The 2008 Short handed Sailing Association of New Zealands running of the mid winter 2 handed series will be remembered for the weather & almost 50 yachts finishing within 6 minutes at 4am!
The first race was postponed 2 weeks because of an afternoon forecast 45knots.
The second race was postponed 24 hours because of once again the weather.
The third race will also be remembered for the weather, this time however the course offered a 80mile windward leeward in near perfect conditions.
Enjoy
Zora
(postponed) Simrad 1 report.
At last a breeze! Zora as you know is a cruising yacht from the Salona range. Built solid and no match for the Kiwi reaching machines, we need a breeze.
A week before the race I checked with some of my favorite weather sites and they say it’s going to blow, 20-30 West South West, it’s a week out and things change. A few days before and the weather is looking still to be in our range still predicting 20 – 30 west going SW. Thursday and there is a gale warning 20 rising to 35 gusting 45, Friday 25 rising to 35 gusting 50! Saturday 20 rising to 35 some rain and easing Sunday. The front predicted last week is still coming. Great. At the Briefing Cameron describes the weather as at the top of the range and asks that if anyone gets into trouble like a cat flipping could those near by please offer assistance and apply for redress. Great this could be our weather, Whar who.
Double check a few things and set up for the number 3, pack and extra set of clothes and thermals it’s going to get cold. There is already snow in Fiordland and snow expected to be down to 1500m and Milford Sound, that means rain, hail and lightning is also predicted. Great caravan racing weather. Can’t wait!
Windforecast New Zealand
167 yachts have entered with 16 in our division, Touchdown, Zen, Peppermint Planet, Sudden Impulse, Tour De Force, Zora, Room To Move, Smak, Riada, Second Nature, White Bait, Perchance, Truxton, Nosaka, Demonstrator & Sure Thing
Ourselves, Second Nature and White Bait are back from the RNI. With other yachts Carenza, Danaide & Oracle sailing in the Shorthaul Division and Nevenka sailing in the cruising Division ( wonder if they are going to stop for some home brew and an Orion this time? )
Friendships made on the Round North Island are rekindled and the inevitable banter is in fine form.
Friday is a bit blustery and a few rain showers but the 50 knots predicted only stays on the wish list. The afternoon is very pleasant with lots of sunshine at Westahaven. Set the boat up for a quick bit of genni practise. The rum race turned into a nice sail for those who turned up, still no 50knots.
Enter Eunice K a 96 year old Bridgedeaker. After a nice steak and a settling red on Zora we decided to be neighbourly and invite ourselves over for a beer. As I said the MV Eunice K is heading for a big birthday and owner Craig and his mate are camping on board for an early departure for a fish off Issy Bay somewhere, a good night was had by all, Thanks guys, it was a great evening.
During the night a few showers pass over and by early hours Saturday morning the wind gear at Manukau is reading 40 something and Bean Rock is around 30. Great stuff the breeze we have been waiting for is here, just hope it’s not in the squalls and we get some decent pressure. Richard got held up buying torches in Henderson (that didn’t work), so our planned genni practice was booked for an early start while we head down to the start.
0600 but a bing, but a boom, time to sparkup. Bacon and Eggs a few dawn breakers and were off at 0645. Unbeknown to us, no internet on the boat, the race had been cancelled.
Heading out of Westhaven one of those little squalls comes down the harbour. Cold and wet, this will sort a few softcocks out, I say to myself. Head over to the Hilton to hoist the main and tidy up the stackapack strings.
Ease away in about 12knots and head down to Orakei Wharf. Genni is on deck ready for an airing but it’s a bit flat for the genni so, flag it, breeze is soft should be fine. We are first out, well, can’t see anyone else coming out, still it’s a bit early.
0745 no start boat, said they would be on station by 0800, oh well head over to North Head see what the breeze is doing, see if its still forward. Way forward it’s almost on the wind than a beam reach. Looking back at the start area and still no start boat. Better call up and see what’s up. Due to the afternoon forecast they have cancelled with an update on the website by Tuesday. Coming to town from Waiheke meant I came up on Wednesday night for a meeting with David on Thursday morning then a rum race, which was also canned, a briefing and some Real Entertainment business on Friday Away from home since Wednesday for the race, so it was not a hard to call SSANZ to say that Zora would sail the course and report back the true weather conditions.
As Jim Young told me the other week, “A true yachtie likes to go sailing, trim as hard as they can, racing is great and has its place, but the true sailor likes to go sailing.”
Off we set to Rangi light then a genni ride down the (north side) back of Rangi. Two sail reaching in 10 -15 was pretty effortless. Nice wee slide, as we reach the light the breeze is bending forward and cracked sheets was about the best we could do. Marginal genni conditions. A bit later as the breeze dropped and the sun came out, big blue skies. That’s a corner, time for morning tea. The first Heni is always the best and gently sailing towards the Hay Stack. We left genni in the bag to enjoy the dolphins, some of the biggest I’ve seen, they stayed with us for about 10 minutes riding along side us at 7-9 knots.
Big black cloud is building over the North Shore and City. Just as we round Hay Stack the first wet one arrives. Not much wind in it only high 20’s, full main #2 cruising headsail just need to bear off a bit during the worst of it, then gone just some pathetic line squall. Even the rafts would have handled that one.
No point going all the way to Gannet Rock and the longhaul course. Just do the shorthaul since they would most likely be the divisions less able to handle the 40something predicted. Lay course for Park Point. Pushing a bit of tide. Before the rain the breeze was at 330 then after switched to 240, so we are back on the wind in about 5 knots. There’s the Eunice K again, drifting with a line or 2 out. Tighten up we’ll go over and say hello. Sure enough the boys are haven a pleasant day out on the harbour, didn’t see much action with the rods, doesn’t matter, at least they are out there.
