RPNYC Mana-Koamaru on Nedax Racing

[Guest]

I got a call from Tony Phillips earlier this week asking me to do the RPNYC Wellington - Mana - Jag Rocks - Ships Cove 100 miler on Nedax Racing, starting at 1745 on Friday. I said I'd love to. Tony asked me if I knew anyone else who was keen as they still had room for another in the crew. I asked what skill sets were needed - trimmers, bow, grinders, cooks, and he replied that they'd really be keen on a good looking cook, cleaner and pole dancer, but would take any experienced sailor. After clarifying that pole dancing was not one my specialties I said I'd ask around.

 

On Wednesday Craig sent though the first forecast and route prediction. The terms "Glamour" and "mint" featured heavily. After predicting a fast kite ride out of the harbour in a Northerly and two sail reach across the south coast, Craig's email then predicted a Southerly front would hit just as we reached Cape Terawhiti, giving us a kite ride up to Mana. The email then claimed that at about the time we got to Mana there would be a North Easterly change for a downwind ride across to Jag Rocks, and included the sentence "I'm not making this s**t up!". This first prediction had us finishing at around 7am on Saturday.

 

Experience has shown this opening prediction to be largely vapour-ware. Thursday's email downgraded the amount of "Glamourness", and the term "s**t" was still in there, but instead of being in a "not making this s**t up" phrase it was now in a "s**t kicked out of us" assessment. That afternoon I got an email from my mother in Auckland complaining about the weather there, saying it was hot and humid. I told her it was blowing 45 in the harbour and that Wellington Harbour was a churning mass of white foam, oh, and that we were heading out into Cook Strait for a 100 mile offshore race the next night.

 

Friday morning saw the wind abate, and the white caps in the harbour reduce to "sporadic". The forecast however was for Huey to get a bit excited about 5pm, with 40+ knot Northerlies for the start, swinging through the west between 7pm and 9pm i.e. when we'd be slogging Westwards straight into it across the south coast. The Southerly front was then due to hit, but it was not predicted to be a gradual change, it was to be a 40 knot Southerly buster.

 

I grimly packed my dry bag, and double checked I had my thermals and my PFD and tether, and headed off to work. After work I went down to the boat and it was windy. And that's windy by Wellington standards. The wind was whistling in the rigging of the boats in the Marina and we all looked at each other and were not afraid to say we didn't relish heading out into Cook Strait in these conditions. After some consideration the club agreed it wasn't a good idea to go out looking for punishment in these conditions, and the start was delayed until 0645 Saturday morning. Due to the light winds forecast for Saturday the course was also shortened to Wellington - Mana - a transit between Capes Koamaru and Jackson at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound.

 

So we retired to the RPNYC wardroom and a few drinks. Four of the crew could not do a race starting on Saturday morning. Even with the shortened course the light winds meant we might not be back until early Sunday morning. Matt had a half marathon starting at 8am, George had to work on Sunday, Simon had a function he had to attend on Sunday and Jayden was pussy-whipped. That left us down to three, but Tony had found a good keen Australian guy called Rodger who was keen to come for a sail. With the light forecast 4 up was cutting it fine, but it was doable. While Tony set off for a big night on the town, I went home to get some sleep. I was sure I was going to need it.

 

My alarm went off at 5.15am and after a quick breakfast and a large coffee we were stacking the headsails and getting the offshore main on, stowing the beers and the rums, and then we were off. The winds were indeed light. The small 5 boat fleet were barely moving as we set off...

 

 

 

It was so light we thought we'd struggle to fill a gennaker, so we kept high under code zero, trying to sniff out some breeze on the Oriental Bay/Evans Bay side. As we debated our sail choice, asking "which code 0 should we fly Tony?" Wedgetail mocked us. "WHICH code 0!" they said, laughing at us.

 

As it turns out the extra height that the code 0 allowed us to take meant we did find some better pressure heading out of Oriental Bay and we were happy with our position relative to Wedgetail as we headed across Evans Bay to Point Halswell.

 

 

Tony gave me the helm as we tried to wiggle away from the fleet as we turned down the channel. Gucci, The Guarantee and Montego Bay III were a long way back.

 

 

Wedgetail headed inshore along the Mirimar Peninsular Coast and found a light Westerly which allowed them to fly a kite parallel to us while we were near the middle of the channel under code 0 in an Easterly. It was fickle. Just as we were starting to congraulate ourselves for having put 5 or 6oo metres on the other boats, just past Steeple light we parked in very light South Easterly breeze. The rest of the fleet slowly sailed back to us under kites in a Northerly

 

 

And soon after this picture was taken all 5 boats were within a circle of a diameter of about 100 metres. The race restarted and we hoisted the A2+ and went out through Chaffers Passage along with Wedgetail and The Guarantee, while Gucci and Montego Bay III went the other side of Barretts Reef. At Moaning Mini we were all back together in a bunch, struggling to maintain forward momentum in a very light Northerly and a lumpy southerly slop.

 

Morale was low, but it soon picked up as the fleet was joined by a pod of dolphins.

 

 

 

 

It was a very frustrating trip to Sinclair Head. So frustrating that The Guarantee pulled the pin, and sailed past us heading back to Wellington holding up a bag of party ice and asking if we wanted a rum. "No thanks, we're racing" was the reply...

 

Soon after that a Southerly kicked in and we started to move under the A2+. Morale improved...

