Underwood - Chetwodes - Mana - Wellington

[Guest]

The forecast is looking MINT!

 

Issued by MetService at: 12:36pm 18 November 2010

Valid to: 12:00am 20 November 2010

 

Forecast:

Northerly 30 knots. Sea rough.

 

Outlook:

Outlook following 3 days: Becoming Saturday morning southerly 15 knots, rising late Sunday to 25 knots and early Monday to 35 knots with very rough sea.

 

Just need the Southerly to kick in EARLY morning, like 12.01am please.

[Guest]

Hmmmm... becoming less mint. There's 10 knots variable in there and there's even mention of rain now too!

[JD 0]

Swellmap doesn't look that great, and Metvuw says Sat will be variable all day. Could be a long one

[wheels 543]

You should get Nor-Norwest wind all day today. Saturday moring should bring a more Northwest flow and possible drizzle to light rain. Light winds of around 10kts maybe 15kts in the middle of the straight, but dieing as the morning carries on and around midmorning will swing to a light southerly of around 10kts and some rain.

Rain will slowly steady through the evening and into sunday morning and winds will stay fairly light but consistant Southerly and dieing Sunday morning, becoming variable as you approach Wellington Coast area and rain clearing Sunday afternoon. Late Sunday afternoon will see a very messy light variable wind which could be read as "Frustrating".

[Guest]

Well it didn't rain! But I also didn't get to go to the Chetwodes for the first time. Boooo!

 

Crew for the race on Clear Vision:

 

Tony Wells - helm (not feeling very well with the flu, but doing the race any way)

Mark Ansell - main

Vesna Wells - keyboards (not feeling very well with a kidney infection, but doing the race anyway)

Bardy - trimmer

Banana Boy - grinder

Little Mark - mast

Steve-o - bow

 

It was blowing about 25 - 30 at the start from the north, so we two sail reached across the harbour to Point Halswell under full main and a heavy airs jib, and soon after we popped the fractional kite for a run out of the harbour. I was trimming the kite so I didn't see much of anything other than the shoulder of the kite, with Steve-o on the boom calling the gusts in. We were doing 8 - 12 knots of boat speed and were nicely placed in 3rd with just Andiamo (Davidson 55) and Nedax Racing (Thompson 30) ahead of us. Just before steeple rock there was a loud bang behind us. Espirit's kite had blown out, and Espirit had blown out too... they'd pig-rooted it and dug the bow down the mine somehow. The stern lifeline broke and Phil went overboard, becoming the 6th member of the RPNYC 2010 Man Overboard club. (Special note: People have begun commenting that Espirit are being a bit greedy and making a power play for control of the man overboard club\, now having 3 of the 6 members!). Bootlegger stood by but Phil was pulled back onto Espirit and they retired.

 

The wind built as we headed out of the harbour, dropping the kite at Moaning Mini and briefly flirting with the idea of hoisting the A5. However just as Steve-o got it set up the wind began to build sharply, Wellington style, and also went forward. The A5 didn't go forward, it went backwards, quickly, and only a full length dive by Steve-o saved it. Some entertaining rail wrestling by Steve-o, Little Mark and Banana-boy eventually retrieved the A5 and the bag, however in the process two of the stanchions were pig-rooted Espirit style.

 

We looked up ahead and west of Owhiro Bay Andiamo were not trimming their main very well. They were also lying on their side at about 60 degrees of heel. We figured we should begin to get ready to put a reef in. We figured correctly. Midnight Express had started with a conservative reef in and were handling the 35 gusting 45 and above easily. We were handling it, but I wouldn't describe it as easy. Vesna was heavily in favour of said reef and Tony made an inspired call to go straight to 2 reefs. Just before we put them in one of the gusts hit us and hit us hard. Tony pulled the helm down and there was spray every-freaking-where as the speedo climbed above 15 knots.

 

With the double reef in I then filmed some footage of us crossing the Karori Rip. (You tube link to follow hopefully). As night fell we were two sail reaching with two reefs and the heavy airs jib bound for Port Underpants. Nedax Racing was to leeward and about 600 metres ahead with their fluro orange storm jib up and Andiamo was up on the horizon. |

 

As forecast the wind slowly eased in the lead up to midnight and we shook out first one, and then the second reef, then changed from the heavy airs jib to the medium, and then, to the light number 1. The wind was down to 6 knots and as Nedax accelerated away from us (presumably having popped a gennaker) we set up the gennaker only to have the wind go forward until we were hard on the wind and not quite laying the mark. We saw Andiamo heading back out of the bay as we headed in looking for the mark in the darkness. The mark had been laid by a fisherman, but since it was going to be dark when the fleet got there there was a back up line of longitude that you had to cross if you could not find the mark. We couldn't find it so we crossed the gate and headed out, changing back to the medium jib as the wind rose.

