Coastal Crew Reports

[Black Panther 1,586]

[Black Panther 1,586]

[Black Panther 1,586]

[NXRIDE 0]

Report from No Worries

 

Starting mid line, we had made the desision to go with our lil red frac genny even though most others went for the mast head spiniker. We got stuck in a bit of sh*t from all the other boats and saw The Entertainer and Grunt Machine pulling away down to Leward. Gybe at North Headput us nice and high but with a few boats still shitting on us we decided to climb and get clear air. By Rangi light we had our clear air leading Div 4 and were mowing down most of Div 2 sitting between 10 and 13 knots.

 

We nearly beat our record of 1 hour to Tiri (that fateful 2012 Coastal...) and then looked over to see Grunt Machine facing the wrong way with their kite in a bit of a mess, nek minit...

 

North of Tiri we had some good sends getting us up to 17 knots helping us soak to get away from the Kawau shadow that turned out to be not that bad as expected. The Entertainer was ever present sitting down to leward tormenting us knowing that we had to be 4 min per hour in front. At this point we decided to soak in the puffs, expecting to see a shift to the south enabling us to climb back up to Brett later in the afternoon. We sat among some good company of Mojo, Squealer and Starlight Express, and with The Entertainer starting to fade behind and to leward we felt comfortable with our decision.

 

North of the Chicks we kept going for broke, hoping that the southerly would come in, and with a nowcast of 22kts from 186 at Manukau our hopes rose.

 

Nearly at the Poor Knights we heard a bang, but thought it was just the prod wobbling a bit, so dismissed it. minutes later owner Ian got back on the handle bars and proceded to 2 good (but uncharacteristic) wipeouts in some new breeze. a couple more good round-ups later the breeze spotter sitting in the pushpit excliamed that a bit portion of the rudder was gone... we now knew what the bang had been! We decided to keep going down in the puffs with lots of ease which was the only way to control the boat.

 

After passing Urban Cowboy we dropped the Genny and started to climb with the realization that the southerly wasn't going to join us, but seeing 30kts over the deck we put a reef in to get the big square top in control. Then our worst nightmare came true. The Entertainer was catching us, undoing the handicap leading advantage we thought we had over them. Shaking out the reef in lighter breeze, we soon realized that we had to do somthing... so back up went the Genny (after sending Wee Man out on the prod to re thread the tack) and down we went, back up in the mid teens with a heading just east of Brett and really having to be careful with our less-that-stable boat. Another bang saw the prod swing violently to leward... The articulation line had separated the casing from the inner. Quickly winching that on more didnt loose us too much time, but certainly got us wondering what else would break (and the image of Grunt Machine in everyones mind). Off Whangamumu we again had to climb up to the brett so the little red genny came down. Looking to windward we saw another lil red genny come down with pace from the mainland. Yes it was The Entertainer again...

 

The park up at Brett had the 2 leading 930s side by side after 10.5 hours of racing. We saw them hoist a big jib and with our #3 up and unsure of the wind in the bay it was anyones guess who would have the advantage. With a nice 10 knots we started to see the green nav light of The Entertainer sneak past. Bugger. We gave up on trying to chase them down and went for 2nd.

 

Knowing that the breeze would ease closer to Russel, I went and loaded up the Code Zero, and off Roberton Island we hoisted her in 4-8 knots of breeze and started to mow down anything that was in front of us. 200m from the finish, after polishing off Valium and another 50ft cruiser we saw a 30fter just to windward. It couldn't be... YES! Its The Entertainer!! With just her big headsail up, she was no match for our code zero and we passed her like she was going backwards. We got the gun and the record for Div 4 and the 930s!!

 

What a great race! Awesome turnout with 9 930s entered and holding the first 4 places with a big advantage to the rest of the fleet. Props go to Squid Vicious, a stock boat giving us turbos a run for our money and a big thanks to Andrew on The Entertainer for keeping us on our toes.

 

Can we make it 3 guns in a row next year? I guess we will have to wait and see..

[erice 732]

thanks, great report

[On tilt 0]

You boys on No Worries won the loudest boat in the bay too, there was a whole lot of celebrating going on!!

[Battgirl 23]

The race on Rage

Bought the boat on 2nd October. Thanks FnG for helping me to decide on this little beauty a Mull 31. Survey confirmed all good and at least she had a clean bum.

Sash and i had sailed so well together on Strider last year we decided to give this year's Coastal a go two handed provided i could get Rage ready in time. We agreed to change only stuff that needed changing and to avoid any publicity as 3 weeks to get the boat and ourselves ready was pressure enough.

We had 2 days sailing before the race to get used to the boat and its fractional rig and decided we would sail to our strengths using headsails, use spinnakers only in wind under 10 knots due to our limited spinnaker experience.

