Guest Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Losing it... Where's the EDIT BUTTON?? Back. The miscreants who were abusing it are taking some time off. It is not back for me. Not in all the threads. I can't work it out. Please see my post in the Queen sized slat bed for sale thread in Welly Talk... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Part 2: So we picked some good shifts going into the Motuihe Channel, and initially held north to stay out of the tide after Emu Point. As we headed across towards the top end of Waiheke the wind was very patchy, and there was a lot of debate about if, and if so, when, we should hitch out to the north again. However each time we seemed to have made up our mind We noted that Equilibrium and/or Starlight Express were looking very light and stopped out there. Vodafone was furthest north, near the Noisies, and she really looked light, so we kept going. Eventually, with some input from the out of town ring-in department, we decided to hit the shore at Waiheke just north of Matiatia. As we got closer in we found good breeze and significant tide relief, perhaps even a strong back-eddy. During this time Ziggy cashed in his early investment in the "you're a dick glasses" wearing as his drink bottle went overboard, all on its own volition it seems... We tacked out and then back and JUST laid the rocks off the point with 10 metres to spare. This was a significant moment as we realised we had not only tripled our lead on Squealer, Truxton and Copellia: We'd also caught and passed Bare Essentials... ... and for a few minutes we thought we were possibly the leading Monohull. Morale was high, and it go higher when Craig pulled out the first round of the never ending pizza his wife Jen had made. The first round of ducks feet were also broken out... Morale increased even further when we broke out the masthead gennaker: We were not alone though, with the breeze steadily clocking left everyone had sprung downwind sails: and slowly Truxton rolled Squealer: Eventually we were able to even catch one of the early front runners too: The "You're a dick glasses" were handed firstly to me when I dropped one of my sailing gloves overbaord. I didn't hold them for long though as Bowman-Dave managed to completely screw up not one, but two tacks. He wore the glasses with good humour though: Despite the hick ups, and possibly largely due to Bare Essentials inspired tactical call to tack away towards Great Barrier for an extended period of time, we managed to hold them, or thereabouts, most of the way to Channel Island: And we were pleased with how things were progressing... As the daylight hours wound down we headed across the top of the Coromandel Penninsula and the trio of Squealer, Truxton and Copellia would not go away: Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Part 3: Into the night... Bare Essentials headed close into shore in Kennedy Bay, and it did not pay off too well for them. We had tacked out to see to avoid the softer conditions in by the shore line and were handsomely rewarded with good pressure. Morale was high: The next major tactical choice was whether you headed inside or outside the Mercurys. We thought it was a slam dunk in the light North to North-Easterly condions - why go to leeward of them and risk a big park up in the lee of the islands when the Rhumb line to White Island went straight through the Mercurys? So we stayed high... and since it was light, this helped keep the gennaker flying too... which just made it an easier call. What really surprised us was that no one else saw it our way. Everyone else put up their running gear and headed for the Hole in the Wall, and we were all alone in the night. All alone that is, except for the uber lasagne, cauliflower and roasted pumpkin dinners that Bowman-Dave heated up. Boo-YAH! The never ending pizza had kept us going all through the afternoon, and I thought it was a hands-down shoe-in for best meal of the trip, but the Lasagne and veges was a pretty stunning effort. Big thanks to Dave. We rounded the tip of red Mercury and peeled from the gennaker to the mast head kite and set off into the night, destination White Island. By now we were well and truly settled into our three hours on, three hours on stand-by, three hours off watch system. Smithy, Gary and I were working well together, and turned in at midnight for a well earned sleep. When we came up on deck at 3am we were pressed under masthead gennaker and full main in 13 - 18 knots of breeze, churning out 9 to 11 knot speeds straight at the target. As the early hours progressed the wind went further forward and we were forced to drop the gennaker and begin two sail reaching. It wasn't quite as fast but we were still pulling 9's and 9.5s straight at the volcano. Ducks feet, scroggin and Snakes kept us going until the light of the dawn pierced the sky... and we were all