BBYC Single Handed (this weekend)

[Guest]

This weekend sees the next instalment of the Bucklands Beach Short Handed racing series.

 

The legendary BJ Tyres Single Handed weekend..

 

What? (REFER TO THE YEAR BOOK):

 

Saturday 6th Feb

1pm start

Race from Motukorea to the Bottom end of Waiheke

 

Evening: BBQ on the beach, and a few drinks

 

Sunday 7th Feb

BBQ breakfast on the beach

10.30am (ish) start

Race from bottom end back to Motukorea

 

Anyone who is entered for the series, we look forward to seeing you there.

Anyone interested in entering for the weekend, get your entry in NOW and we will see you on the water.

 

 

NOR / ENTRY FORM / SAILING INSTRUCTIONS...

Available on the web site: www.bbyc.org.nz

OR send me an email and I will email them back to you.

 

 

Any questions, get in touch:

Craig Williams

Rear Commodore - Keeler

BBYC

email: craig@ru21.co.nz

mobile: 021 605 570

[Guest]

I got smarter this year. As I'm sure you Easties do special stuff we Northies don't I've had my boat at 1/2moon Bay for speed tweaking. We'll see if you Easties are good or have just shafted a Northie knot long after 12.55pm Saturday.

 

She is now back in Bayswater before she picked up too many dodgy habits though

 

Hopefully we'll see a 1/4 tonner joining the fleet on the startline if he got off his arse and entered.

 

Looking forward to it again. Great concept for a weekend of racing and you are right about B J Tyres, indeed a legend of a team going on last years event.

[Guest]

Bloody Oath!

GIDDY UP! and prepare for a good old fashioned eastern shafting! haha!

[Guest]

The pleasure in which you said that is somewhat disconcerting

 

I wanted to change a few other things but will hold off just to see what that decent tweak did. I'm hanging to know more as from a quick play it appears it made a lot more difference than I was expecting. I'll be rather pissed at myself if that proves correct.

 

I see a entry has gone in from the mighty Smokey Joe, nice work Toles. Could be a dark horse to keep an eye on in the light that one, it's surprisingly slippery after the upgrade.

[Guest]

Was it hot? F**K YES!

How hot? VERY F**KEN HOT!

 

Was it fun otherwise? OH YES!

 

20 boats started in lightish patchy winds. Huge battle on the way down both in groups all over the race track and with picking where to aim your beast. My bunch De jour included 3 88's and that bastard (one of the good variety though) in the slippery G Chicken. The entire way everytime we all crossed tacks a different boat was in front. I think we each had at least 10 odd goes, or more, at being the front boat and once or twice the lead boat of the entire fleet. Massively great fun in that bunch with the huge 'which way to I go now?', and the 'what's he going to do now?' problems we all had along with the 'sh*t this will be very close, dip or hold?' question coming up every few minutes. 95% of the time there wasn't more than 50mts between the lot of us from the word go until the final curtain. Yacht racing at it's finest.

 

P B Floyd and Truckton (just how do you spell that one) took off but fell into a hole of doom. Floyd worked her way back nicely but Truxton (I'll just go through various options, I might get it right once) had problems getting back into the wind so wasn't quite so fortunate. Another mile, probably less, of racetrack and she would have been sweet.

 

Come the finish one would have to say the Ross boats team were happier than the E's or Y's with Ross boats pulling both guns. It may knot have been quite so good hadn't one Ross boat realised that while he was reaching to the finish that it was actually the wrong big white launch (hey, they all look the same) and knot actually the finish line. He did just manage find the actual line to slide over 4 seconds in front of G Chicken, very much to his great pleasure once he realised.