 

Our 3 race goals were to enjoy ourselves, stick to our race plan and meet the 1400 hours cut off time.

We worked ourselves and the boat hard, had a blast, stuck to our plan and finished in 19 hours, half an hour behind the ladies on Smudge.

 

Sash, amazing sailor she is, got the old girl in the groove and we had her surfing and planing up to 13.2 knots on the way to the Poor Knights using only the full main and the number two genoa on the furler. One nasty little gust forced us to sail on full main only for about half an hour and we reefed the furler a few times otherwise it was full main and furler all the way.

 

Apart from sailing a little wide going into Russell we were wrapped with our race and how the boat went. That the wind stayed in for the whole time only dying in the Bay was awesome. The icing on the cake was crossing the line in company with two other boats at 0439.

 

Thanks Sash for teaching me so much about sailing my boat. Thanks Steve McCabe for boat set up, fixing things at short notice, answering all my silly questions and helping us develop a race plan we had confidence in.

Thanks to Gary Mull for designing such a neat boat and for those guys in 1983 who knew how to build strong and light fibreglass boats.

 

Go hard or go home. Back yourself. Redemption on the racetrack.

[Tim C 23]

Coastal Classic 2014 on Pulse.

This year the slower boats went first, so there would be new challenges at the start of the race. As well as needing to lay Rangitoto light with an extra on in a fresh South Westerly, miss the large keelers, there would be smaller boats in the way.

With my wonderful crew of Kushila and Tania we counted down the start. A good gust had us put a reef in just before the start, and we started conservatively set up, but ready for anything, with staysail and screacher unfurled. Pulse felt nicely powered up out of the harbour. The boats we could overtake always meant a decision; Go down and risk going slow and getting stuck in their foul air, or go high and risk them luffing, or rounding up out of control with too large a kite on. So we had some fast sailing to Tiri Channel (well fast for Pulse!). We were all working hard trimming or steering. Flat rock in 2 hours, with the wind building in the gusts. Averaging 12 knots. Faster and faster we went past Cape Rodney, where I eventually called getting the screacher (code 0) down.

 

Another think about the forecast, which had evolved to a WSW, our best course seemed to be a 2 sail reach inside the Hen and Chicks. So we put full working sail up, and Pulse just felt like she was on rails as we reached towards Sail Rock. Sitting on 15 knots, while watching many of the big keel boats go out to sea with their big kites still on. By the Hen and Chicks we could see only one other boat, another catamaran. It seemed lonely considering 140 boats were out there! But we were less than 5 hours into the race.

 

Changed down to the staysail as the wind built off Whangarei, Off Ngunguru Bay we hit peak speeds, 18.7 on the GPS, 23 on the log. (yes with Kushila on the helm as I have been reminded…) Good fun.

The wind eased and backed on the way North, so the Screacher came back out. We watched Steinlager 2 climb out of the gloom from out to sea, but it was one of the few, the other 15 or so out there were now well behind us.

 

Perhaps the last good squall of the day saw us furl in the screacher and two sail into the Brett. Piercy Island in daylight is always a good site, even if a Maxi is coming the other way after already finishing the race and on the way home (why not party?)

 

We started the beat with the Staysail on, but the wind began to drop so back to the #1, and a nice lay through to Whale rock, as the sun went down. From there the usual beat in, trying to stay left, and in phase with the shifts. Often the big keel boats just cruise past us, but we only lost one this year.

 

We crossed the line at 9.46, in 30th place. On the website they had the first 30 places, so we felt good about that! We all sailed well, and my lovely lady crew did wonderfully! I felt happy to have done so well in a boat that I designed and built, not just the boat, but mast and sails as well.

 

A few rums afterwards to wind down. Saturday was spent with endless friends and visitors coming aboard. So much for that much needed nap. The prize giving and party was, as always, great. The band gets everyone up and dancing.

 

We had two overseas guests aboard for the sail home, one had never been sailing before. Breakfast at Roberton Island, dolphins on the way through the Bay of Islands, then a lovely gennaker ride down the coast in 15 knots. Teaching a wiling student the intricacies of apparent wind in perfect conditions. Tutukaka for a great dinner. Monday was a building Westerly, so a reach. There is a Pulse tradition of listening to ‘War of the Worlds’ in Bream bay, loud, on the way South. Of Rodney we peaked at 19 knots on some fun surfing waves. It was a pretty special sail, and pure New Zealand experience.

It was all going too well when we got a good 40 knots just off Rabbit Island, within site of home. 2 reefs and the staysail wasn’t small enough, but we made it back.

A great weekend! For those of you who think about doing the race; just do it! It is a great challenge, wherever you come in the fleet. Roll on next year!

 

Tim Clissold

 

Pulse xtc