alone in the vast ocean. Not a boat in sight. No one knew whether the night had been a roaring success or a disaster. Given our good progress throughout the night we were hoping there had been a park up inside the Mercurys and we were alone for a good reason... So morale was high: It was a beautiful morning: Eventually we spotted a boat on the horizon behind us... and speculation abounded as to who it could be. As the morning grew lighter the boat behind us steadily grew bigger... which indicated it must be one of the 50+ footers. Soon the boat was close enough for us to rule out Starlight Express, as the sails were not black coloured as hers are: So it was either Equilibrium or Bare essentials. Either way we were relatively pleased. We were also pleased when White Island appeared in front of us: Breakfast was Hubbards Meusli selection and tinned fruit, and coffees all round. Bare Essentials finally passed us: And we amused ourselves by telling them they were going the wrong way... "No!" they replied... "White island is that way." Our response of "yes, but you're a 55 footer, you should be heading back that way by now..." was answered with a stony silence. It was a beautioful fine day as we approached White Island, which for me was the absolute highlight of the trip. Where else do you get to sail around an erupting volcano like this? It was very special, and I will just let the photos speak for themselves: Breathtaking stuff. If you have not done a White Island race make sure it is on your list for next year. It's a MUST SEE, MUST DO race if you ask me. Part 4 to follow tomorrow night as I am too tired to keep writing now. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 AWESOME RACE REPORT Someone give that man a bottle of rum. Sounds like smithy has still got the reputation for knowing how to eat well while racing. Its making me want to do it next year now Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Part 4: So I woke up this morning and realised I had omitted to cover one of ther race "highlights" in the correct chronological order... During our 3am to dawn watch I was on the helm for the first hour or so and then on the main. I would have offered the main to Gary with an hour to go but that would have increased the chances that I would have had to move around deck, so I stayed on the main... because the tortoises head was being quite insistent about coming out to see White Island too. By the end of our watch I was quite uncomfortable and made a bee-line for the head. Unfortunately the sudden change of attitude from sitting to standing causes a techtonic shift, and it was a case of coming ready or not. Even more unfortunately, with wet weather gear, an onstacle course of sleeping Booboos, sails, life rafts and other assorted paraphenalia meant that it was very much a case of 'Not". 20 minutes later when I returned to deck for the rest of our standby watch I reported to the team: "Well, in my opinion fellas, that is quite possibly one of the least successful dumps in recorded history." Smithy asked me if I had blocked the head, and I answered "No, in fact that is one of the very few redeeming features of the whole experience. My undies were a casualty of war, but they didn't go without a fight I'll tell you!" "You didn't try to flush them down the loo did you?" Booboo asked with a look of horro on his face? "No, of course not. I flung them out the hatch. They were beyond salvage... but they got hung up pon the life lines and were left swinging in the breeze for several seconds before dropping off... It was an epic fail." Much laughter followed, and later when we saw a large (c.2.5 metre Mako shark) a few of the crew reckoned my berley trail was working. Soon after we saw a sunfish too... maybe they were right. This was part of an impressive list of wildlife encounters on the trip... We saw a pod of orcas off Waiheke, three (possibly four) sharks, flying fish, a sunfish, a whale spouting and then it's fluke arching up through the air near Channel island the first time, lots of sea birds and I think 5 pods of dolphins. This lot came flying in at top speed just before we got to White Island: So, we left White Island astern on what turned out to be a stunning day sailing across the Bay of Plenty. We weaved our way through Volkner Rocks which offered some stunning photo opportunities: Soon after this we noticed our wind instruments had stopped reading. Ziggy was designated "Vice-President in charge of resolving technology issues" and was despatched the the instrument panels to see if he could get them working again. However just as he started fiddling with the buttons we said "Errr, Ziggy, don't worry about it." "Why?" he asked... "Look up..." One of the wools from ther gennaker had floated up after it popped at the hoist at White Island and had caught on the anemometer and wrapped itself around the cups 4 or 5 times. That was why we were not getting any readings. Smithy was going to go up the mast to fix it but Bowman-Dave vetoed that... the previous afternoon smithy had ventured into adventure-land and the light number one had an 8 inch ripp in the luff to show for it. Bowman-Dave was not keen on letting Smithy go up the rig, so he volunteered to go and clear the wind instruments, and a spectacular job he did too... Now I have to go to work... Final update this evening... