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2014 SSANZ RNI Leg 3


Cameron

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OK. Better late than never. Here is a Leg 3 wrap up!

Looking at the start, we figured a windward position, right up near Port Nich YC would be the go, giving us plenty of room to soak down with our code zero. We thought everyone else would be there too, but it was empty! Choice! Got a great start and charged off near the front of the fleet to Point Jerningham. Going around the point a cruiser decided to go right through the fleet and we had to duck him getting too close to Truxton who pinched and we went underneath them. Bit of Deja Vue there!!

The breeze got up so we swapped to the #2 and beat our way out of Wellington Harbour. As we got to the entrance the breeze went real light and we went back to the zero. Together with Wedgetail, Blink, and Focus (Bushido was long gone with a great start and good light wind speed) we broke away from the fleet ghosting our way across Palliser Bay. We looked back and the rest of the fleet were just sitting there in glassy seas..

The Marshall has proven to be (Much to my surprise) really quick with the Zero in under 5 knots. As night fell, we picked off one boat after another, and just short of Cape Palliser we drifted past Blink, a brand new carbon Wunderyacht weighing half what we do.. That put us in second place overall coming around Cape Palliser. Very satisfying!. As soon as we got around the corner, we were into it. Headwinds that were lifting and increasing and very quickly we were hard on the wind with the #4 and 2 reefs in the main, and 35 knots over the deck. We did a big tack out to sea watching the compass carefully and as soon as it knocked we were back into the land. We got another shift in close and headed back out to sea, but every time we tried to come in it went soft and knocked so we stayed out. It wasn't nice out there and with no internet (No time to finish connecting the Sat phone for data) we had no idea where the fleet was.

We came in close, and Gav woke me up with "You know where we are in the fleet?" "DFL??" I replied.. "How about 4th overall?" Well that picked me up and we went back out to sea with high spirits. Coming back in on the layline and we spotted a square top main in front of us. As we neared Cape Kidnappers we found we had moved up to 3rd right behind Bushido.. It went light for a few minutes, then the Sea breeze filled in and we actually made ground on Bushido with the code Zero on a nice reach across Hawkes Bay to Napier.

Got the gun for our Division and a very nice surprise, overall PHRF win for the fleet for that leg!! The Rums went down easily that night!

Thanks for meeting us Jon and bringing us in, and thanks for more exceptional Hospitality from Napier YC.

The big bonus? Craig McPherson (Gav's Dad) had rented a 3 bedroom apartment right opposite the YC so we had luxury accomadation and a great sleep. Meredith had also decided to come down and support us, so a great stop-over!!

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