As we pass Matiatia the breeze slowly backs and pop the genni time. That’s better now making 4knots in 6knots of breeze. Big tide so it’s a bit slow past Church Bay. At this point the small yachts would have been heading up to Motuihe Green with some turning left for Passage Rock and the smaller ones heading home to Orakei wharf. Breeze is swinging a bit more, now back to 300, gybe time just off Park Point and perfect angle for Passage Rock. Blue skies again with some more black stuff over the city. Small building pressure and Zora’s hitting 9’s. Keeping a weather eye on that black cloud, I watch as Rangi slowly disappears then Browns Island and Motuihe Island. Still not a lot of breeze before the cloud but the horizon is getting whiter. Rain. Ok let’s sock this genni and stuff it down the front hatch. Tidy up the sheets and hail, the decks are soon covered with icy hail. The sea is whipped up with a max of 37knots on our wind gear as we surge our way towards Passage Rock and time to turn the corner, roll out half the headsail and tuck the first reef in. All systems are controlled from the cockpit under the dodger. Within a few minutes we are settled down making a good 6.5 into a steady 25knots, the odd puff to 30 and then settling down to high teens low 20’s. The small boats might have had a few moments of excitement but nothing a well sailed Piedy couldn’t handle. For us at 45ft and 12tons it was a cake walk.
It wasn’t that cold either. I remember sailing back from The Barrier in a Berocca with Trevor on his 1020 Navaho, must have been the second race, 30 knot southerly from there before dawn is cold, discovered the benefit of thermals in that race.
Still very shifty breeze between 240 and 280 as we tacked our way up to Browns Island. Put a dig into Beachlands and then lay thro to Issy Bay Red. As usual as we tacked up the channel the breeze swung again to give us a good beat back to Orakei Wharf. The breeze is settling down a bit off Northern leading so roll the rest of the headsail out, leave the tuck in, not loosing anything, after all, don’t want to spill me tea, eh Shapie! We had been invited over after the race for a settling rum on Second Nature. Wonder if the soft…. , I mean wonder if he is still onboard?? We passed the Orakei mark about 1515. line and handicap by my calculations but should get markm to confirm my corrected time, still think we were far enough ahead of Danaide to nail that cow farmer and his Sparky J mate!
The forecast was for a lot more than we got and SSANZ made the right call for SSANZ. We made the call to sail around the track, Zora is still in cat 2 since the North Island Race and with some more water and another packet of biscuits, could go again tomorrow. The skill level onboard was not as good as some but better than most. Richard Potter sailed with me on Saturday. Richard has many thousands of offshore/coastal and around the cans experience so we had exactly the kind of experience needed for handling any yacht is those conditions with the forecast that was issued. There was never any dought that we would get home without incident. I called SSANZ to let them know we had completed the sail, but alas no reply. So, I called Coast Guard to say we were back on the marina.
But wait there is more. When we parked up, I had a peak over at Second Nature and sure enough the party was still going and a setling rum was enjoyed 
As you can imagine there was a lot of discussion about postponing races based on weather forecasts and skippers call. Below are the threads on Crew.org that these questions were very hotly debated.
Why the postponement ?
05 Jul 2008
Some weather info…
Issued by MetService at 04:40am 05-Jul-2008
Warning: Gale warning in force for all areas.
Situation: A low tracks slowly northwards along the east coast today, directing gale or storm force southwest winds across much of the country. The southwest flow persists through Monday, then eases from Tuesday as a ridge in the Tasman Sea slowly spreads across New Zealand.
Forecast:
For the Manukau and Waitemata Harbours, the Hauraki Gulf and for Bream Head to Cape Colville:
Today: Westerly 25 knots gusting 35 knots, rising to southwest 35 knots gusting 45 knots this afternoon. Rough sea, becoming very rough this afternoon. Poor visibility in heavy, thundery showers.
Outlook:Sunday:Southwest 35 knots easing to 25 knots by evening.
more here
Trash Talk
When racing finally got uderway…
We had a good time on the 1020 Penury. Was our first ever race in what is basically the cruising boat. So with some trepidation we hoisted our sobstad main (complete with 1986 measurement stamp) in the pissing rain – thank god for the new number one. Breeze was near max for the number one 2 handed but the number 2 is also of 80′s vintage so it was an easy call. Got a pretty good start mid line (on starboard!) and managed to avoid the port tackers chaos under the boom…held third in class most of the way to Billy Goat point until we had brain fade and went a bit too far left of the fleet, Shokran got a nice right and that was the last we saw of them so rounded 4th and hoisted the kite for the 2nd time ever (and first time in more than 5 knots of air…). All going well until we got a gust of 20 something off Home Bay and the shiny new kite halyard starts slipping through the 1980′s rope clutch…kite got over the bow but not quite in the water when Heath came to life and shut it down hard…was a nice save. bare headed from there to Motuhie until we sorted our sh*t out which was a bit expensive and azzure got in close behind us. Tight reach to passage and back kind of boring with no passing lanes couldn’t touch the guys in front so just sat on the poor boat behind us but gave us a chance to crack into some pizza. Got real light at Browns and we were a bit sticky so azzure cruised straight past us just before Bean, got a few mods to do to sort out the speed in the light but pretty sure we’ve got it worked out. Learned heaps about the boat looking forward to the next 2 races..!
On Precedent we had all sorts of incidents. Going to the start we listened to the Nowcast which had Tiri peaking at 42 average 28 so we decided to change down to a No2. Went for a starboard start. We were in good position but missed the start gun and only realised the race had started when boats were coming at us on port. After we had established that the gun had gone and we were not over we were forced to start left. This seemed ok as we were in clear air most of time and making good speed out on left of course.Approaching Rangi light the wind started dropping as well as our speed. We continued with the No2 and eventually at back of Rangi decided to change up to No1.This put us at back end of fleet but soon started to gain back ground with No1 working well in light air.Nearing Rakino we decided to go for No1 spinnaker after some deliberations. Kite hoisted and off the S34 went . We were easily doing 11 – 12 knots. Time for a gybe. This went ok with lots of flapping spinnaker. It was then that we felt the full force of the wind. In no time we were broaching and doing 14 knots. There were about 4 broaches action in cockpit was furious . Easing sheets as we broached and getting it back as boat steadied itself. After 4th broach we thought we had it under control, boat was doing 14.6 knots when kite blew out, splitting itself in half.I tried valiantly to get ripped kite down to no avail. Partner had a go at it ,no success.With tattered kite and only main up we were still doing 8 – 9 knots.Time to cut kite loose , retrieving bottom half and left top half flapping at top. Time to clean up. We then realised main sheet was dragging way out to sea.Managed to retrieve main sheet and had to grind the main in initialy till we got the sheet through all the pulleys and restored mainsheet control.Lost some ground. Managed to get No1 back up and sailed rest of way with remains of kite flapping around.Race was great fun pity about dying breeze at end which allowed a lot of lighter boats to pass us to the finish.Cant wait for second race.
