Freedom GBE

Nav lights still burning bright this morning. You must get a prize from the committee for having enough power in your battery to run your nav lights for a week, LEDs are just so good.. Lanny turned them off this morning. Relaxing race today in the harbour only three 8.5s.

We got two different brands of furlers, they both end up in a birds nest at times or the sail wont furl up tight and you end up with the top flapping around.

Agreed a large flat gennaker is best down wind and reach in the light no need for a furler. Had a furler cluster f on the screecher (code 0) in yesterdays race which wasn't much fun. Furling a sail is more complicated than it looks.

Great day. No rain and lots of wind. Went down the mine on the first leg dropping the mast head kite, took it easy after that. Cruised passed Sailor Moon lying on its side around Gannet Rock. After Shag Rock we crossed Motorboat, sending it on a large kite. They looked good, made it look very easy. Knowing that the next leg would be a challenge we wisely resisted putting up the fractional kite. Dragon cruised passed us. Wind really picked up after going around Black Rocks. Quite wild. Voom was in front of us in irons and we went down to investigate. We thought we saw a shark

I shall put two pies in the oven. Percolated steaming hot coffee, steam pudding with ice cream for dessert.

Too much helm is risky and slow. Raked the mast back and found that playing with the centre board depth also affects balance.

Good choice Mad family. Would the coastal classic be on the cards? Route 66 maybe?

We also shortened our rudders.

I have only used the second reef once in the last three years. When it gets windy you can reduce the risk by sailing angles up wind and down wind only, avoiding the angle of death. But then again my family just want to go fast and enjoy overtaking launches.

This Way Up is good value. You will never be short of crew wanting to come and do the Coastal classic. May have to invest in some good wet weather gear for the whole family. I would say you could be the fasted boat in Whangarei. You can be at the Barrier in no time. Set up little pup tents on the big trampoline.

Auto inflate PFD not so good on a Cat.

Along Tamaki Drive where the seawall was built on the beach the sand washed out due to bouncing waves of the seawall. Adding course sand along the seawall stopped most of this.

We have one of those old mains. The cloth is stretchy and the top wont ever sit very well. Don't look up, crank on the main , just look at the head sail which should be strapped in hard and have a narrow slot. Boat speed is your friend, push your boat speed over ten knots, send your heaviest crew onto the bow and fly a hull.

Inspiring hard working guys. Lucky too. Sailing in Rio crap. Party should be good.

Life lines don't look very safe. Several thousand people on far worse boats coming across as refugees.

I have only done this race in mono's and remember wiping out around Channel island every year. Then a slow slog along the coast. More wind on a cat would be interesting.

Camp grounds are no longer camp grounds most have turned into trailer (trash) parks. Open reserve all the way. I wish that all development was pushed, way back and we have natural beaches for all not just the few that are rich. Quite like Tawharanui style reserve with just a few small tent sites dotted and hidden in bush. Trees and shrubs are needed on the coast to hold back erosion and save our wildlife. Cars can be parked way back and all these fatties can get out of their cars and walk to the beach.

SS doesn't seem ideal. The carbon fibre interacts badly with SS and SS with aluminium. Has anyone used titanium? No corrosion. Reasonably strong, lightweight. Seems ideal for nuts, bolts and washers.

Got the long shaft Yamaha 8 goes well. A bit noisy Ventilation is big issue motoring direct into wind and waves. We went through two Genuine Yamaha low pitch props, the rubber bush is quite soft, slips and burns out like an old clutch plate. We now got a low pitch Solas prop , the salesman reckons the rubber bush is harder and tighter. We also added small plastic wing foils which seem to reduce some ventilation.

We have a few SS washers and bolts creating rust stains down the hull. Does anyone know how to prevent those rust stains?

Nice. Some very cool systems on the Swedish cat. Self tacking headsail is also nice. I can watch this video over and over again and look for more intriguing systems.

Gusting 70km close to 40 knots at the Mokohinaus at 3am.

Just seen the photos on the start line on the SSANZ website. The Chinese wedding was more exciting. Nice breeze now showing at Tiri. Bit of swell. Will be a big race. Is there a tracker?

One hand on the tiller, the traveller in the other. The head sail sheet on one knee, main sheet on the other knee. On Saturday by myself just past the Tiri Channel in a sudden shifty gust, I let go of traveller and tiller, unlcleat both main and head sail at once and ran to the mast and dropped the head sail. No steerage, need to let go of main and head sail at the same time so that the boat doesn't round up or go down the mine.

Your main sheet has a very similar block set up at the back of the boom than ours but ours then goes back to blocks on the boom close to the mast, down to blocks on the side of the anchor well and then up to small winches in the cockpit. We crank it on quite hard to fly a hull. In this photo you can just see the sheets set up if you zoom in.