Battleship

The Cyclades will be a lot more comfortable at anchor or in a marina than most NZ made boats for similar coin, the NZ made boat will sail a lot better. The Cyclades is pretty much a motor sailor especially upwind. Depends if you like sailing or not really.

continuing the thread drift I have and still use both tiller and wheel, I also converted one boat to a tiller and am thinking of going back to a wheel, definitely prefer a tiller racing upwind but a wheel is hard to beat blasting downwind in a blow. A lot depends on the cockpit layout but it's pretty easy to wedge your foot under the wheel and sit down for hands free steering provided you have the boat balanced properly. I wouldn't go cruising without a decent pilot, I barely steer at all over the christmas holidays, it sucks being tied to the wheel/tiller.

It is pretty rare to see nothing at all, you can usually make out shapes provided you have no bright lights on that ruin your night vision. Of course staring at the GPS can also ruin your night vision I usually make a waypoint and then use a compass bearing to follow. Night sailing can be a lot of fun but I would not choose to go sailing at night in the rain unless it was during a race or on a passage that had to made.

Depends on the weather. We are looking at it.

We just used awlwood on our carbon bits. Lasts for 10 years on timber if done properly and is still like new after 4 so far. Pretty durable as well with a nice gloss. Needs a few coats though and isn't cheap.

Well done Richard and Corey. still got a third after all that. Oops looks like Rigs ended up 3rd. Good effort everyone for finishing.

I think the main goal for Ilex was just to get around. They had a few unscheduled stops. Think New Plymouth was steering issues. They were certainly trucking at the Mangonui to Welly start.

I am sure no offence would be taken. Most are still probably recovering (if they are not still out there). It is a major achievement just to complete this race any thing else is a bonus. Got to be the toughest regular race in NZ if not further afield, must ask some of the crews who have done races such as the hobart etc to see how it compares.

I think you are mis reading what was said re: crew swapping, From the race documents "1.1 If requested by the owner/skipper and approved by the race committee, either member of the crew may be replaced by another properly qualified person until 6 hours prior to the start of any leg. From this time on the crew may not be changed for the leg. The same crew must complete all legs to be eligible for overall prizes" I think that is fair enough, could be any number of legitimate reasons a crew member may not be able to compete in all legs.

Tracker has a bit of a hiccup by the looks, I say most are catching up on much needed sleep but it should be updated once they get in.

A couple still out on the course. Think they are planing a Gisbourne restart today.

Sounds like they are going to have a go at live streaming the start via ssanz Facebook page. Hope it works, but don't get grumpy if it doesn't pretty sure it's the first time they have tried this.

Truxton definitely second on line, I think they had Sunfast's time and ours back to front but it has been rectified now.

Didn't Frank Cammas get his leg severely injured by a foil not so long ago?

The Sailor who wont give up. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04tpm8z 6.2 knots now

Pretty sure he can still get weather info but yes his routing would be nonsense as the polars wouldn't be in the ballpark, I guess he could adjust them down to about 10% but even then they would be just guessing. Good to see he is on a winning board at least for now. Must be tough he'd be able to smell the land from where he is.

Looks like he might start to get some tails winds on Thursday morning, sounds like he's in good spirits despite the lack of food. http://www.conradcolman.com/single-post/2017/02/21/Update-day-108-dodging-ships

In my opinion all inflatable lifejackets are aweful once inflated no comparison to a good non inflatable. But the comfort whilst not in use makes it more likely to be put on in the first place.

Our local guys serviced ours for no charge, the spinlock ones are nice but honestly I find my hutchwilco just as if not more comfortable.

Finished the pipe berths on the Grey submarine. The main problem now will be sleeping in. Bring her back to akl on Monday.

Could you use some weight belt weights? If so a dive shop would be good.

From Facebook " We just got a call from a very happy skipper. Even though his computer is down at the moment and he can't send pictures or emails (working on it later) the boom is up with a sail on it. Conrad will put up the jib during the night. Long long day but determination and patience pays off and he's got a "mast"!!"

Agree with all that Mark, I am not a fan of IRC and think that PHRF has really improved over the last 5 years or so. I don't think the handicaps or safety are so much are to blame for the dwindling fleet, it is just that a lot more of us are time poor.

Exactly and as fleets shrink the less of these similar designs in the same handicap bracket there are to race against. IRC is good if you have the cash, want to buy a stock Euro boat and go and race. PHRF works well for most of us who have not so much cash but can buy a cheaper Kiwi boat then blow all our rent and food money tweaking it.

http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/Americas-Cup---Emirates-Team-New-Zealand-reveal-big-AC50-breakthrough/151751