Communique B&G Simrad 50 report
22 Jul 2008
Communique SIMRAD 08 R1
Sheltering down below as the rain hammers down Stew and I contemplate the mountain of food, is this a race or are we going cruising? Underway for the first time since the latest stage of the refit has been completed hopefully the sails still fit as expected and all the necessary gear removed to make way for the boat rebuilder has made its way back on board.
Motoring out we get a cheery greeting from Drop Dead Fred, Alan Bilkey commanding, and the same DDF that has been featuring so prominently in the chattering of the unemployed on crew.org. A cup of tea, a listen to CH 21, and report in on CH 77 we have settled down and established we have enough ropes and winch handles. Time for a sail and first sight of the new #1 gifted to me by the Communique crew. It looks good and despite the more energetic weather forecast it is the sail of choice for the start.
The start line is very biased but the Long Haul Division gets away in an orderly manner so there is hope for us all. A near to the pin port tack start. The gun precipitates a rather ungentlemanly rush of starboard tackers all sailing away from the direction to the first mark (How does that work?). Never mind tack over squeeze out from Mr. Kamikaze below and we are away too bad about the boats to weather, we still have all day to play.
No such luck for Cloud 9.2 his day ends skewered by some random Hot Rod on port tack.
By North Head we own the left, not really optimum strategy. We carry on, find a clear lane and tack into it. We have the 1020s Azure and VTeam nearby and we lift off them with little effort. That new #1 looks like it’s a good ‘un. Pray for an early NW shift as the breeze lightens, and to my imagination it seems to be trending left, in any event we are now laying Rangi light and should be thinking VMG to Billy Goat Point. As the fleet crosses us it is clear the right was significantly better but then in a NE it is the convention to do the Rangi shore. We need to get a little smarter.
Along the back of Rangi it is very lumpy and light, as little as 7-8 knots at times. We are going well. Height is good, speed is good, genoa luff sloping in and out between the hanks, crow’s feet everywhere, ugly as sin but it works. By Motutapu we have put Hot Gossip the leading F9.2 behind us and are looking at Billy Goat Point. As we round the point a couple of white van drivers pass inshore, one of them the always cheery Tony Newmarch… Nice to have a boat between us and the reef, they will hit first.
The kite in the Rakino Channel is a lot of fun Stew does a nifty gybe at the Home Bay Reef and we are free to enjoy the spectacle of some random skidder with the spinnaker pole around the forestay like a hair pin and the skipper hanging on to the gunwale all while showing a lot of rather dirty botty. We have Tony for company again as we surf along towards Motihue Green. A bit of chat just to let him know we will gybe the kite when we are good and ready and in the meantime we are on starboard.
It is fun in the squall as we approach the SW corner of Motihue but we go for the early take down and have resolved to keep the #1 as sail of choice. An uneventful sail to Passage Rocks gives us the chance to do lunch. Looking around I am surprised to see Josh and Jagged Edge closing with a nifty little jib top on our quarter. We had last seen him in the Motihue Channel heading for the Sergeant Channel with a lime green gennaker. The approach to Passage Rocks gets busy with two rather keen white van drivers inserting themselves between us and the reef. Josh is outside us and we have room to go a little wider. A call to Coast guard on Ch 82 is timed at 1327hrs
We set off for Browns Island rather to leeward of the nearby fleet but they thin out and we seem to be going OK. We are strictly rhumbline and to leeward of the fleet. What do these people to windward know that we don’t? Well quite a bit actually, just one mile short of Browns Island a good NW squall and we are almost pointing at Musick Point. We tack onto port and consolidate what is a surprisingly modest loss. At Browns Island we tack out again and watch Jagged Edge cross our stern. On tacking back in the softening wind we find we are now laying Bean Rock. Unfortunately the wind backs further and the boats to leeward sail away in the 4-5 knot breeze. We go to the kite, very shy to Bean Rock but it sets with our dental floss sheets in the now drifting conditions. Gybing down wind is required to get to the finish and we are grateful for the puff of smoke as we finish under Orakei Wharf amongst the fishing lines. Thank goodness for the incoming tide. We feel that there is much we could have done better but behind us is a good proportion of the fleet with a long and slow struggle still to complete.
We chill over the rum and coke RTD handed to us at the finish and reflect on the day we have had at the office. Comparisons with our 07 effort are unflattering but we have done our best on the day, we have prepared carefully, we have taken our chances when we could, and we have savored a long standing friendship on the water.
In the morning the results are out, the SR 26s Mercenary and Jagged have blitzed us. Congrats are due, we sail to the same PHRF. The standout award for perseverance however must go to E Nine who seemed to miss a change of tide to finish at 2327 after being ahead of us at Browns Is.
The really good news? We get to go sailing again in only two weeks.
Fendall Halliburton
The race on the Jagged Edge, Short Haul 2.
It all started off badly for us, firstly we got tangled with Moving violation with about 20seconds to go, their prod caught our windward staunchen and ripped it out. No hull damage but a bad start to the day. Then we were then shafted by a whole series of port tackers at the boat end who just jammed it in with no rights, we were lucky there was no serious damage.
We should have known it was going to be a shitfight and stayed clear. Anyway finally we got clear of the line and started sailing.
Initially we had thought the left would be better with the breeze due to go left all day. That proved to be wrong as a new breeze filled in 20 degrees to the right… anyway as the breeze built to 20+kts our #1 genoa and full main was proving to be too much for our stumpy light keel (Oldest,lightest and shortest keel in the SR fleet!) and we started going sideways. So a quick change to the #2 and we were off again. By this stage mercenary was long gone and we know it was going to be near imposible to get that distance back. Made some small gains on a bunch of boats at rangi light and then sailed thru a huge clump of weed and got ourselves all tangled, we even had a huge chunk caught on the end of the prod! After a back down to clear the keel we were off again. But could barely see the first boat in our div!