 

The course had been shortened before the start to be Wellington - Port Underpants - The Brothers - Mana - Wellington. The tide in Cook Strait is a MAJOR factor and Expedition said the best course up the coast to the brothers was in close to the land out of the adverse tide. We listened to the 20 past midnight radio sched. and Nedax was doing 3 knots of boat speed at a heading of 90 degrees up in front of us and Andiamo was doing 5.2 knots at 80 degrees. At the time we were doing 7.2 knots at 20 degrees so things were going okay.

 

And then everything turned to custard. 200 metres in front of us we could see solid wind. 300 metres behind us we could see solid wind. And we had 3 knots of breeze, at best... no wait, make that 0.3 knots of breeze... 15 minutes of flapping sails ended and morale rose and the Northerly kicked back in and we were off again in 9 knots, no 12 knots, wait, 18 knots of breeze. For 5 minutes. And then back to 2 knots. no. 0.2 knots. this cycle repeated again and again for 3 frustrating hours. Extra frustrating because Prime Mover and Bootlegger and Gucci and Midnight Express and Amer all sailed around the outside of us. Every time the wind kicked in we would debate changing to the medium jib as the light number 1 was only really for up to 10 knots of breeze. Every time we decided not to the wind stayed in. Every time we decided to change we'd just get the change done and the wind would crap out again. At one point we were doing zero knots of boat speed through the water, but the adverse 2 knots of tide was enough that our sails were filling as if in a southerly from dead astern. I suggested we hoist the spinnaker as an anchor to slow down our rate of backwards progress.

 

Morale was low at this point. We figured we were second to last. But we eventually picked up solid breeze a few miles south of Tory Channel and after a couple more hours sailing in 5 - 15 knots of breeze, and with the tide turning and giving us an extra 4 knots over the ground we approached the Brothers in the misty dawn in a group of boats. There was just enough time for a squall line that made us put a reef in to complete the leg that had everything in it...

 

We dipped Midnight Express and put them about when we came back out on starboard. Gucci was a few hundred metres ahead of us and Bootlegger a few hundred behind. We then enjoyed a two sail reach under full main, having shaken the reef out, and the medium jib and staysail. The sun coming up over the North Island and reflecting off the waters of the Cook Strait was pretty nice. Makes you pleased to be a yachtie when the wake is fizzing past the leeward rail early in the morning with the wind in your face. It was Banana-Boy's first night sail and first morning sunrise at sea. Sometime in the night as we sailed up the coast with the moonlight shining he said "Man, this sailing at night business is the ****!".

 

At Mana Prime Mover was 500 metres in front of us. With the Northerly at 15 - 20 knots we put the kite up and slowly but surely began reeling them in. This was made easier when Vesna suggested we might all like a cream and jam filled doughnut and a hot drink. Talk about the MVP play of the race. We soaked below Prime Mover and passed them a few miles before Terawhiti, picking up the 4.5 knot tidal boost as we rounded the corner of the North Island. We crossed a tide line and went from 13.5 knots speed over the ground to 6.4 knots... so we gybed and popped back into the strong tidal flow and were off again. What followed was one of those hours that are why people sit on boats in the middle of the night becalmed while everyone else is at home asleep in bed... we were tight reaching from Terawhiti to Karori Light in 18 - 35 knots of wind under full main and kite, with 3 - 4 knots of tide helping us along, hitting 13s and 14s on the speedo in the big gusts, with Steve-o calling the breeze and Banana-Boy and Little Mark taking taking turns grinding and Tony, Mark and I working together almost without having to speak. Clear Vision was loving it and romping along. It was a pity we had to drop the kite just after Karori Light because I could have gone on and on and on like that. The whole crew were in tune with each other, and everything was working like clockwork. Good times.

 

We then had a nice beat back into the harbour to finish just in time to do the At Home Series race, but we decided we were all a bit tired for that so we headed in, packed up and shared a few rums and snacks on the boat.

 

Every part of my body hurts and I fell asleep at 3.30pm and only woke up this morning at about 7.30am.

[w44vi 17]

Thanks for that report. I believe it was very ruff out there

[Guest]

Not really rough at all. Biggest sea was maybe a metre.

[Guest]

Great write-up Bardy.

Talk about frustrating between Underwood and Mana - I had us doing 1.9 knots backwoulds at one stage !!!

Not nice seeing Esprit loose a man over board. Our hearts stopped beating for a few seconds there !

Yes, nothing like sailing at night - awesome.

I was home, in bed by 5.30 last night, and didn't wake til 8.00 this morning ! Still raced this avo - of course !

Very tired and sore, but a great weekend.

[Guest]

Here's the video from on Clear Vision.

[smithy09 50]

Just read this one Bardy. Great write up. Hard bastards down in the windy city. Forgotten how hard it can be down there. (Ex Wellingtonian)

[cam 0]

That on board footage is great, thanks for posting kiwi_bardy.