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Akarana 350


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I have some constructive criticism to add . We were asked to hold up our PFDs and tethers 15mins before the warning so the officials in the RIB could see we had them on board which is all good and reasonable .

 

Problem is the official wanted the oldest looking one opened up and the service cert read out . We had the main up breeze was quite fresh and the were boats everywhere .

 

Skip yelled out it was recently serviced and date and name of services was written in permanent marker and he didn’t want to unpack it . Official didn’t look impressed but those things are bastards to pack on land let alone playing dodgems at the pre-start .

 

So Could be a good idea in future for PFDs to be taken to briefing for checks by organisers but it’s still a grey area if you’ve serviced it yourself and don’t have a cert

That sounds like BS to me, as is the requirement to have pfds serviced by the manufacturer. Just adds to costs. Silly stuff.

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Great event. Everyone I know thought the coverage was excellent. My parents followed it from Aussie and even my grandparents from Nelson.

We had a great time and learnt a lot about the Motorboat II.

The racing among the 35fter was close.

Good to see the Truxton boys going so fast and sailing sharp. Well done.

Also good to see some smaller boats out there.

 

I followed it from Offshore Sarawak. Was brilliant! The trackers are the flies in the ointment. From a spectator's point of view, better trackers would make a big difference.

Great coverage from the Motorboat as per usual. I'm not sure how many people understand the effort required to do this when you have other important things on like finding the last bottle of rum, or making sure there is enough battery power to turn on the stereo!!  ;-)  ;-)  ;-)  ;-)

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Interesting topic form a race organisation perspective

FB is definitely the easiest way to post updates, livestream starts etc, we had a dedicated FB poster (mrs T Rex) for the Triple Series, it was actually a request from our sponsors, our home page also feeds all FB posts

It’s really hard to find people willing to collate, embellish and post updates, but we are working on it for RNZ

 

For the RNZ we will be using YB Trackers again, these have a proven performance record but will be $500 per boat and that’s at only 1 hour updates, more updates, more $$

We have a new sponsor for the tracker page which will be announced soon, this will cover a part of this cost but will give great exposure for them as I’m sure most yachties will be checking in hourly.

 

Congratulations to all the yachts that qualified for the RNZ and thanks to RAYC for making the race fit our criteria

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I thoroughly enjoyed following this race.

I hope this race becomes a regular/ annual feature, and I'd like to see more of this type of racing in an annual calendar, to provide a bit of a campaign for boats to focus on. This type of race being longer, multi day, but still CAT 3 races that provide a meaningful personal challenge and some great sailing experience.

 

I think the PW tracker is great. It enable me to follow this race. Not very long ago, you'd have to f*ck around with radio scheds, which were twice a day only and took a fair bit of volunteer time. No, the PW tracker is not perfect, but it is free, and easy. As it becomes more commonly adopted, those little issues will get ironed out, phone charging on board, cell boosters on boats, choosing the right provider for coverage, etc. The PW tracker is a big step forward over nothing!

 

The race was interesting to me because there was a good fleet of 'normal' boats (not too big, not too flash and many short handed), I could follow it, and its something I aspire to do myself.

 

On the publicity / sponsorship / numbers thing:

I only expect the after race comms to be crew written race reports, posted on social media, and the results posted by the organiser. The best post race comms are from the boats, their trials and tribulations, small successes and emotions etc. This is an armature race.

 

I wouldn't do a race like that to get publicity for me or my boat, nor to drink rum at the end. It would be about the challenge, personal accomplishment and competition. - That makes the rum taste much sweeter...

I think for events to succeed, and the sport to grow overall, they need to be easy for the volunteers, or at least not arduous. So that is a big consideration.

 

On numbers and sponsorship, I may be biased but I think all the money is in the smaller / slower boats. That is certainly where the latent numbers are that could come out of the wordwork and have a go. All the cruiser racers that have been put over to cruising, the older boats that weren't bad in the day but outdated now, the slower boats that are still good fun and rewarding to sail. The type of boat where the owner decides 'he could do that' - 'I'm up for that challenge', and then starts pimping out his 30 yr old log of wood to make it happen.

 

In my case, I'd be after a new main for starters, but not long after that probably a prod, some of these new fangled furlers, upgraded autopilot controller, upgraded instruments, maybe some AIS, solar charging and batteries,replace my sheets, I'd love a new lighter rudder... its like going down a rabbit hole. But if I'm only cruising, I'll make the main last, wont get the fruity performance bits and will make do with what I've got.

 

This spending is all good for the industry. And as we know, sponsorship follows the dollars. Sponsors need an ROI. You need a demographic that wants / needs to spend money, and its the older / slower boats that need upgrading or renewal of old gear. This is all based on the premise that the best boat to race is the one you already own. Take it, race it, slowly start upgrading it and making it competitive. But the logic is sales dollars for sponsors to court, which is more attractive with greater numbers.