Thru rakino passage we hoisted our new mast head gennaker which had never been up, we had no idea how it was going to look or how tight or deep we could go with it. Seems to go Ok thou and so we had a beer to celibrate. We headed out on port to look for a nice angle thru motuhe passage and chucked a gybe in, this was our first ever gybe with the gennaker and prod so we were not on top of our game and also forgot that the main doesn’t go thru the backstay so we did a spectacular wipeout as the main hooked the backstay!
Got the bow away again and we were off, sitting on 12-15kts thru the passage when that big left hander squall came thru. Gotabiton.com for a while until the prod bobstay ripped clean thru the alloy prod end and it all went bad. Got that all cleaned up and hoisted the jibtop which again had never been hoisted! Worked out where to sheet it and headed for passage rock. Seemed to go OK but again grunty chicken and mercenary were a long way ahead. Had a couple of beers along this reach then peeled to the #2 for the leg home. All follow the leader stuff from here and there was nothing more we could do. Another beer before browns island then a peel back to the #1 and a kite hoist at bean rock in about 3 kts of wind for a flat run to the finish.
Got a full lesson taught to us by the mercenary on how to sail an SR 2 handed by a couple of seasoned SR campaigners but we were still very happy with how we went and what we had learnt about the boat and sails.
The Race from Party Piedy Cool Cool Cool
Was nearly late to the start as all the multies were a minute late so I took our 4min gun as their start gun. Luckly we were in there mixing it up enough to not be too late. The last minute decision to start with the number 2 had us look famous for about 30min. We were drag racing with Yosemite for about 10min on one board side by side untill the pressure started to drop and they started pulling forward on us with their number 1.
BUGGER – Quick change to the number 1 kept all the other piedys behind us.
It was hard work keeping Party Piedy moving of rangi light and Yosemite got a beauity lift inshore and tacked out to cement their lead over us.
Breeze came in as we approached the Haystack. It went left which was perfect as it allowed us to just crack sheets to depower the boat rather than crank everything on until it pings!
Rounded the Haystack as Second piedy behind yosemite and third little boat. The 727′s around us looked like they were making hard work of being overpowered! Rolling Eyes
Nice Kite run down to Motahie. After our Gybe, the gloom cleared and the GPS had us heading to the wrong end of the island. Gybe again (badly again! Embarassed) Ended up passing the reef at Motahie side by side with Motamouse who were super quick downhill. They Sneak past in the lee of the island. Kites down at the Corner.
Two sail reaching from Browns to Bean Rock. We get stuck behind a Ross 780 who sailed like a drunken sailor and kept us in his dirty air by sailing all over the place. Annoyingly as we are chasing Motamouse and aren’t actually racing the Ross.
We get the Big Black B@stard (Genny) up after a tactical discussion (I won the Scissors, Paper, Rock battle to put it us vs keep it down Twisted Evil )
500m from the finish the Motomouse boys are looking very worried at us bearing down at them under Genny, Number 1 and Fully main, so they get their kite up and pace us to the line.
4th piedy across the line – Where the hell did Infatuation come from? Question Question Ahh they broke the prod and bent the rudder in a wipe out and didn’t sail round Motahie so we are Third!
Awesome fun and good practice for the next two!
B&G Simrad 60 Postponement
02 Aug 2008
Unfortunately the weather forecast for this afternoon has forced the postponement of the B&G Simrad 60 by 24hours to 0900 Sunday 3rd August. There should still be plenty of breeze but we won’t have to deal with the front expected this afternoon. A key factor in this decision was the wind direction being Northerly which will generate a bigger seastate and the fact most boats would be on a lee shore when the worst of the weather is due to hit this afternoon. Tomorrow looks a much better option.
Metservice says:
For the Manukau and Waitemata Harbours:
Today: Northwest 20 knots, rising to 25 knots gusting 35 knots this morning and to northerly 35 knots gusting 45 knots this afternoon. Tending northwest this evening. Moderate sea becoming rough this morning and very rough this afternoon. Poor visibility in showers, some heavy and squally.
www.Predictwind.com
more here
This time Zora had company, Danaide, a fellow competitior in the 2008 Round North Isalnd Race also leaves home early to make the start. Both yacjhts sailed around the corse area. We had one squall threaten but nothing in it. the saiol up to navy buoy was fine and then we headed for Hay Stack with a reach bact to Westhaven passing issy bay in 17knots our genneka decided it was time to blow its head again. this left us missing the sail we would need the following day.
The strong breezez predicted did not arrive until later that evening around 2000 when most yachts and small ones would have been home. Nevermind, Sunday dawned with a stiff southery building and clear skies.
B&G Simrad 60 Race Report…
05 Aug 2008
Haven’t had much luck with the weather this year ! Two races, two postponements ! The first race I even had to leave the country so it could improve enough to get a start.
During the week leading up to the race everything was looking good. Granted it was forecast to be breezy, but still within SSANZ’s comfortzone. That was until Friday when metservice upped the forecast to a gale warning. Both predictwind and metvuw predictions had also deterioated to the point we were getting worried. Bugger, going to have to be a super early start and some early morning phone calls to make a decision about racing. Unfortunately all the forecasts seemed to suggest great breezes to start with, building thoughout the day with a nasty front due around 3-4pm… This would be when most the fleet would be coming back from Gannet with Waiheke as a leeshore. Sunday was looking like a better option !