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Ooops, missed this one on the White Island Approach: Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Wow Bardy.. How do you remember all that stuff?? Stunning effort so far mate. Stephen, I can't take any credit for the food at all. The never ending Pizzas were Craig's effort and the stunning Lasagne servings were down to David. A great effort was made with food. It was just a shame that it got a bit too rough to heat up Booboo's Chille Con Carne.. Link to post Share on other sites
B00B00 310 Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Outstanding Bardy, Nice work! Link to post Share on other sites
JK 28 Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Awesome report Bardy. I see in the photo's there is still a GoPro stuck to the deck... Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Awesome report Bardy. I see in the photo's there is still a GoPro stuck to the deck... Not for long JK.. Link to post Share on other sites
Aussie 0 Posted November 26, 2012 Author Share Posted November 26, 2012 Seriously awesome report! Any chance I can use it on the RAYC website to help promote the event for next year? Also, any chance of getting the photos?! They would be perfect for next years poster! Thanks!!! Aussie Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 Awesome report Bardy. I see in the photo's there is still a GoPro stuck to the deck... Not for long JK.. Err, yes, the fate of the go-pro will be revealed tonight when I write up the concluding Part 5. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 Wow Bardy.. How do you remember all that stuff?? I don't know how to answer that Smithy. I just do remember it. That's how my brain works... I struggle to work out how people don't remember it. It just seems normal to me. Link to post Share on other sites
RushMan 31 Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 The impressive thing is finding the time to type it into the computer and add all the photos/videos so the rest of us can enjoy it too. Hail the Mighty Wordsmith, Bardy Link to post Share on other sites
Boatworks 23 Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 Awesome work that man! Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 Part 5: The wind was on the nose after the short gennaker ride around the Eastern side of White Island... a long long long beat back to the top of the Coromandel. We started out on Porttack needing a heading of 290 to the Hole in the wall but only making 290 (and even sometimes 280) half the time, and the rest of the time making 300 - 310 in the shifty 7 - 12 knot breeze. This meant we were close to tracking back up the Rhumb-line, and we were surprised to see that the lead boats seemed to have headed off west towards Tauranga... There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and visibility was great. Yesterday's coffees had been with my mum's special surprise Afghan bisbuits. This morning's coffees were with gingernuts as dunkers. I made the plunger with a LOT of grinds, but no one even batted an eyelid. We all needed strong coffee by this time. We saw a very large shark, probably a Mako, about 2.5 metres in length about 8 feet from the leeward rail, and later in the morning we saw a sun fish, as well as a few flying fish. And more dolphins and plenty of sea birds, especially around Volkner Rocks where they were perched in their hundreds on the cliffs. Mid morning there was a sudden clonk... like a winch handle falling out of a winch, bouncing on the deck... followed by a splosh, like a winch handle hitting the surface of the sea off the leeward rail. A quick audit showed all the winch handles were present and accounted for. However, Smithy's go-pro which had been mounted on the port side of the cabin just in front of the keyboards on one of the go-pro-sticks-like-sh*t-to-a-ber's-fur suction cups. Unfortunately it seems Smithy hadn't coated the cabin top with bear's fur and his go pro had tried to make a break for freedom. A pretty successful one too. Bugger! Slowly as the day wore on and everything heated up the wind clocked right gradually. About midday when Booboos watch came on deck there was a noticable right hand shift and we were suddenly only making headings of 325 to 335. When it went further right again to headings of 345 we tacked onto starboard for the first time that day, and the right hand persistent shift continued, much