 

Quick side note - great selection of Ross boats. 780, 830, 850, 930 and 12mts all on show. The Saturday results were very Ross boat rich and right across the size spectrum

 

The trip home was on hold for a while due to mirror like conditions. The call was made to shorten the track a little and kick off at 12. Damn handy for a few of us who still had fuzzy heads, from the heat obviously

 

Started in bugger all. G Chicken got a great holeshot off the line flying the monster green plumage to head the entire fleet for what looked like most of the track home. I think Truxton sneaked past at the end. They were on the horizon so hard to see. The next bunch heading here there everywhere in search of wind. After a while of frustration the wind came in and the battle commenced. WaveCajin looking hot in the soft stuff. The 88's sneaking along very nicely. The 930's left a bit behind wishing for overlapping headsails. Once the wind picked up is was a speed race to the line with next to no over taking lanes. Gains were gained, boats attacking hard some having to swap to heavily defensive, all fantastic stuff. Come the line 6/7 boats, WC, 88's 930's and one whose stern I didn't recognise, possibly Lionmark, crossed the line inside 1 minute odd. It was that close boats were passing boats as they crossed over the finish line and the poor RC boat team had to put down the fishing lines to keep up :)

 

Overall I don't know but I'd say Grunta and the mighty Grunty Chicken's strangle hold on the race continues, even if under a bit of pressure there at the end of Saturday. The pair sailed very smartly and aided by the big green plumage out of the start did very good on the return trip. On H/C I think the equally well sailed slippery R780, Shibumi, has to be looking very good for that.

 

The stand out performance for the weekend? Again without question the RC and B J Tyres. Very well organised and run. Great spread on the beach both Saturday evening and Sunday breekie. Magnificent effort by that team indeed.

 

So for those who didn't come, apart from the wind shortage at times and the heat in those soft spots, which was just nasty, very nasty, you missed a great weekend. Good to see the fleet numbers increase yet again. Looks to be building into a must do event for the lovers of short handed.

 

Big Thanks again the the B J Tyres team, your magnificent effort was very much appreciated by the entire fleet. And I do like my Ken Feder floppy, helped minimise the sun stroke, knot kidding it must have been bloody close at times.

 

I'll be back. Someone has to slow Gruntas role somehow

[Murky 1]

A very thorough and enjoyable report, tainted only slightly by the writer's role as self-appointed media guru for the Ross Boat Owners' Association.

 

Having said that, I did swim over to a boat yesterday afternoon because it had caught my eye so much that I just had to know what design it was. Duh. I did have an inkling because the way the stern came in reminded me of the Floyd.

[markm 30]

Good story KM, have you considered giving up the day job and start writing for Hansard?

[Hurts 6]

one whose stern I didn't recognise, possibly Lionmark, crossed the line inside 1 minute odd.

:

 

Yes that was me - no wonder you didn't recognize my stern after my Saturday's effort - I kind of had to do well Sunday to redeem myself. Next time I'm going to buy one of those inflatable kayaks that friggen huge dingy sitting up on the back of the boat cannot be good - but at least it wasn't catching the sheet every time I tacked like Saturday.

 

Grunty did a very nice job Sunday, left us all like we were standing still.

 

Was a good weekend, though I generally hate light wind racing - even though I put a heap of sunscreen on was sweating so much I still got fried. Fantastic setup by the organizers and sponsors.

[Guest]

So it was the LM on a redemption burst, nice work well sailed. Yes I didn't recognise the transom and couldn't see who it was thru the dingy Wavecajin did similar, knot the best on the way down but sailed very smartly on the way home. She powers up real nice in the soft stuff but just wished she would have done it out of my view

 

Great finish don't ya think. Personally I would have like the finish line to have been 200mts further away but that's yacht racing and I can't complain at the way I came back from being close to DFL before the wind kicked in.

 

Good to see a couple of 1st time solo racers out there as well. Spoke to Smokey Joe, Whiting 1/2 tonner, last night and while he had a few issues, no auto pilot being one, he said he enjoyed it and learnt a shite load more about his beast. That can only be a good thing. I suspect Toles copped a bit much sun on Saturday, he was looking unusually second hand on Saturday evening. Was close myself, the heat was just shocking at times. That bad plain water touched my lips, a 1st for a long while.

