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Final wrap up from Zoe:

 

To finish first, first you must finish

 

20 October 2012 – for immediate release

Several new records, including one standing for 16 years, were broken or set in the Coastal Classic Auckland to Russell Yacht Race, organised by the New Zealand Multihull Yacht Club this weekend. There is little doubt that the boats which sailed conservatively maximised their chance of finishing, and securing glory in Russell.

 

TeamVodafoneSailing was the first boat home, and secured its third consecutive race record, despite the fact that slowing the boat down and steering a safe course was a big focus of the race.

 

The 60 foot trimaran skippered by Simon Hull completed the race in five hours 41 minutes and 44 seconds, taking nearly three minutes off the record it set last year, and also setting a new record for multihulls at the same time.

 

Crusader 35 (LOA 10.65m) which finished in 10 hours and 2 minutes, has taken the under 10.66m record of 11 minutes and 53 seconds, held by Mumm 30 since 1996. It also exceeded the time for boats under 12.19m of 10 hours and 33 minutes, held by Satellite Spy since 1996.

 

Borderline achieved the first official records for the Open 8.5s, with a finishing time of 8 hours and 59 minutes, setting the bar high for a time to beat in future years.

 

The race started at Devonport Wharf in Auckland amidst a 30 knot wind squall and very poor visibility. Taking a conservative line at the wharf end, holding off the gybe for as long as possible, and resisting the urge to carry big gear, ensured the best results as the fleet rounded North Head, with an incoming cargo ship on a tight schedule causing problems for some.

 

Those that hoisted their big sails, as often as not found themselves in trouble with little room to manoeuvre: The catamaran Taeping was required to take drastic action when Rantan II broached.

 

For the fast multihulls it was a case of hold on tight, if you weren't doing a headsail change or tucking in a reef. TeamVodafoneSailing enacted at least a dozen headsail changes during its race, and Taeping's story is one of constant changes to boat configuration.

 

"We found the going very tough today," says Tim Willetts, owner of the bright green trimaran Timberwolf that has been turboed and refined more each year, and which blew out two kites during the race. The maximum wind gust they experienced was 37 knots, but it was the sea state that really effected them.

 

"At times, the seas were just evil. We found it dangerous over 18knots in the nasty stuff." Their peak speed was just over 25 knots.

 

"To be honest this was a day about seamanship and finishing and we found it hard to push the boat to its full limit."

 

Seeing Dirty Deeds flip over near Kawau in a massive gust gave them cause to concern.

 

"It did not help at all seeing the Deeds over, my best wishes to Bobbi and Greer, it's never good but great to hear it is back up again.We only survived that gust by seconds as we got our Code Zero [a big foresail] down just in time as another 35 knot gust hit us."

 

"This race was about boat management," says Event Director Jon Vincent. "Those that took a conservative approach benefited on the day. Those that went out there believing they could adjust to the conditions with too much sail area have suffered the consequences."

 

Of 167 starters, 11 boats withdrew. The smallest boat, an Elliott 7m called Elevation, from Rotorua, finished at 0302hrs Saturday.

 

The first 20 finishers were:

Div Yacht Name Elapsed Pos

6 TEAMVODAFONESAILING 5:41:44 1

6 TRIPLE 8 6:56:47 2

6 TAEPING 7:35:03 3

1 V5 8:37:55 4

7 TIMBERWOLF 8:44:46 5

1 WIRED 8:55:15 6

1 KIA KAHA 52 8:57:19 7

7 BORDERLINE 8:59:59 8

1 GEORGIA 9:01:25 9

1 RAN TAN II 9:12:09 10

1 BARE ESSENTIALS 9:17:21 11

7 WHIO 9:43:22 12

7 FUSIONX 9:54:16 13

1 CRUSADER 35 10:02:51 14

1 BUCKLEY SYSTEMS 10:07:11 15

6 TITI NUI 10:18:16 16

6 PZAZZ 10:21:31 17

1 EQUILIBRIUM 10:22:13 18

1 ANDAR 10:26:03 19

1 SYSTEMS THUNDER 10:48:32 20

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chic014

chic014 0

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Anyone now what happened with Truxton and Young Rebel? They've been shunted down the leaderboard. Maybe the 20% OCS penalty? Can't find anything official anywhere though.

 

And did anyone manage to get a good photo of the dedicated railmeat sleeping on the rail on Outrageous Fortune on Saturday morning?

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Richard2249

Richard2249 5

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Race report from Nosaka - the rest of the crew are bringing the boat home in what looks like pretty average conditions, although at least the breeze is in the north.

