Crew: Murray, Dean, Geoff.
Forecast: Northerly 15 kts, rising to 20 kts in the afternoon.
With no keelboat racing scheduled at Evans Bay today, we decided to sign on for the Port Nick race — the Navy Cup.
The event celebrates the long-standing connection between the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club and the Royal New Zealand Navy, a relationship dating back to the club’s formation in 1941. Over the years many club members have served with the RNZN and Royal Navy Reserves.
The course for the 11 boats competing was announced on Channel 62: Start – 8 (p) Evans Bay Buoy – 5 (s) Somes Island Buoy – 10 (p) Falcon Shoal Light – 4 (p) Ngauranga Buoy (p) – Finish. Start time: 1300 hrs.
We cast off from Chaffers Marina at 1215 hrs and rigged the No. 2 jib with a full main, which seemed the right combination for the 15-knot northerly already blowing. Crew duties were simple: Dean on sail trim, Murray on the mainsheet, and me on the helm.
The start was fairly busy and we crossed the line just behind the main fleet heading off on a beam reach around Point Jerningham toward the Evans Bay laid mark.
We were last around the buoy but soon found ourselves making progress, passing Saucy Sausage and closing on Zigzag and White Cavalier as we sailed close-hauled in about 20 knots of breeze up toward Somes Island.
After rounding the Somes Island mark we turned downwind toward Falcon Shoal. By now the wind was pushing closer to 25 knots. We decided against setting the spinnaker. Dean on foredeck poled out the jib with the spinnaker pole, which gave us good speed and stability while Murray took a turn on the helm.
I was relaxing in the cockpit enjoying my sandwich as we slowly gained on White Cavalier when suddenly — “BAAAAA!” — a loud ship’s blast shattered the calm. It was the Bluebridge ferry Olivia, bearing down on us from astern.
Yikes!
In a slightly panicked manoeuvre we turned to port to clear her track, causing the mainsail to crash gybe. Unfortunately I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got knocked off balance by the mainsheet, landing heavily on my back against the cockpit coaming.
Ouch!
Once we had safely cleared the ferry’s path we gathered ourselves and resumed racing, rounding Falcon Shoal to port at 1406 hrs. By then Zigzag and White Cavalier had stretched away, with only Saucy Sausage still behind us.
From Falcon Shoal we headed back upwind, tacking our way toward the Ngauranga buoy, another laid mark with the support boat Te Ruru standing by.
After the rounding it was a speedy broad reach back down the harbour to the finish, which we crossed at 1530 hrs.
Back at Chaffers we tied up Halo and walked over to the club for a well-earned beer. There were plenty of comments — and a fair bit of laughter — about our close encounter with the ferry.
When the results were announced, Halo finished 5th on club handicap.
Not a bad result… and a race we certainly won’t forget.
Halo Log Book 