 

But all in all I'm very happy I fixed my R1 stuck-on hand brake problem and have managed to up my no-low wind speed. My targeted desires for the race down were all exceeded. And would have been close again Sunday bar GC's rocket assisted start (it was a glowing example on how to start correctly, me being the polar opposite.... yet again) and the 200mts too short race track But had a ball and was happier than a pig in a sewage treatment plant in all that close quarters biffo. I don't think it's possible to have any more fun unless you remove all your clothes 1st, even then it's still close to a 50/50 call.

 

You'll have to come down and play Murky..... if you are up to getting that close to so many Ross boats. They all made a good view from the beach. But a 88, Heaven n Hell, did win the loudness division. God knows what sort of power plant or massive storage they have in that but judging by the output it's large, very large

 

Quite hard case as there were 3 or 4 stereos up loud on the race down. Every time mine got between tracks all you could here was loud coming from left and a differing loud from the right. Once or twice I'd drop between tracks and hear something just to windward which resulted in a few 'Where the feck did he come from?' moments It was hard keeping track of just were everyone in our bunch were at times.

 

Who is Hansard, what does he pay, and would it mean a company boat?

[Hurts 6]

KM - was meaning to ask what was that strange sail you launched on top of your jib before you went to spinaker? just after the start? Some sort of poor man's gennaker/Jib from another boat?? Whatever it was it looked way too small...

[Murky 1]

Who is Hansard, what does he pay, and would it mean a company boat?

That was quite a harsh smackdown by MarkM, suspect that Monday morning had something to do with it. Or maybe he was being complimentary in terms of your ability to provide fresh and vibrant content:

New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) is the edited report of the proceedings of the House. An Advance is published first and is later replaced by a corrected final copy. Please note that the bound volume of New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), published under the authority of the House of Representatives, is the only official report of the proceedings of the House.

[Guest]

KM - was meaning to ask what was that strange sail you launched on top of your jib before you went to spinaker? just after the start? Some sort of poor man's gennaker/Jib from another boat?? Whatever it was it looked way too small...

The was my pathetic attempt at simulating GC's big green monster genny and everyone else's come to that. As the results show, it wasn't a legend bit of cloth yesterday. But it did help me in the Weiti Short hand Series to keep closer to AA and a very good result than I probably would have otherwise.

 

It's only a Fyfe 30sec knock-up to suss sizing and so on before we take it up a level to a tuned item. I did pinch a leader off my mullet boat 1st but it was a little large. That one's the top of someones old headsail they had lying around the loft that has now suffered a semi-butchering. We don't need big more 'just that little smidgen more' often and keeping it smaller opens up it's wind range better i.e. we can use it in moderate to winds we normally have most often without getting over powered to quickly in the gusts. We can over power very quickly and that is slow especially without railmeat and/or many hands to swap sails fast.

 

I'd say in 10kts of wind it's good for 1-1.5 knots extra boatspeed. Had a play in big winds and then it is coming into it's own. Big suck and can be used to run quite flat so almost could be used a chicken shute as well, it is built strong as will the final model. Went for a reach in 25-30 and it's the ducks knuts. Easy as to handle and ups the boat speed a lot. Basically just searching for a way to off-set the lack of genny and overlapping headsails we suffer from on longer Simrad style legs. But still very much a work in progress and as yet knot used extensively as it's knot in our PHRF allowed list. Just pulled it out yesterday due to frustration at watching the big green plumage sailing off into the sunset, I shouldn't have bothered really.

 

Oh, I don't think the Pollies would like me writing about what they have been up too. It would be expletive filled and would clearly show the lack of stuff they do. No way would it be an impartial view of the proceedings, they don't deserve that. But I sure as well would have fun doing it

[markm 30]

I promise I was being nice, KM would do a superb job of spicing up the parliamentary record, and yes, there's a company boat, a whole navy of boats in fact. Probably even get paid an honorarium rather than a wage.

 

I'm nice on Mondays Murky, it's by Thursday or Friday I'm driven to put knives into any Ross devotees that seem to need it, or anyone else.