In reality the front was late and we could have got the race in BUT without a crystal ball we were not to know (unlike so many armchair experts who have never been wrong yet!). Sunday was another super early start. Metservice had upped their forecast for Sunday to yet another gale warning but this time predictwind and metvuw didn’t agree…. What should we do ??? At least this time the wind was more westerly and all forecasts suggested improving weather during the day and no nasties. Decision made “Let’s have a crack, and make a final call on the water just prior to the start”
So I drove into town, cursing a massive downpour of rain, picked up a mate to help and got to Westhaven as the rain stopped. In the RNZYS RIB there isn’t much protection, so it was full wet weather kit on then charge down to Orakei to drop the start buoy in. We then became a water taxi to ferry the race committee out from Okahu bay to the Committee boat “Hobbit” which was kindly provided by Rick Picot. After that a quick tweek to the start buoy position before picking a few victims for safety inspections. Time quickly disappeared and we were into the start sequence meaning we had to switch to our next role…official photographer. While I snapped pic’s my mate Matt ticked off every boat that started. After all the boats had got away…and there is always one that is late, in this case a boat that came up from buck’s direction who instead of starting by the wharf, insisted on sailing all the way to the other end of the line to start and in the process probably added 5 minutes to their elapsed time ! We went back to the committee process for morning tea and cross referencing of our starting lists. Steve and Dougall then got onto contacting the non starters we hadn’t heard from before updating the coastguard with who was racing.
Everyone went home for a while but on the VHF news came though that Rattle n Rum had dropped it’s mast. We soon heard everyone was all ok and the situation was under control. We had a few retirements before hearing Sublime had broken their boom.
It didn’t seem long before it was time to head back for the finish. Taeping was first across the line, regularly flying a hull on their approach. Elysium was leading the cruising fleet with Simply the Best not far behind until getting a little to close in just before Bean rock. When they hadn’t moved for some time we jumped in the RIB to try and help out. It probably took 15-20 minutes, a couple of bigger gusts and some persuasion from the RIB to stop the boat trying to round up before she was finally freed. Just like driving a car, it’s often the home stretch where the accidents happen !
The rest of the finishes seemed pretty uneventful. We managed a few more safety inspections. Stand out performers would have to be Truxton, E nine and Playbuoy.
Finally after accounting for every starter it was back to westhaven after a long day…but no. Not over yet ! a competitor with engine issues had stolen Hobbit’s berth. The RIB was pressed back into action to tow the offender somewhere else so we could pack up and head home.
Post race feedback would suggest predictwind and metvuw were on the money weatherwise with gusts to 30 but predominantly winds in the mid 20′s. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.
See you in a month for the next race, which hopefully will be able to start on time.
Cameron
more here
SIMRAD 60 on ELLY
It was my fourth attempt this year to sail a Simrad race and finally I got what I wanted. So I’m happy. Smile
Not such fun before the start with rain clouds dumping on us. And the wind was very light. Bean Rock reading 11-13knots. So we decide to go with the number one. Watch out for that storm debris. Branches and bits of wood with nails sticking out.
Elly was a bit early to the start and had to tack back over the line on starboard with all the others coming at us on port. When we tacked back we looked around and were still ahead of the other Trackers. Not so bad.
A simple close reach out to Rangi lighthouse. 15 knots maybe. Bit of a procession, but have to watch out for the Marauder giving us some sharp luffs. OK they’re not intentional just rounding up in the gusts.
Once past the lighthouse we bear off but can’t see Rakino due to the rain ahead. Clear the northern point on Rangi and it’s up with the kite and time for some fun. What’s everyone else waiting for? OK we’re off and the wind is building. Lots of whitecaps must be over 20kn. A bit of rock and roll, but some great surfs up 8, 9, 10 knots. Woohoo!
Down at Rakino it’s time to gybe. Why have all the Piedies and 727s taken down their kites? We have a go and end up layed over on our side. Water coming over the coamings. Wind is much stronger here and waves all over the place. Get the kite down, get the genoa up and take it easy like most of the others. But what’s this? Comfortably Numb have managed to gybe their kite. The only small boat to do so here: legends! And they’re passing us like we’re standing still. And Wimoweh has gone for the drop and re-hoist and passed us. We’re now third Tracker, that’s not good!
Just ahead I notice white water exploding off our port bow. Bloody hell those rocks at the Noises are a bit close. Once past, hoist the heavy kite and see if we can catch Wimoweh and the Black And Tan (727). We’re now on starboard gybe and heading for Waiheke like everyone else. Unable to steer low enough to get down to Gannet Rock. Looks like we’ll have to gybe again. But we’re catching Wimoweh. Time to change the genoa down to a number two. Things are still pretty hairy but decide to try a gybe. Just now some dolphins come to play, but we have serious things to attend to. Manage to pull off the gybe, unlike Wimoweh and Black and Tan, who we leave in our dust. And now we’ve closed the gap to CN who are only 100m ahead.
Rounding Gannet Rock we take it close and get stuck in a backwind. Uh-oh we’ve just tacked. Now the wind is behind us. Hassle Free (727) are right on our stern. The wind kicks in. Damn it’s windy going uphill. Maybe should have stuck the working jib on. But we’re catching CN and leaving Hassle Free. Struggle on overpowered, and head into Onetangi Bay as rain cloud passes. Hope to get a nice lift coming out of here, and we do briefly, but then get stuck. The wind has died. CN has just sailed off putting hundreds of metres on us. Bugger!
Start to notice bigger boats coming through. Who’s that big red crew on the side of the SR26. Oh it’s Booboo on Jagged Edge. Head out to sea a bit. Feels a bit smoother out here. Tack back and we seem to have made up a bit of ground on CN. Around Oneroa the wind kicks in. Must be over 25. The main is flogging. Time to put a reef in. After Waiheke we get knocked and pulled down to Motuihe. Decide to tack north towards Motutapu. When we tack back we are lifted in smooth water, and have put good distance on CN and Jagged Edge who went way left close to Motuihe. Shake the reef out and time for some lunch.
As we sail thru Motuihe Channel we notice Grunty Chicken down to leeward, and we are ahead of the blue piedy that passed us just after the start. Heading towards Bean Rock it’s a bit of a procession again with lots of Y88s coming thru. We keep going in towards Mission Bay, tack out around Bean Rock, and we seem to have put more ground on CN also passed The Source (727). We cross the line just ahead of Jagged Edge and Grunty Chicken, and a gun goes off…
Thrills, spills, and changing places. What a fantastic race!
_________________
www.upto26club.org.nz
Jagged edge’s Simrad 60 report.
