crew: Peter, Jamie, Dean, Geoff.
Forecast: Northerly 13 kts gusting 19 kts.
A great Wellington Harbour forecast for Race Four of the EBYMBC Barton Marine Winter Series. We cast off from Chaffers Marina at 1030 hrs with our new no. 1 genoa and full mainsail hoisted.
By the time we got to Evans Bay, however, we found we were over powered and regrettably we had to change the headsail down to the smaller no. 2. We also put a reef in the main.
The race course was announced: Start – Ward Island (p) – Somes (p) – Finish, starting at 1215 hrs.
Our strategy was to cross the line on port tack at the start box end. We figured this would give us the best lift up the bay. Grenadier had the same tactic. Unfortunately we were too far back from the line at the start. Grenadier was well ahead of us on the gun. Much of fleet was charging towards us on starboard tack at the first crossing but we only had to dip below one boat.
Some lovely photos of the the race popped up in Facebook from ‘Love Wellington‘.
After two tacks we were on the layline to Pt Halswell ahead of Lady Mink, Saracen and Incantare. Peter took over on helm.
We then eased the sails for a reach across the harbour passing the ocean going tug MMA Vision which was anchored in Kau Bay.
Saracen zoomed past us as we headed towards Ward Island.
We shook out the reef in the main as we sailed round the wind shadow of Ward Island and then headed close hauled up the harbour.
We tacked off the headland between Days Bay and Sunshine Bay and headed towards Somes Island. Incantare were still behind us but eventually crossed ahead of Halo as we tacked onto the layline for Mokopuna virtual mark.
With the northerly averaging 15 kts we decided to try out the loaner gennaker for the run back to Evans Bay. First time we’ve used this sail in a race. The leg would be a broad reach initially.
Bit of a problem at first due to a combination of factors. We hadn’t hoisted the gennaker all the way up and it got out of control causing a broach. Peter did a great job on helm keeping us under control as we released the sheet and got back on track with the gennaker flailing around. Glen on Incantare looked back and caught the action!
Once we tensioned the halyard to correctly hoist the sail, things went better. We were averaging 6.5 kts SOG in about 16 kts of wind and appeared to be gaining on Grenadier.
As we entered Evans Bay we now needed to sail almost dead downwind. Of course gennakers can’t do that and Peter had to steer up to keep the kite flying. We were wishing we had our symmetrical spinnaker flying. We did try using the spinnaker pole to hold the gennaker clew out – with some success but not ideal.
Lady Mink now had their symmetrical spinnaker flying and sailed past us. They had cleverly sailed westward to get the right angle before deploying the kite. They were the last boat to pass us which meant we finished the race last on line 🙂
We then motor sailed back to Chaffers Marina, berthing at 1520 hrs.
Race Replay
The eStela Tracker didn’t work this time (don’t ask!) but here’s the race replay for Halo vs Ruby using Joshua Groom’s (Sliver) experimental ‘Sail Data Player’ software based on AIS tracks: https://placebojim.github.io/?id=1OMepF8LDIIsMUwNfzpx2hppqt-4A1jlw
Results
Well done Jan and team on Saracen for taking out the top prize again!
Halo Log Book 