 

And here is the bit on numbers, you want to race against similar boats (to have competition). This race had a collection of boats with sub 0.75 PHRF, meaning if I entered, I wouldn't be by my self. Success breads success with regards to numbers (refer the SSANZ triple series). But the little / slow boats need to be looked after as well. This can be done very easily, without additional volunteer work, with a slight refocus of the enthuses of the race. 

 

What is the race for?

Who 'won' the race?

 

Is the race of the first boat across the line? or the fastest boat on corrected time?

Do you report the winner as the first boat across the line, or the fastest boat on corrected time?

 

More often than not, the line honours winner is a foregone conclusion. They can often have a bad race and still take line honours. It just happens that Rantan 2 won line and corrected, so big ups to them. Now, this isn't a critiscism, just a comment, I was a little bemused when the article announced they set a new record for the race (it was the first race, so all they had to do was finish first) I didn't note mention of who the 'winner' was in that story, just hat a new race record was set...

 

If the focus is put on the 'winner' being the corrected winner, it means any boat entered, big or small can win. So any boat entered is racing (and spending money on thier boat) for that win.

 

Take the Fastnet, generally there is a focus on the overall corrected time winner. Recently a Contessa 32 won that race, that is a 40 yr old small boat. Most recently 35 and 39 fters have won it - admittedly those were JP 10.80's, which smoke under IRC, and a JNA 39, what ever that is. Ran, a JV 72 did win it recently, so the 'winning' is shared around. But here is the thing, a heavy 40 yr old 32 fter won the Fastnet! That means any good keen guy can have a go, in the boat he's got now, and if he prepares carefully, preps his boat well (i.e. spends some $$$), is cunning, smart and resilient n the race, he stands a chance of glory - its not decided by waterline length or chequebook racing.

 

And the Fastnet has a problem with entry numbers - they need to limit them.

 

Contrast the Sydney Hobart - the worst thing for that race is the supermaxi's - old shitboxes that duke it out for line honours - the actual race gets completely overlooked by the corporate boats with celebrity dial a crew, that only race once a year, and need a corporate budget just to run - not attainable even by a very wealthy sailor.

 

So the key to sponsorship is more numbers, the key to more numbers is:

A) a focus on the 'winner' being corrected time winner (no extra work for volunteers in comms, just a focusing of the message)

B.) ease of entry, including ease of safety requirements etc - note, this does not mean cheap entry fees. For the Akarana 350, I note Sat phones weren't required, a major set up on the old White Island requirement (for a very similar race), so credit to RAYC there. It was CAT 3, so opens up the entry requirements there. I've said plenty about crew club membership and sea survival certs in another thread so wont re-hash those again. I think safety requirements could be relaxed or modernised, but that is over to YNZ to pull finger on. When was the last time a liferaft was used in a CAT 3 race? Flares again, there are other threads covering this stuff. Cumulatively, making entry (safety compliance) easier is a big thing.

 

So big ups to RAYC for this race, I really hope to see it become a regular, and I hope plenty of smaller / older boats enter, even when its not an RNI qualifier year.

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We chose this race as thought it would be a good way to learn the new boat, and qualify for RNI well ahead of time.

 

We feel it was a well organised event, at briefing it was put to our attention that our safety is at the forefront which is very reassuring to know the organisers are looking out for you.

 

Great race, while our result wasn’t fantastic is great to see a good bunch of 35 footers out there. We definitely didn’t have the gear the other 35 footers nor some of the 30 footers had but we still enjoyed ourselves and learn’t lots.

 

Unfortunately we didn’t make it to prizegiving due to having engine issues and lack of sleep and with work the next morning, would of been great to catch up with the other competitors.

 

Tracker was great to check up on the other competitors, will hopefully be back for the next one!

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It was mentioned that RAYC has 4 long races to choose. White Island, Three kings, Yates cup and now the Akarana 350.

So next year likely to be a different one to this year. Also probably a good qualifier for the following years RNI race.

I loved how close the racing was, for such a long race.

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Three Kings was last held in 2013. First time we had taken the CC further than Russell. Another great course. Who knows?

 

It was a fun race, but another one where most of us were still out there at the time of the scheduled prize giving.

 

If only we could have shaken that little boat behind us with the big purple kite...

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It was a fun race, but another one where most of us were still out there at the time of the scheduled prize giving.

 

If only we could have shaken that little boat behind us with the big purple kite...

It was a fun race...

 

Only race where the discussion was "if we don't have wind by midnight we will have to start the motor so crew can get to work" (At that stage we were leading on LH)

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It was a fun race...

 

Only race where the discussion was "if we don't have wind by midnight we will have to start the motor so crew can get to work" (At that stage we were leading on LH)

I forget who was leading on the water? Had it in my head it was outrageous. Of the monohulls. I remember catching Vodafone and 888 after Rodney on the way north.

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