Plan was to start at the boat end on port (Couldn’t lay the line on STB anyway), we managed to pretty much nail it and had Rattle and Rum alongside as we both hoisted fractional gennakers for the kite reach to north head. We could see the long haul boats stuggling after north head with gennakers so decided we would drop ours in the lee of north head and get the boat tidy and ready for the long 2 sail to Navy Bouy, We lead the fleet past north head with the Playbouy just to leeward.
Our main competition was our good friend Richie on Jagged Edges sistership Rattle and rum. Richie has been setting the Pace for the SRs for a long time now so we know that as long as we can beat him or at least stay in contact we are doing well have him on PHRF. They had carried the gennaker much longer than us and were ok in the lulls but were slow in the puffs, we knew they would have to drop it at some stage and the breeze was still building. Finally it was too much for them and they dropped it and went back to headsail. We had made the early call to go with the #2 blade jib as we thought there would be more breeze out there. Richie had the #1 genoa on and was starting to struggle as the breeze built, we made the most of our extra height to sail low and fast in the big puffs to get ahead and on their line, we had just a very slight edge extending our lead slightly as we neared Tiri. Regular surfs up to 11-12kts as we 2 sailed into navy bouy on some decent sized waves that were building nicely for the run. As our mast is very soft in the top section we decided on the fractional gennaker as this was our only fractional sail and we didn’t want to pull the top off the rig. We gybed around Navy bouy with the company of the 2 elliott 45s and playbouy and hoisted in the relative calm of tiri passage. We had just got going OK when maddock went to pull the jib down and we got hit by a nasty puff sending us into a wild broach (the SR’s don’t like weight forward!! Hence the reason I was driving…) We learnt here that the boat won’t come up unless you ease the halyard so eventually we got the boat upright again after what seemed like a fair while down and kicking. The leeward sheet had come off the kite so we had to drop it completely and clip the sheet on again. Finally the kite was up and set again and we were off! Sitting on 12-15kts with regular bursts of 17+ nicely in control with a beer in hand, looked back to see Richie hoisting the masthead gennaker in an attempt to get past us, we were thinking that maybe we were lightweights in the SR 26 class and that Richie was about to give us a lesson on big gonads! They were looking good for a while fully on the burst before the backstay broke and the mast fell over. We thought about stopping but to be honest we were a fair bit downwind of them and we didn’t think the 8hp outboard would be very effective into 30 kts and 2m waves, also there were plenty of bigger boats with inboard diesel engines and without kites who were closer and could be of assistance if required. So we carried on. The wind continued to swing aft and we ended up coming in right under the noises where the breeze dropped dramatically.
We gybed out back into the stronger breeze and bigger waves and were off again. At this stage we were wishing we had a fractional spinnaker as the boats that were poled back were doing very well against us as we were doing so many extra miles!
When we gybed back onto the lay line for Gannet rock, the mainsheet caught around the block and we did another skid. This time we tore the kite near the clew and decided to ditch it rather than ruin it completely. We had an old small masthead gennaker which we hoisted from the fractional halyard (we really didn’t want to break the mast here…) it worked OK but was very unstable and about a mile out from gannet we did a little woopsie and the sheets came off again (last time we ever use clips…), this time it was both sheets so this gave us the rather unusual situation of having the gennaker attached to the end of the prod and mast but with no way of getting it on board again. Pulling it all the way back up and then running low (but being VERY carefull not to wrap it around the forestay) we got it to blow behind the main and managed to grab it and get it down.
From here we couldn’t even see the next sports boat or SR26 so we didn’t bother hoisting another spinnaker or gennaker and instead prepared the boat for the 25nm beat home.
Removed all the kite sheets, packed the kites, set the reef up, tidied the cockpit had a quick lunch (OK and another quick beer), and got our mind set on the task of making a downwind boat go upwind into 20-30kts for 25nm……
Some fickle breeze around gannet rock and then into it, to say it was unpleasant was an understatement. We had decided to run with our #2 which is a full sized non overlapper and 1 reef. This combo was nice in under 25kts but we were not so flash in the puffs, I was really happy with how the new main looked reefed, we had never done it so had no idea how it would go. We were able to flatten it out completely and somehow managed to hold our own up the beat. We could just see Grunty Chicken and one of the other SR26s Trainsmash a fair way back. R’n’B was also just behind us and gaining a bit with every big puff. We managed to extend away from Trainsmash which surprised us as we were worried they might be faster upwind than us with the new keel. R’n’B, Cool Change and Grunty chicken slowly caught up to us and Grunty Chicken finally crossed just ahead of us thru Motuhie Passage. We had lumped the #2 the whole way thinking that the breeze would be lighter as we go closer to the city but this didn’t seem to be the case as we still had solid breeze right into bean rock! We did seem to be going much better in the flat water and a combination of a good shift and the flat water enabled us to pass Grunty Chicken again and cross the line just behind R’n’B to be the 3rd prod boat across the line, beating the next SR26 by 15minutes and 3rd on PHRF behind the 2 Elliot 9s who had both had a great race.
Great day on the water but seriously hard work.
Thanks SSANZ
Cheers
JOSH TUCKER
The SIMRAD 60 debarkle on Cool Change.
Sitting in the boat at 7am with the coyote guys, it was blowing hard and pissing down. So we all decided spending the day eating pies and watching motorsport was a better option than going for a sail. Then we saw the rattle guys motoring out, and started to feel a little guilty about our decision to pull the pin. Within the next 10 mins the rain stopped and the wind dropped, so lets go!
Had a reasonable reach up to Tiri, rounding 4th I think, with a bunch others right behind. Very close indeed.
So we decide to get greedy by running the big gennie. I figured, almost flat off, rotate the prod back and it would be a safe option. Talk about wrong. Rattle n Rum just next to us does the same and drops the rig. Jagged Edge running fractional gennie wiping out to leeward. Just need to hold on. So we would boost up to about 16knts and as the wavelength was so short, stuff it into the back of a wave and slow down hard, so that built huge pressure in the gennie and rounded up heaps of times. Then running low as the apparent came forward, stuffed it into a wave, stopped and then the true wind is by the lee!! Feck big chinese, gennie wrapped around the forestay and gib halyard about 4 zillion times. So we run under main for about an hour having turns trying to unwrap it. Was considering going to the bottom end, anchoring up to sort it out but finally unwrapped it. Then poled out the headie for the last 30 mins to gannet, changed to the #3 and on the nose for 25 miles. Big pressure around 30knts gusts blew us over a few times, but made a huge comeback to get 3rd on line still along way back from the Elliott 9’s.. It was a s#it beat but we got on the correct side of a few big shifts which saved our bacon.
