Crew: Murray, Dean, Geoff.
Forecast: Southerly 15 kts, rising to 20 kts late morning, easing to 10 kts in the afternoon.
Another great day for an exciting sail in Wellington Harbour. After prepping the boat we cast off from Chaffers at 1137 hrs and hoisted the No. 2 jib and full main to sail round to Evans Bay. The wind was averaging around 16 kts, getting over 20 kts at times.
We tied up to a pole near the slipway as the wharf was busy with the Wellington Radio Yacht Club model boats having their regatta. Tamerlane tied up beside us.
I did the online sign-on to confirm we were racing with three POB. The course was announced on the virtual course board as Start – Somes Island (s) – Ward Island (s) – Finish, kicking off at 1300 hrs.
We slipped our mooring line from the pole at 1248 hrs, hoisted the sails and did a couple of loops while getting ready for the start.
Our start was pretty good – not perfect – but ahead of Tamerlane.
Usurper, Fine Entry and Prodigy were soon getting away from us with their spinnakers flying.
We opted to pole out the jib for the downwind run. We initially sailed on a broad reach towards Shelly Bay while rigging up the pole. By the time we had the pole ready we were getting close to the rocks and had to gybe back towards the middle of Evans Bay. By this time Tamerlane had sailed past us!
Once we were back in the centre of the bay we gybed again and then successfully poled out the jib for a run goose-winged out of the bay.
Once we cleared the wind shadow of Kau Bay the wind backed eastwards. We dropped the pole and sailed on a broad reach on the layline to Somes.
Ahead of us Tamerlane hoisted their spinnaker but moments later it came down again…
On a fast broad reach we were inching closer to Tamerlane and eventually overtook them.
Once we rounded Mokopuna Island north of Somes, we were back to sailing close-hauled heading towards Ward Island. Tamerlane tacked to sail west while Prodigy sailed east towards Days Bay. We continued up the middle.
In retrospect we should have covered Tamerlane as they almost caught up with us by the time we reached Ward Island.
We caught up with Prodigy as they tacked to port to cross just ahead of us. We called “Starboard!” as they crossed our bow, with skipper Paul Davies calling out “Plenty of room!” with a laugh.
We crossed them again before reaching Ward Island. This time it was Prodigy with right of way and we had to dip behind them.
Then it was a fast drag race across the harbour towards Point Halswell, keeping up with Prodigy but unable to pass them. Tamerlane were close behind us.
We waved out at Grenadier, sailing down the harbour back from Fitzroy Bay in the LBYC 24 Hour Race.
Arriving in the wind shadow of Kau Bay we were able to glide past Prodigy with the momentum of our heavier boat.
The second we cleared the Point Halswell lighthouse the southerly hit us hard again and we were off tacking our way up Evans Bay. Prodigy quickly accelerated away and managed to get ahead of us.
Tamerlane were close behind and we concentrated on covering their moves to stop them getting a chance to pass us, all the while playing cat and mouse with Prodigy just ahead.
We crossed the finish line at 1535 hrs, 30 seconds behind Prodigy and a minute ahead of Tamerlane. Great match-racing fun!
Race Replay
Here’s the Sail Data Player for Tamerlane and Halo. Grenadier also makes an appearance coming back from Fitzroy Bay: https://placebojim.github.io/player/?id=1AVHvXG3HFrsIWH91kN_ojAjEHC23gCVO
Results
Halo Log Book 