 

 

As we approached Terawhiti we had bursts of over 10 knots, with the best being a 13.7. Hardly eye popping speeds but everyone was smiling. We were chasing Wedgetail, and Gucci were chasing us in 3rd. Also chasing us, breifly was a 10 foot shark that almost brushed the side of the boat before thrashing its tail to turn and swim along in our wake for a few second sbefore losing interest.

 

As we headed North to Mana Island we could see a large expanse of shining windless water on the Makara coastline past Ohau Point. There was another windless zone further out West, and Wedgetail and ourselves gybed back and forth trying to avoid sailing into either of these. After one such gybe to head back West we suddenly found ourselves auto-gybing as a Northerly breeze found its way to us. Wedgetail a few hundred metres ahead and North of us were heading in exactly the same direction as us in a Southerly while we were now following them, but in a Northerly, even though we were south of their position. Strange.

 

So we dropped the A2+ and turned north to be hard on the wind heading north in a slightly East of North breeze, now sailing across Wedgetail's stern as they were still in a Southerly under kite heading west.

 

The wind was very very light, and Booboo's new "Superlicious" oversized ultra light weather number 1 made it's Nedax Racing debut.

 

 

Tony was pleased with Superlicious.

 

 

 

And morale was high as we had lunch, turned the stereo on and enjoyed picture postcard sailing up the coast to Mana.

 

 

 

 

The breeze finally settled in at about 8 to 10 knots from the North West, and we were able to make 5 - 7.5 knots through the water under full main and code 0. Unfortunately we were pushing 2 knots of tide all the way to Mana so it took what seemed like an age to get there.

 

 

The 5pm sched showed that only Wedgetail ourselves and Gucci were still racing. We were puzzled, because we had not seen Gucci since Cape Terawhiti, and visibility had been excellent.

 

We rounded Mana about 1 hour behind Wedgetail, and started heading for Cape Koamaru under full main and Superlicious. Well, we were TRYING to head for Cape Koamau, but while we were able to steer courses ranging from 225 - 250, in fact the tide was sucking us nearly southwards. COG was usually about 205, so we hardly seemed to be getting west at all as Mana Island slipped away to the North of us. Expedition reassured us that as we got towards Arapawa Island the tide would pick us up and push us North West to the Brothers. We had faith, but the 3 knots of Southerly tidal flow was significant when our speed through the water was just 2 - 2.5 knots. The wind was oscillating giving us a heading from 200 to 255, so at the 200s we tacked and steered 315 - 325 which gave us a COG of 285 - 295, but at only about 1.5 - 2 knots over the ground. It was a long slow struggle, but not nearly as long or as slow as it had been for Gucci. As the light was fading in the late evening we saw their red kite just North of Terawhiti.

 

 

We had last seen them around the same spot 7 and a half hours earlier near midday! But they had not given up and were now heading north for Mana Island.

 

As the sunlight faded I asked Rodger the Australian if he was warm enough. He'd stoically sailed the whole race so far in a pair of shorts and a t shirt. He said he was getting a little bit cold. Craig asked him if had any other gear and Rodger said no, this is all I brought. Craig dug out some spare gear for him and asked him how long he had thought the race was going to be. Rodger said "Oh you know, I thought it might go through to late Saturday morning, lunchtime at the latest." It was now 8pm and we'd been going since 6.45am!

 

Tony asked him if he'd told anyone where he was going, and how long he was going to be, and would anyone be worried. Rodger admitted that maybe they would be getting worried. When we said we were not likely to get back to Wellington until daybreak on Sunday Rodger conceded that maybe he should ring home and let his partner know he was going to be a while...

 

In a great testament to her, she said "That's okay, I wasn't worried, take as long as you like...". We reckon she might be a keeper.

 

As it got darker the wind picked up and we carried the Code 0 to the Brothers and then went back to the Superlicious to sneak into finish at 2133, just 35 minutes after Wedgetail. We were stoked with that result, and having crossed the line, gybed and started heading across the strait for home as the tide was due to start running eastwards around midnight.

 

We pulled into Chaffers marina at 5.30am very pleased with a brochure filled Cook Strait 24 hours.

[B00B00 310]

Nice write up bardy.

I was hopibg to make it down but the missus has another bun in the oven and is feeling crook so thought it best to stay and help with the other 2 kids....

Sounds like the superlicious featured which is good. He has more sails that any other boat I have ever sailed on!

[Guest]

Cheers Josh. Superlicious did indeed feature, significantly. We also began discussions on whether we could extend the jib tracks after to allow for Megalicious, son of Superlicious...

 

Video to follow, if and when I can convince Youtube that .mov's are a frickin' supported file type...

[Guest]

Great account.

 

The story of the sparcely kitted out Aussie reminds me of the famous occasion when, at the start of the 1969 Auckland - Suva Race,

Terry Gillespie arrived on board Castanet in a pair of footy shorts, a t-shirt, and a paper bag containing a mince pie.

 

PS. There were also no bunks - the boat had just been launched in a state of incompletion and they slept on sail bags. But they won the race overall by a country mile.

[Guest]

Video is finally done...

[Guest]

good to see bonk wearing the north sails t-shirt in the photo and not the evolution one he was whereing the day before.

[Guest]

Wear did you see him whereing it?

[Guest]

I might have my dates wrong it might have been the week before,but he was whereing it when he quick slipped the boat ,so may be he was not to worried about getting it dirty

[Megwyn 2]

Awesome write up KB. Love the vid!

[missjaney 0]

I'm looking for some crew neck long sleeve tees that keep their shape. Something that is great for layering and hits at your hip bones (for length). Thought I found some at J Crew Outlet, but after a couple wears they don't keep their shape and the sleeves like to fall down all the time.