Looking back, if the wavelength was longer we would have gone allot faster than 16, but just couldn’t find the space between waves to make the most of it. One wave we hit hard and put the nose in along way and she started to pitch pole big time, so James went to jump off the back to save himself, and let go of the gennie sheet, thank feck, that dropped the pressure out and she popped up….
We thrashed the hell out of that poor boat, and didn’t break a thing, didn’t drop the rig didn’t even tear the gennie with the massive wrap, but most surprising didn’t break the prod, as I understand from one forum user that these spot type boats are so fragile!
At last!!! :):):):) lots of happy crews
Some fantastic aerials from Sundreamer
more here
‘Man, what an awesome race and great weather!’
Race Report from the Piedys -
Only 4 piedys racing as our nationals are next weekend and people were scared of breaking boats the week before.
Rat Attack had the best start of the line but the Yosemite Sam, Party Piedy and 42 weren’t far behind. 42 took off on a flier over to Rangi shore to escape the tide where the other three stayed together running deep on the rumb line. 42 came back famously Embarassed Embarassed and ended up right next to the other three piedys at Rangi light! No major advantage made!
All 4 sat next to each other downwind to Navy buoy and jostiled for position, never more than 100m apart for all 4.
At Navy buoy, 42 was first round, with the other three all rounding within 30 sec, Normal close piedy racing Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy
42 took off of the beam reach to the bottom end and had a good lead over the other three. We on Party piedy had a 30 sec Genny run which had us heading to Barrier pretty quickly but nowhere near the bottom end so gave up on that plan.
The beat up through the bottom end saw Yosemite clawing back on 42 and us in PP chasing in third, Rat Attack a bit back due to outhaul issues.
A nasty chop slowed us all down coming up the inside with just cracked sheets. Party Piedy took on a it of water through the front hatch in the waves, so a quick bail saved our dinner from getting wet!
In the dark just before the finsh Yosemite sneaked through 42 to take the gun, with Party Piedy in third behind 42 and Rat Attack bringing up the rear. All very close.
Right thats it for now as I’m due at a party! Go the Peidys (and the smallboat course!) Very Happy Very Happy
_________________
Rising Damp is for sale – click on the web link below for a rare chance to get your hands on a top piedy! Wink
This Way Up
the this way up had an adventurous race……. lost mast head kite halyard half way to little barrier so had to change down and lost a heap of ground on exodus and taeping. Then had some fun across the back of little barrier in the flat water. Came out the other side of little barrier and got hammered….with the big jib up…prod broke off in a particularly big wave….bugger…… Then when changing the headsail to the smaller headsail lost halyard up mast…..got it back….. got cold and wet…..got a bit chicken and didnt push the boat that hard upwind….didn’t want to see what was next on the list to break.
Made it home finished around 10:30 but lost touch with wear the others were….. Great day for it.
Elliott 7
A fantastic day, the weather could not have been better
Unfortunately the crew let Elliott 7 badly down.
We were still getting ropes etc thru the right blocks after the fixup of the boat, so went over the line with only the main up, then it took 1/2 hr to get the kite up. (an embarrasing picture of us passing nth head with jib alone on SSANZ site)
We had a great ride to Navy Bouy, but then had to wait for 5 mins to see whether the next boat agreed with us which bouy was navy bouy.
Anyway we then took off on a great reach to bottom end of Waiheke, Highest speed reaching was 12.5 knots.
Around behind Waiheke, we did badly letting Assailant (I think) catch up to within 300 metres, (I think with the new mast I was not pointing very well) but then once into the heavier seas and weather the boat seemed to do better, and sailed a very wet and lumpy ride hard on the nose till about Motuihe, then we could ease sheets and cruise along at 7 to 8 knots to browns Island. From their it was hard on in a dying breeze to the finish. We finished at about 7pm
Mrs Oracle 2010 Saturday
Just heard from Bob the galley bitch, they have just found Tiri light which is helpful, they are about 1 or 2 hours away from Tiri. They would like to think they are in the front of the fleet but realistically they are probably middle, sunrise will tell. They have a reef in and if the wind gets any stronger they will have to go to number 2. I asked an eta any they said 1/4 to half past, I asked what and didnt get an answer. Hope they get in before the the wind drops.
Results
http://www.ssanz.co.nz/results.html
Results Highlight very close racing with 3 deadheats 48 yachts finishing within 6 minutes!
