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Auckland to Nelson Race


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'85 on Clark Gable - yeah second in behind Ants. Round the top and down the outside

 

Good fun - prizegiving was a champagne breakfast with Ray Woolf doing a show. He was bloody excellent

 

We got quite ratfaced..... :lol:

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'85 on Clark Gable

Your lucky, I did it on a P38. 3 frecking days the get to North Cape, over taken mid afternoon by the brunch watermelon skins....painfullllllllllllllll. Bit of fun slow short tacking close in up the coast by Tuts in thick fog. Great run down the West Coast and rode some monster rollers through Cook Straight.

 

It was the time in which I learnt my Doctor can out snore anyone I've ever experienced and his idea of a healthy 3am snack is Wine Gum sandwiches.

 

We got quite ratfaced..... :lol:

Horrendously so. Those locals are bloody dangerous, I like their style :)

 

Twas anti-clockwise Mr Squid. No choice.

.

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Good shot there Mr B!

 

KM yeah we had a blinder up the East Coast. Ants was a little in front of us and chased breeze lines out to sea. We figured a sea breeze would build off the land so stayed in and lo and behold! horizon jobbed the fleet in 1 afternoon. We were round the top and down to around the Hokianga before anyone else got to Nth Cape just about. Tried the same trick the next day...... and after being passed by the whole fleet as well as the lunch tea bags finally got going well behind everyone.

Got well nailed off the 'naki, swept green twice, the waves were 15' high and a boatlength apart but after it went light again the mighty light airs ability of the Gable came through for us

 

I remember when we spotted the oil rig lights of New Plymouth we were a little confused but Rob Carpenter had done the RNI recently and said straight off what they were. Apparently a few in the fleet speared off out there thinking they were aiming at Nelson

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I remember that night off taranaki hard going in a noelex 30 small jib and a reef or 2 and one morning cooking omelettes in about 40 knots was there a prize giving?

Nelson 85.jpg

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Hey Wal! Clarke Gable? THE Clarke Gable? As in there's only one of them right? An older style Beale 36 with a tall masthead rig, needs a baby stay when on the wind in well, almost anything? Kinda looks like it. Friends of mine own it now and have done a few seasons on it in the Pacific. Sailed non stop to Tahiti last year (or was it the year before?) They are en-route to Opua as I type and will clear out after this next snot passes through and head for Fiji for their winter siesta. I'm sure that any photo's info about the boats sordid ( or otherwise) past would be of interest to them.

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We had a real sweet ride down the West Coast, bloody lovely tight kite most of the way in flat water. Sneaked a little close to the Rigs but it was OK talking to my new mate, one of the rig radio operators. He then tried hard out to get me to switch home to gas rather than electrickery. The things you yack about at 4am :)

 

BIG sea built as we entered Cook Straight. Surfing a P38 is fun if knot somewhat tricky due to their somewhat sluggish reaction speed. Great ride thru there though.

 

Apart from the seriously slow start it was a bit of fun for sure.

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Boots - that would be Tamaki Tramp? Modified? or with fixed keel? We thought you guys were well keen!! :thumbup:

 

AA - yup, that's the beastie. We were SO glad we'd put the baby stay on before the Nelson race. 2 reefs and the No 4 on and the rig was sweet. It's 52' off the deck and only a Die 18 Yachtspars section from memory tho that does sound ridiculously small but if it were bigger t'werent by much.

 

Pete Sowman and Roscoe Guiniven built the boat - tho I'd be prepared to bet that Pete did most of it. :lol: I did see Roscoe covered in sticky poop one day running a layer of kevlar down the keelson while it was still upside down tho.

 

As for sordid details - I'm sure I wouldn't know anything about those........

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You must have done a different year to me Wal. From memory, which does have it's moments, the big winds arrived as we hit the end. Mind you the front end of the fleet was a bit faster than us so it's possible they copped a blow we didn't.

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Dunno - I've had 1 or 2 small glasses of light ale since then.....

 

When we got the blow we were on port tack and if not hard on, close to it

 

Golden Bay was a millpond for a couple of days after we finished so you might have just got the bit of puff behind us as we finished. We were only a few hours behind Ants after all that

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Dunno - I've had 1 or 2 small glasses of light ale since then.....

 

When we got the blow we were on port tack and if not hard on, close to it

 

Golden Bay was a millpond for a couple of days after we finished so you might have just got the bit of puff behind us as we finished. We were only a few hours behind Ants after all that

 

Yeah that could quite possibly be it. Especially as the very slow start you had sounds just like ours only a day or 2 shorter :lol:

 

We got the wind just entering C Straight so it wasn't exciting for that long. Waves came up bloody quick though.

 

I do remember the 1st boats getting around Nth Cape in a small breeze that never made it back to us. Damn that light ale, I can't remember what other boats were there. The Doc will, he has better drugs than me :lol:

 

You weren't one of the Deros who thought they would be smart and catch the train home only to find they had to wait a whole day in Welly and it was a Public Holiday? Ended up in some boutique brewery for the days with some dudes I can't remember and ended up 100% Grade A maggoted by the time the train pulled out of the station.

 

I think it was in January but could be wrong. It was one of my more hazy periods.

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We took the Flying Drainpipe to Wellywood then hire care to Waipukarau (sp?) where we started in on the homebrew. The chick at the hire car desk asked if we were ok to drive? Hell yeah!

 

Got into bed that night and the damn thing tried to roll over ( and over and over and over) and throw me out but I was holding on tightly......

 

Would I do it again?

 

Well..... not on my boat.....

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