 

We had a great start, right at the wharf end of the start line and managed to protect an inside track against the incoming tide. We ran with a poled out no.2 to lead the Division 2 fleet to North Head, pulling off an easy gybe (especially compared with some of the chaos in Division 1!) and then setting off towards Tiri channel. Although the A-sail was ready to go we stuck with a conservative sail plan, with further fronts looming behind the city and a forecast that predicted the breeze to increase.

 

Truxton were not mucking around and soon passed us flying their red gennaker, and Pretty Woman went past in quick order too, flying a masthead gennaker. Our good start had set us up well, but other boats were initially making gains but soon fell foul of a steady increase in the sou-westerly, topping out in the early 40s by Tiri Channel. Valium went through in great style but snapped their rudder and broached, and having to retire (wonder if the spinnaker survived as we last saw them with it trawling behind the boat). Others also had massive broaches and some gear problems - the red J boat behind us was flying until their gennaker clew blew out. The Ross 930 No Worries had been going great but a delaminated transom saw them head to Gulf Harbour, and we then saw Akatea heading home too. The Lambert 36 River Rebel was handling the conditions well with a fractional gennaker, looking very balanced and fast (awesome sailing guys), and got past us before also eventually having to reduce sail.

 

The breeze stayed very fresh for the reach to Kawau, we felt overpowered with full main and no.2 but were making good progress against those around us and the back of the Division 1 fleet, although it was getting hard to see Truxton and Pretty Woman. We had already elected to take the low road around the back of the Hen and Chickens Islands, banking on the breeze easing late in the day, so started to split with the fleet as we left Cape Rodney, although had Frenzy (Div 1) nearby to keep us focussed. It was hard to see the wind letting up though and we went to one reef, and then to two, while still lugging the no.2. Our course saw us end up a bit more to the east of the Chickens than the previous year, and we even got reasonably close to the Poor Knights. But the breeze did ease up slightly, and we progressively shook the reefs out as we inched up towards Cape Brett on a pretty hot course. Quite something to see the Brett in daylight and we rounded at about 20:30, very early for us!

 

The boat was in the groove for the sail in to Russell from the Brett, and an incoming tide and some nice righthand shifts saw us complete this section of the race in about 2 1/2 hours, finishing at 23:07, our new record (I imagine a lot of boats were able to achieve their personal bests this year). We had passed Pretty Woman somewhere along the track to the Brett we think, and so finished second on line.

 

Anyone now what happened with Truxton and Young Rebel? They've been shunted down the leaderboard. Maybe the 20% OCS penalty? Can't find anything official anywhere though.

 

We later found out that Truxton, which had finished about 20 minutes ahead, had been over at the start - they had returned to re-start but must have fallen foul of the 1 minute OCS rule so suffered a 30% time penalty. This was a shame as they sailed really well and the Nosaka crew reckon they were worthy winners 'on the water', but we're pleased too to take the overall line win for Division 2 (and 3rd on handicap). Well done too to another White 40, Whitebait, for the handicap win.

 

The coverage looks to have been pretty thorough on this site, well done to everybody who contributed (but another pretty lacklustre effort by the NZ Herald I see), and of course well done to the organisers. The trackers were a great innovation and kept people in the loop - my phone ran out of battery off the Hen & Chicks so we went into unintentional 'stealth mode' for a while. I also found the Android app a little problematic as it doesn't seem to be able to run in the background (and had us in Div 1), and whenever you restart it needs all the info to be rewritten (even though I pressed save each time). Only me or did others have the same issue?

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Hurts

Hurts 6

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We later found out that Truxton, which had finished about 20 minutes ahead, had been over at the start - they had returned to re-start but must have fallen foul of the 1 minute OCS rule so suffered a 30% time penalty.

 

Nice report thanks. What is the 1 minute OCS rule and what is the logic behind it?

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Kiteroa

Kiteroa 8

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The 1min rule sounds a bit impractical on a CC start line. Would be fine for most dinghy starts, although I would have thought during Friday start tacking around and re crossing the start within a minute of the start would have be a catalyst for carnage and probably result in wrecking another boats races rather than just your own. a 5 minute rule probably would have been more realistic IMHO.

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Scotty3934

Scotty3934 5

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From Elly......[it is called a Z flag start, which means you get penalized and cannot exonerate yourself. Was clearly explained at the briefing./quote]

 

Still sux when something goes wrong on the line and the whole race is buggered for ya. Yep sweet as rules are rules and you cant have a race without them but sh*t it does suck sailing the whole race knowing that you have to chuck 30% on at the finish.

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