Yacht finish time racing
Train Smash 3:57:38 0 18:52:38
Drop Dead Fred 3:57:38 0 18:52:38
Dynamo 3:59:32 0 18:49:32
Sweeney Todd 3:59:32 0 18:49:32
Viva 3:56:38 0 18:56:38
Flojo 3:58:23 0 18:58:23
Wild Blue 3:58:55 0 18:58:55
Laissez-faire 3:58:59 0 18:58:59
Marshall Law 3:59:16 0 18:59:16
Nosaka 3:55:27 0 18:55:27
Perchanse 3:55:47 0 18:55:47
Touchdown 3:57:14 0 18:57:14
Truxton 3:57:28 0 18:57:28
Riada 3:58:10 0 18:58:10
Zen 3:58:44 0 18:58:44
Waka 3:58:50 0 18:58:50
Demonstrator 4:00:16 0 19:00:16
Crewcial Fix 3:57:20 0 18:52:20
Heluva Hurry 3:57:34 0 18:52:34
Oracle 3:57:41 0 18:52:41
Charlatan 3:58:12 0 18:53:12
Lionmark 3:58:20 0 18:53:20
Panchito 3:58:41 0 18:53:41
Carenza 3:58:51 0 18:53:51
Train Smash 3:57:38 0 18:52:38
Drop Dead Fred 3:57:38 0 18:52:38
Grunty Chicken 3:57:48 0 18:52:48
Hot Property 3:58:16 0 18:53:16
Suburban Reptile 3:58:30 0 18:53:30
Radio Active 3:58:40 0 18:53:40
Azure 3:57:06 0 18:52:06
Drums of Time 3:58:12 0 18:53:12
The V Team 3:58:29 0 18:53:29
L’Avanti 3:59:13 0 18:54:13
Lynchmob 3:56:00 0 18:46:00
Eye Spy 3:58:38 0 18:48:38
88% Proof 3:58:55 0 18:48:55
Young Radical 3:59:14 0 18:49:14
Pink Cadillac 3:59:30 0 18:49:30
Dynamo 3:59:32 0 18:49:32
Sweeney Todd 3:59:32 0 18:49:32
Mindbender 3:59:34 0 18:49:34
Vivo 3:56:38 0 18:41:38
House of Elliott 3:58:37 0 18:43:37
Bon Chanse 3:58:40 0 18:43:40
Nevenka 3:59:17 0 18:44:17
Zeta Hanse 3:59:21 0 18:44:21
Whombat 3:59:35 0 18:44:35
Other yachts finishing around 4am
Pelagian 2 3:57:58 0 18:52:58
Cool Bear 3:58:20 0 18:53:20
Communique 4:00:46 0 18:55:46
Hot Gossip 4:01:05 0 18:56:05
more results here
Just had another look at the results and talking to a few guys out there, seems a big parkup was to blame.
2 P boats battle it out
Promise Rocks, a Simrad 100 story…
At boat early great day, bit of breeze, may not be a drifter after all. Half a dozen espressos on the boat and the 4 hours sleep seems enough to get me through the next however many hours it is going to take. Off to the start, two decisions to make so early in the morning. Boat or wharf end of the line? and genoa up or go straight to kite?. Thank f*** for caffeine, wharf end and kite to start. Most Shorthaul starters opt for the straight line from the boat end of line to Rangi light. We opt for the wharf albeit a little late, I blame the guy getting the kite up (me). Actually so did the helmsman at the time, bastard! Starboard towards Bean to get out of the tide, initiate a crap gybe and head to Rangi light. Clear air all the way. Look across and we are already a little behind Playbuoy but well clear of the other two flatfish….Playbuoy drops down (to cover us?) and lead us around the lighthouse. Head towards Tiri on port gybe, mange to keep air clear, same distance astern of Playbuoy, a little separation from time to time, couple of gybes and we are still the same distance behind. At least Playbuoy are not getting away! Stayed this way with us staying to port of Playbuoy outside Tiri and onto Little Barrier. Basically not straying too far from either Playbuoy or the rhumb line. Ran square for much of the leg. Lost track of Phoenician. About 6 miles from barrier, Pelagian made huge gains bringing fresh breeze. They gybed off to port and got left behind, don’t know what happened there. We got a 12.1 down one wave, 10s and 11s were common for the breeze that day….Great kite run.
Rounding the island we decided to stay just outside of Playbuoy so if they got into any holes we may get our passing lane. Got 2 or 3 good waves and caught up to within a couple of lengths. It was great to see them turning around to look at us. Must be the closest anyone has been to that boat in a long race for some time…they lost their brace off the winch at one stage, small gain to us …As we went around the island the kite got more and more shy, hoisted genoa at same time as Playbuoy ready to ditch the spinnaker. They were able to hold the kite longer, we dropped down to leeward and both dropped kites at the same time.
Took us a while longer to clear up and get sailing properly, this time I blamed the foredeck (not me). Playbuoy stopped in a hole, great, we kept sailing but they get going again far too soon for our liking, We are both around the island now and bashing into a lumpy sea on starboard tack. We are pretty much bow for bow with about 50m separation. They go low and extend a little, then back on course. We go low and catch up but increase separation a little. Do we put in a couple of tacks to get to weather? Nah easterlies are forecast, better on the left, and also better to stay in touch, we may get our chance…. Speedo craps out after a few miles , bugger, harder to tell now whether we are low and fast or high and slow, back to feeling our way. Great two boat testing during this time! Playbuoy is a little faster and also sails a little lower than Promise in this seaway, too much helm and heel when we go lower. We both continue bashing home this way for the next 25 miles or so until dark. Playbuoy have extended to maybe 200m? but we are now on their line…. Surprised to see everyone else has tacked away to head to the mainland while we hammer off towards the Coromandel? Isnt the forecast for easterlies?
Still heading south in the dark, can see the longhaul boats to leeward coming home from Channel. Better keep an eye out when they tack across. Have to dump sheets for a port tacker who had a green light and a red one and a stern light all visible at the same time. Bloody dangerous, we couldnt tell what the hell it was, at one stage thought it was a raft coming towards us.
Where do we tack? Plan was to miss the Noises and go outside Rakino and Rangi. We are knocking, heading 160 to 150 now down to 140, better go now. Tack into a huge knock, check heading and see that if we pinch a little we will clear the Durvilles and can sail down the Motuihe channel. 27 miles to go, excellent that will save huge time. As we get near Waiheke breeze drops, soften rig, and breeze softens more. Check nowcasting, 7 at Bean, 5 at Tamaki, hmmm. Get abeam of Motuihe and breeze disappears completely. Stays this way for what seems an eternity and slowly starts to back from the east. Finally enough puff to fill the kite, up she goes, slowly we creep towards the finish. Bit more puff off Issy bay. Breeze drops again at Bean and we crawl across to finish 10 minutes behind Playbuoy at 2:44 am.
17 hours 39 minutes of racing. That’s less than 1% difference between the boats.
Great race. The longest Leeward-windward race I have sailed. And we only tacked once and didn’t cock it up!
Couldn’t have asked for better sailing conditions, thanks to SSANZ, the sponsors and the phosphorescent dolphin torpedoes!… Promise will be back…
Brett
Some more great shots from Sundreamer
lots more photos here
Lots of happy sailing
This post is tagged B&G Simrad Triple Series, Communique, Cool Change, Jagged Edge, Party Piedy, Precedent, Predict Wind, SSANZ, stewart 34, Sundreamer, Zora
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