Jump to content

lebleaux

Members
  • Content Count

    101
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

Posts posted by lebleaux

  1. Well ... its been 4-5 months since I started this thread and it would be fair to say I have been somewhat absent since day 1. It has been a tough winter. However, a lot has happened to Auriga in the interim and we are close to leaving the marina. We will be taking part in a Friday rum race before the end of September, we should be in the fleet for the Squadron opening day and we have decided to enter the boat in the Coastal Classic. It is the 40th anniversary and we think we should be a part of it. So ... who is keen. I think 5 boats and we can have a division of our own. We will not be taking it too seriously, nostalgia and fun will be the order of the day. For those of us that sailed on the boat originally it will be 45 years since we ventured out overnight on a Chico 30 ... gonna be interesting

    • Like 1
  2. 1 hour ago, Trish said:

    I own a Chico and tried to get 5 Chicos to enter this year's Mahurangi modern classics division but only 2 of us made it. A rally to Motuihe might be more successful.

    PM me your contact details, the Mahuramgi regatta is something we would readily embrace.

  3. 1 hour ago, Sail Rock said:

    Hi Lebleaux

    I own a Chico 30. It’s been in my family for nearly 40 years. Berthed Pier M at Westhaven and you’re welcome to come have a look and trade war stories.

    Another Chico owner is connecting owners with a view to entering a Modern Classic division at the annual Mahurangi Classic Yacht Regatta. 
     

    Feel free to contact me by PM.

    Regards

    SR

     

    Have sent you a PM

  4. Auriga is on H Pier at Westhaven. Topsides have been painted back to original yellow. Some rot removed from the deck in the forepeak and over the main hatch. The cabin has been painted and we are waiting for a fine couple of days to get some deck paint on.Still very much a work in progress - we are not trying to make it pristine and pretend its new, but accept it is an old boat with a proud history and just give it a bit of a refresh. Drop by if you are in the neighbourhood - the fridge will be recommissioned soon-ish ... 

    • Like 1
  5. Out there in sailboat land thee are something like 70 Chico 30s. Our Chico, Auriga, will soon be up and running (well ...soon-ish) and I am wondering if there would be any interest in something like a Chico Rally - I am thinking of maybe a 'race' from somewhere to Motuihe on a Saturday with those who need to go home go, and those that can stay, stay for a bit of social. Maybe 3-4 'events' over summer, whatever. Let me know if there is any interest and I will/may attempt to organise.

    • Like 1
  6. Biggest disappointment for me was yet again the apparent disinterest in the event from Russell. Nothing happening on shore on Saturday morning. Not easy to get breakfast. Yet again we bugged out to Paihia on the ferry and then made our way home. 

  7. Very interesting. I have done several thousand miles in a Chico 30 called Auriga - Suva, Vila, across the Tasman and back for a Hobart race and numerous Akl-Gisborne and White Island races. At that time there was a large number of 30 foot ocean capable yachts in Auckland. A well founded Chico 30 would be about as good as you can get in that size if offshore is where you want to be ... and you can park them close to the settlement at Lord Howe island for the Friday Night Fish Fry ... if the fancy takes you.

  8. A day in the life of Urban Cowboy

     

    Thanks for all the well wishes in the thread and yes, all are safe and the boat will live to fight another day.

     

    We started with a blast down the harbour with the fractional chute, managed to get 16.9 knots indicated for a few seconds. After turning at the bottom mark we decided to go to a second reef during which the main unzipped for the third time this year - main has had 7 years of tough use and may have had its last sail. A new one was ordered a while back and we await delivery. So we decided to sail back under jib only and finish the race. While we had speed we could not point and ended up close to Bean Rock, at which time we had a problem (I have no details because I did not see what happened) that lead to the jib sheet being let go whereupon we immediately lost momentum and could not tack out. We started the motor and tried to tack the boat but really had no where to go and ultimately we drifted sideways until we touched down - quite gently given the conditions. We got the jib down, got the crew into life jackets and called the coast guard. After a couple of minutes or so, that felt like a life-time, we managed to get everything lined up and were able to back off the rock. A quick check downstairs showed no sign of water so we journeyed back to Westhaven. Boat has been up on the floating dock this morning and we are happy to report that the damage is cosmetic - bottom of the bulb will need to be faired again and we have lost an amount of fairing off the keel. The hull and rudder are untouched. So, a bit of hard work and some epoxy and we will be back up and running. 

     

    Once again thanks for the well wishes in this thread. The story could have turned out much worse for sure, but we will be back.

    • Upvote 2
  9. I have a Brookhouse Mux setup on Urban Cowboy, took the NMEA feed direct from the H3000 processor - very quick and easy to do. Have also written some quick and dirty code so that my PC at home can pretend its a mux so that I can test stuff and have built a data collector so I can play with Polars. Happy to help if you go that way.

  10. There is another aspect to this that i would like to raise - that is the role of 'crew'. The Westhaven website referes often to Berth Holders and 'their Guests'. The crew of a yacht are neither, they are Crew, part of a team without which I can not use the yacht for its intended purpose. Sometimes they take the boat out on their own, sometimes they carry out maintenance. In many respects they treat the boat as if it were their own. They are not 'guests', they are part of the team and I think that any parking restrictions must acknowledge the fact that if these people can not easily do they things that they typically do, then I as a berth holder can not operate in the way i expect to.

  11. Latest Westhaven newsletter says they have imposed a 2 hour time limit for parking in the white spaces. If you need longer then you have to go to the office and get a pass. Are they mad. How are they going to handle the volume of people on a Wednesday night who are struggling to get there in time. What happens at 7.00 qm when we have an early start so we can go race down the harbour. These guys will kill yacht racing at Westhaven if we let them.

  12. Yep, this new security arrangement is just plain dumb. We have crew members pop down to the boat from time to time to tidy up, do maintenance or whatever ... and yes we too have to wander to and fro to let people in. There has got to be a better way.

  13. Yep, it wouldnt work for me either. If I understand things correctly Easter always has a full moon and that makes navigation down the coast easier at night, and then there is plenty of time (3 days) to get back. November is too close to the Coastal (sometimes we dont bring the boat back until weekend following), Gold Cup, thoughts of the White Island race, all at a time when many of us are ramping up for year end. November would kill it for me.

×
×
  • Create New...