Auckland to Russell and return

The Coastal Classic in previous years has been the largest yacht race in NZ. This year the fleet size was down to a mere 151 boats, but the challenges were still the same, a busy start line at Devonport, an even busier first corner at North Head, a long stretch through Cape Brett then a sprint into the Bay of Islands.

Conditions were excellent for the race as shown by Simon Hulls Orma 60 trimaran beating the race record.

Rob’s starts are always good, sometimes for me I find them a little nail biting, but he has everything under control and we start in the front row. A change to the starting rules this year meant that if any part of the boat was over the start in the last minute before the start, a 20 % time penalty would be added to the boat elapsed time. And maybe because of my persistent reminding Rob of this in the two days before the race, we had an even rather excellent start. From now on I will just leaving the starting to him!

An even start, struggling through the wind shadow - source: www.coastalclassic.co.nz

We started with our new crisp white EXPEDITION spinnaker, then changed to our jib top after North Head.

Just before Rangitoto Light, photo from Phil Harts flying machine source: www.coastalclassic.co.nz

We then settled down for the long reach to Cape Brett. The highlights on this leg were:

• Getting to use our jib top, which I have to admit was my favorite sail, not sure why, maybe because it was easy to get up and down and we use it when it is windy reaching, which is also pretty enjoyable.  I am not sure Rob is as excited about it, he really like tshe code zero. Sadly, our current JT ( which has sailed I quote a million miles) finally disintegrated at Cape Brett, much to my dismay, I will however be campaigning for a replacement.
• A short but spirited ride between Rangitoto Light and Cape Rodney using our gennaker, another sail (like the JT) that has been used since before the Round North Island race, this was especially good bit of the trip, due to the number of fully crewed boats around us who were struggling and taking theirs down. Our easy to trim vang, really helps in these situations.
• Hitting the spot with the food, I have been trying various combinations of food since we started sailing together and we both like a balance of nutrition and taste with a good dash of chocolate. We munched on two excellent products made in the South Island,Em's Power Cookies - Chocolate Oat Explosion and Back Country meals. Add in a good helping of nuts, plunger coffee and of course miso soup and both of us felt replete.

Cape Brett and the gap between there and Piercy Island I always think if a very aerie place. The high cliff funnel winds into each of the small gullies which then spill the wind into the gap a a variety of directions. We approached the gap wide to enable us to sail close to the Island, and to stay away from the high cliffs and wind shadow of Cape Brett.

The wind was as usual puffy. Unfortunately,  we made the call to listen to the VHF nowcastings for the wind strength in the Bay of Islands too late, meaning we were already in the VHF reception shadow. So we had to just choose a head sail. We chose the #2, as the wind was strong where we were at the time (strong enough to do terminal damage to JT) and also because it much easier to change up than down. Unfortunately it was the wrong decision, and once clear and also certain of the wind strength we did a tack change to the #1.

We then laid through to the finish.We finished at 1:59, 4th in Division 3, and first 2-Handed boat.

Day two – the return.

After a little sleep, and eggs for breakfast, we started our return trip. For me this is the part of the trip I had been waiting for. Rob and I do a lot of racing together, but sadly we don’t just get out for a sail often. The return trip gave me a chance to try a variety of different things, without the pressure of having to be speedy.

First I  did a series of single handed gybes using the pilot. I am still keen to do a few more of these, as one thing I find super difficult about two handed sailing, is being unable to react to changes in the breeze, due to not being able to maneuver the boat on my own. Basically, if the other person is asleep and the wind changes or you see an opportunity in the light, if I can’t gybe on my own, I have to either wake Rob up, which means it has to be a super important opportunity, or simply let it go by. I find this really difficult to cope with being a dinghy sailor at heart.

Anyway, I had fun and Rob soaked up some sun and tried to recover from his flu.

Where to from here?

If I had my way we would be out sailing as much as we could from now on, but sadly that is not a reality, there is much boat work to be done.

The rig has to come out of the boat, lots of improvements need to be made to ensure  it’s readiness for our trip south.

In late November, we will be sailing in 330nm White Island race. Before then I need to sort out our offshore communications, namely our satellite internet and our HF weather fax. So more frustrating times being ashore!