Freedom GBE

I find that people that bring thier own life jacket on the boat, wear them. The life jackets on the boat are never worn. Probably because guests feel embarased. Human nature?

Take care Shane in Kaikoura. I hope you have a good depth sounder. Check the list of gear you need for CAT 3. Keep us posted.

Bare feet is my favourite. You can feel when you are slipping and then have a chance to grab something on the way down. Also tend to stomp less on your crew. Not that I tried to but bare feet is proabaly better for swimming just in case

My brain was thinking misogynistic like KM. I was just clever enough not to say it out loud. Clever Dr Watson.

There should be options of punishment that offenders can choose over prison. If this guy that ploughed through the dolphins was caught, he should have the option of having someone run him down in a speed boat. That's fair. Rapist should have the option of being castrated. This rugby guy spar with Joseph Parker.

Very cool 600 amps at 12 V. Does it draw 7000+ watts. That's my limit with electronic knowledge. A bit scary. That would blow a few fuses and heat up the wires.

15 knots is not slow. A prod should do the trick. Drive it like you stole it, screecher on a prod definitely increases things going bad as in stressing, breaking things. Also need an expensive furler. Screechers also have a narrow window where you can use it. But if you want to get in before dark on the coastal classic you will want a screecher. If you don't have a prod I assume you don't have a genaker? You definitely need a large genaker. I usually enjoy a send on a kite more than the angle of death on a screecher.

The one with a strange little cross on top. Hail Mary

Storm, long, short, multi course. Which one is Navy Buoy. We had an easy quick ride most of the way until Rakino Passage and decided to tack badly on every nock and aim for every rock. All good.

I hope you wont be too tired to party. The CC isn' t just on the water race, competition continues. Which boat will party's the hardest?

Coast Guard is awesome

Individual 4mm Dynema lashings. Spliced loops to the ends. They don't break but we did have to strengthen and double up the holes in the engine pod. We have also heat shrunk the ends of the rods so they don't slip out of the tramp. Working so far. You will have to come to Auckland with your old tramp and Bill Barry will reproduce you the best tramp you can buy.

Is the almanac critical information? Who really uses the almanac? We actually need a GPS or two with charts (one for each cockpit). Why do the charts for these cost $150?

Great course for the multis. Reach on the start. Good to see the big Slime and Taiping battling it out. The bigger cats and the foiler would have had a lot on. Tight sail to Gannet rock. From Gannet to Shearer Rock Buoy was the real test. There seemed to be more wind and waves further out. Pushed it very hard. So much fun that we went to far past the buoy and lost to Voom and Tigre. Back up around Motutap. The tri Push Play trucked passed us with unprecedented upwind speed and poor Tigre had a problem with their headsail. Nice little reach through the channel on flat water, pip

AMI was good, premiums low. Replaced our mast with a nice new one, but wouldn't insure us again after that.

Predictwind and fast boat might be my preference to a steel grader with a large sea anchor. I am sure Vodafone wouldn't fear too well in a waves like that but then she can out run a storm.

Has anyone tried soft shackles?

Great idea Tim. A small retrieval line on the luff of the jib is much safer. Furling our screecher has gone pear shaped more often than not. But then we tend to furl it up way too late and try and furl it in too much breeze. You would go really well with a small prod and a light weight overlapping code 0. In five knots of breeze you would probably do 10 knots.

Great

A mooring in central Auckland is about a third of the price. Check your insurance policy first before buying the mooring.

Upwind. Flying a hull is what makes the GBE change gear and comes up 10 degrees or more. We sail more by the GPS than the woollies or sail shape, reach until we get the most speed possible then, crank the head sail on as much as we can and close the slot. At the same time sheet the main so that the top back winds, crinkles and keep pushing the boat down as much as you can. We keep the crew forward and to leeward to dig the nose down and keep the hull flying. The kids love it. One of them holds the GPS and tells me when we slow down. Speed is your friend. Quite different to a mono

We got three ropes connected to our chain. I will check the boats around me next time and might add a second rope to each old derelict time bomb.

I am surprised to see the tracker working at the back of the Barrier.

Coastal type multihull is unlikely to catch fire when sailing. I cant think of any that have caught fire. One of the hulls on Play Station (offshore cat) caught fire about 15 years ago. If one hull catches fire we should be able to hang on to the other one until help arrives. We have four buckets on board we should be able to contain a fire with that. Can never have too many buckets. I am glad no cooker is required. More items should be recommended to make it easier and so that more boats get certified. I like the idea that clubs can specify specific requirements such as a tracker.

A stove should not be required and if a stove is not in we wouldn't need 4kg of fire extinguishers just 2kg will be fine per engine and per stove. Two hacksaw blades will be more than enough. I wouldn't use a life raft. No more almanacs please. No pyro flares. Need an inner forestay. One LED flare per person. And a few rolls of duct tape saved us a few times.