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Auckland - Musket Cove Ocean Race 2011 - Race Reports


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From the ETNZ Facebook page:

 

"CAMPER is not stopping in Fiji. The yacht stayed long enough to drop Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton and photographer Chris Cameron and headed back to sea for the voyage home and a heavy programme of sail testing."

 

They must really like freeze dried food!

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The rhumb line comes in once again in the Fiji race, how many times we saw that happening on the floor at Akarana back in the sextant days.

Hey Squid congrats on the great coverage-- you really have a broad church here with two proa fiends following the sight at the moment, Hi Rob!

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Hamish's finishing blog from Camper:

 

Well that was a boat race and a half.

 

All day our positions and speed had us chopping and changing finishing positions with Vodafone. It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that we eventually caught sight of them on the horizon off our stern.

 

I was given some words of wisdom early in the day from Dalts, “Remember this day. This is as good a sailing conditions as you will ever get, so think of this day when you are mid race in the Volvo and are so exhausted, cold, and ground down that you are physically sick.” Which going by my performance early in this Fiji race isn’t too difficult.

 

I took his point, it was an awesome days sailing.

 

As the big red Trimaran’s size slowly grew so did the intensity on board CAMPER, the crew really switched into racing gear and it was a sight to behold.

 

We were flying along at over 20 knots, white water all over the decks and calls for sail changes seemingly every 5 minutes.

 

I lost count of the number of times we changed sails - although I’m pretty sure we worked our way through most of the inventory.

 

From bow to stern the guys were pretty impressive to watch. Daryl & Mike on the bow, getting blasted by water like that from a fire hydrant- and loving every minute of it.

 

Andy in the pit like the piano man ended up looking like he was in the middle of a noodle soup there were that many ropes around him.

 

Salty was like a work horse hooking up sheets and changing them over frantically, almost preempting what he was about to be told from the back of the boat.

 

Chuny, well he just kept popping up everywhere- and seemingly always with Milky bars in hand.

 

Adam was running around like he had just stepped off the beach, in saturated shorts, tee shirt & bare feet.

 

I was perched on the main grinder, while Trae was just kicking back easing and just kept seem to barking, ‘main on!’ at me. Who knows what he meant. I just kept winding.

 

Stu, Nico & Will were doing a good job of impersonating Christopher Hawkins, working out what seemed to be all sorts of mathematical equations of what sails to put up for sailing at what angle to get to the finish line ASAP.

 

Dalts was getting amongst it, and even Chris Cameron the team photographer was swinging of the stays like an excited monkey trying to get his shots.

 

In the end, we were 10 minutes to late.

 

Stink, but what a buzz it was.

 

No time to celebrate, my first visit to Fiji is a fleeting one, all in darkness and not a foot set on land. I did hear the customs official say ‘Bula’ as he stepped on board though. That will do.

 

Off we go again.

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Just heard from the Vision boys.... first 3 days were 65knots and 6-7m swells... by the pool now drinking beer...well deserved I say.

 

Seems the cruising division took a bit of a pasting

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interest in the other boats still finishing.....lets hope the good kiwi boat Blizzard now that they are in the trades...can get back infront of the plastic imports....

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Whats the story with Nitro, it's barely making the speed of the 40's around it? By now it should have cleared out by 25+ miles if it was in coastal.

 

 

Friday 8.33am: 0703 nzst email received reads as follows; Nitro sustained rudder damage overnight. continuing at reduced speed on one rudder

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Just heard from the Vision boys.... first 3 days were 65knots and 6-7m swells... by the pool now drinking beer...well deserved I say.

 

Seems the cruising division took a bit of a pasting

 

With this awful Auckland weather it's hard to think of a nicer alternative than relaxing over a beer at Musket Cove reflecting on a good race. Don't rush back boys, you're missing nothing here!

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With the monsoon about to start it's probably equally wet as Mumbai, but about 20C cooler. The other day my wife asked "When does the rainy season end in NZ?" :shock:

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Would Nitro be carrying a spare rudder? Seems like a bad failure to have in relatively fair conditions??

 

Murky, I nited the zig zags on Omega as well, must have some sort of issue fo that weird track..

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We checked the rudders on Nitro pre start.

They had a breakage pre race on the delivery up. New blades were built, and the stock / gudgeons reinforced. They had a very comprehensive stock replacement plan, and spare blades on board. But it was unproven.

So it was acknowledged there was a question mark there but with the designer - Robin, builder/skipper - Steve, and Skins on board they are well covered in the brains trust and spares depts.

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Go Lion! Looking pretty steady at 10kts now. At 35tons she'll be digging such a big hole that we might get another tsunami warning.

 

Classic. Made me laugh out loud!

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Its nice of Camper to leave their tracker on while they are out training. Gives us something to watch while the rest of the fleet finishes... back up to 20kts now:

 

camper_20kts.png

 

Will Lion catch PBF?

 

Will Blizzard beat the Bene-toys? Or will OFs new keel give them the edge?

 

Will Flying Cloud figure out where all the buckets are tied on?

 

Will the price of beer at the $1 ummm... $2.. no wait... $4 bar of have gone up by the time they all get there? Will there be any beer left?

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All questions that are beyond me but I did wonder if Camper was on track for a win in the inaugural Auckland-Musket Cove-Noumea race. "What, did you guys get the wrong set of SIs?".

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