 

And congrats on the line result Saturday KM.

[Murky 1]

That one's the top of someones old headsail they had lying around the loft that has now suffered a semi-butchering.

Far out KM, if chopping the top off a headsail is only a semi-butchering, remind me never to be around if you have a full-on massacre.

[Guest]

I'm too slow on a Monday to notice anyway MarkM especially after the weekend just been. The heat was nasty and some of the liquid intake to offset said heat probably didn't help come waking Sunday morning either

 

Thanks, that was only a bonus on top of what was one of the best races I've done for a while, I live for that close 1/4's stuff, love it to bits big time. The finish could have just have easily gone about 6 ways, even to one of the 3 88's but I can't complain it went mine at the time. I didn't even know until a while after when Grunta told me, in between some expletives It was almost like I'd pinched his last glass of rum but it was all good natured, just as it should be.

 

Oh and I'm coming back next year to finish the business. Be forewarned Grunta, I'm after your crown

[Guest]

I love it when a plan comes together, the race home pretty much couldn't have gone better if you had to script it appart from Truxton slipping through while 2-sailing.

 

On Saturday there were more holes than the Poor Knights so, even though the main weapons-of-Ross-destruction (giant gennaker and code zero)came out several times, even boats without extras and under-powered Reptiles would keep sailing around in new breeze.

Even so when we finally made it into the waiheke channel breeze I was in fine shape with only SR to spoil the party. I was pretty confident that GC would have the edge in that condition and (clears throat modestly) I could put Knot me away with superior experience of this exact situation.

Alas KM sailed extremely well all day and the end was no exception despite almost cocking it up heading for the wrong launch. A genuine sporting man would have told him as we crossed tacks 2 lenghts apart but the thought of being beaten proved too much for my conscience and I said nothing. i am glad KM won in the end because he deserved it and my conscience is clear.

A brilliant night at Shark Bay thanks to BJ tyres, everything is suppied, including rum and breakfast the next morning and the whole event is run and competed in such great spirit and humour that it is a genuine must-do event.

[Guest]

And if you are like me and have trouble justifying taking the family boat away by youself in beautiful cruising weather just do what I did. We all (wife and 2 kids 1 & 5) went away Fri night and they hitched a ride to Bottom End on a mate's launch to join up after the race. Same deal on Sunday when I picked then up from Motuhie after the race. It meant I had to sail with a few more "home comforts" (read heavy sh*t) but single handed a bit of weight ain't so bad

[johnMi 2]

It's a pity I'm so one eyed....

would have loved to join you all

Sounds like you had a great race!

[Guest]

Unbe-f-ing-lievable I just checked the results and a bloody Ross boat stole my handicap win by 3 seconds on Sunday.

 

Lightfoot 1st

Grunty Chicken 2nd

Wave Cajun 3rd

 

The damn Ross boats finished 19minutes behind on line, what more can a Chicken do? just as well I'm not bitter tho.

 

Actually It must be Karma for not telling KM about the finish boat, he got me by 4s, Lightfoot by 3s. I promise to be nicer next time

[Guest]

That'll teach you for casting aspersions at Ross boats. Boxed by a pair of them, I do like that

 

I thought Shibumi (another pesky Ross boat ) would have been up there, she was bugger all behind Lightfoot at the line. I knew I was toast crossing the line next to Lightfoot. Neil been bribing the handicapper

 

Good to see Wavecajin up there, they sailed well and smart on the way home.

 

No worries at all about the finish. On the way home I finally came to the conclusion I wouldn't have told you either See the other thread as that question did play in my mind a fair bit. I was trying to say I would have told you so I could call you a bastard but me deep in me bones knew after that battle I probably wouldn't have. That's knot to say I might knot on some other occasion though but don't hold ya breath just in case

 

And a photo just for Murky and the other lads who made the odd comment last week

 

My pushpit and good golly... 1...2 and by joves is that a 3rd 88 I see back there. I do believe they are