to our delight. We came out of the tack at 245, but before long were heading at 260 - 265 and about an hour later we were up to 290s! We liked the picture this painted, especially considering the lead boats seemed to have headed hard left. Smithy was pretty pleased from his position in the stand-by watch on the rail: About 6pm we all decided it was happy hour. There was a lot of rum on board and if we didn't get into it now we'd never get through it all. Morale was high, and got higher as there was some creative ribbing about pina colada style girl's rums and a soda water bomb that I let off all over Gary. Lots of laughs. Good times. We made it north of the Aldermans and then the wind lightened further and became quite shifty. Ziggy took the helm for a couple of hours, and as reported by Booboo kept The Marshall ticking over nicely in the groove, nailing some very smooth tacks. We smoked through the hole in the wall after sunset and after passign Old Man Rock cracked sheets a little heading for Channel Island. Huey wasn't finished messin with us though, and just After Booboo's team came back on deck at 9pm we sailed into the strongest winds we'd had in the race so far, with the breeze building through 15, 18 and eventually 22 knots. Then we found a hole just of Kennedy Bay and parked in 3 knots of air from dead astern for 15 minutes. Frustrating as we could see 20 knot puffs a coupel of hundred metres in front of us. We wriggled free of the hole, and then I Peter Williams'ed it by say "Right, we're off!". We weren't. The hole dragged us back in twice more before we actually off, and soon after we were actually off we had to put a reef in as the wind was 25 gusting more. With the reef in we eased sheets and blast reached to Channel Island doing 12+ knots with spray everywhere. It was a bit lumpy as we hardened up onto the wind at about 2am. I went down stairs for my off watch at 3am and was sufficiently tired that getting airbourne in my bunk as we slammed off waves didn't wake me for more than a few seconds. It was hard on the wind through the rest of the night and when I woke up at 6am for the last stint on deck the sunrise was a very beautiful sight: By then we were between Rakino and Tiri hard on the wind heading for Mirangi Bay. A series of tacks over the next two hours saw us try to get up to the East Coast bays shore out of the out going tide, and with the sun on our backs and the full team on deck we chraged up Rangitoto Channel (half hoping to see Bare Essentials coming through the Motuihe Channel, but no such luck) and under North Head and tacked for the line to finish at 0823 on Sunday morning. Morale had been high all race, and it was pretty high as we finished. We'd not made a lot of mistakes, and felt we were in with a sniff. We checked the RAYC website and found that as we thought, we were in with a sniff. We'd beaten the three larger monohulls in front of us, an we were confident we had Truxton and Squealer covered... we weren't sure about Copellia though... we owed her 4 hours and she'd sent an update about an hour earlier saying she was off Motutapu. That sounded too close for our liking... and after packing the boat up and motoring into Bayswater for some chilli con carne, corn chips, and rums, our fears were confirmed when Copellia crossed the line about an hour ahead of the dealine. What an awesome effort two handed! Well done, we all take our hats off to that effort. What a race. Easily the most enjoyable Coastal/offhsore race I can remember ever doing. We had a lot of laughs on board The Marshall... there was a really good vibe, and everyone worked well together, ate well together, and drunk well together. Thansk Smithy, Thanks to everyone who crewed on The Marshall, it was awesome. Thanks to RAYC for running an awesome race, and thanks to all of the other crews without whom the race would not have been what it was. As big Gay Paulie says: "To come first, first you have to have a fleet." Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 Seriously awesome report! Any chance I can use it on the RAYC website to help promote the event for next year? Also, any chance of getting the photos?! They would be perfect for next years poster! Thanks!!! Aussie Absolutely. as long as you credit me on the report and any photos you use. Send me a pm if you want me to email you any of the pics as higher resolution files. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 FYI ogre, I still can't edit... no edit button for me. Grrr. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 Final video just before the gennaker hoist at White Island... a bit of banter between Fantasy Land and Adventure Land... Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 Actually, that was MY packing if I remember correctly and it WAS wooled.. Link to post Share on other sites
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