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Route 66 2019


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Tide going out from Marsden Point until 11pm. Stick with it and the majority should be finished by 3-4am. Impressed how Bondi Tram going single handed near the SR26's. Wish more had their trackers on.

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Looks like 2 boats have stopped at Kawau, and maybe more on their way.  Can't face a long night sail?

Wind at Tiri is 4 gusting 6 from 018 degs.

There is the odd hole opening up around Kawau Bay / back of Kawau as far as I can see, from the comfort of my computer. Light and varialbe - not good weather for sailing races...

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Fantastic race thanks Richmond and all the other organisers.

 

From the Freedom we had a great race.

My crew was suffering a serious sinus infection but stuck it out and managed to stay awake long enough to hold the talking stick, while I did the sail changes ( good onya Liz). Fro off the start in a light easterly, managed to lay north head and found out how shallow it really is going into narrowneck beach as we came to a soft stop. No problem on a cat, let everthing go, pull up the dagger board and off we go again. 

Sub-optimal tho and hoots of laughter from TC on Pulse made sure we got our fair amount of ribbing for the episode. 

After that it was just a matter of staying high and swapping between number 1, masthead zero and fro all the way to Cape Rodney. 

 

Then peeled to gennaker after cape Rodney and it went aft, soft and pus y. I saw more wind up high so worked really hard to stay as high as possible and we ended up on a tight reach doing around 8-9 knots of boat speed in about 6 knots of breeze. Perfect angle for the cat into Fairway mark.

Then once around fairway mark my plan was to stay high and sneak out of the tide around Busby head. Unfortunately we sailed out of the tide straight into a huge hole. I quickly saw the error of my plan and gybed back into the tide ( and the breeze) then gybed back, the dropped the kite  and hoisted the no1, then peeled to a code zero to the finish.

THis error pretty much cost us a place as we were only 2 minutes behind 2 of 10 on handicap

Catabatic roared up on us while we were f$%king around showing them where not to go and took the handicap win. 

Well done Catabatic and 2 of 10.

Thanks to my awesome co owner Coen who came down on friday morning and helped us rig even though he went tramping for the weekend and my awesome crew Liz who stuck out a eally nasty cold and sinus infection.

THis is an awesome race.

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Had a great race with the lottery of the tide at the end. Loved the locals reaction at the prizegiving about moving the finish out of the harbour   "We have to start in your harbour, you can at least  finish in ours!" Last finisher at around 5 am - great persistence. 

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Yeah a great race ! Except for the bit from Tiri to Rodney that took us 12 hours

 

Highlights for us were discovering big lifts in close to Devonport after the start , yelling fake abuse at a mate on his 40 footer after forcing him to give way and tack , some of his crew didn’t know we were from Whanga and got their knickers twisted . Getting the land breeze off pakiri camping ground and hoisting the borrowed from UK massive assy and watching boat speed go up after 12 hours of doing 0.5 to 1 knot for 12 hours .

 

But the gold for me was handing the tiller to my daughter at 2 in the morning who’s only steered a few times and never with the genny up , she did fine after 5 mins so I left her to it under the watchful eye of my ever patient crew Scott and had a sleep . Came back up about an hour and half later boat speed was 8 knots and she was having a power nap on the helm ! Her best speed was 8.9 Not bad for a newby wrestling with an intimidating A sail in the dark .

 

Yes our harbour can be a bastard but it’s a great playing field leveler and it’s challenges like that along the way the that make yacht racing what it is . If there was no current or wind holes along the way the longest waterline or the biggest chequebook would win every time .

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Wow that is sobering news. Hope recovery goes well. I watched him leave with the ambulance officers and have been wondering all week how he was as did not look very well. As you say KM a good reminder of how easily bad stuff can happen.

Had reminders of that ourselves recently too - just how quick and unexpected bad stuff can be.

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Wow that is sobering news. Hope recovery goes well. I watched him leave with the ambulance officers and have been wondering all week how he was as did not look very well. As you say KM a good reminder of how easily bad stuff can happen.

Had reminders of that ourselves recently too - just how quick and unexpected bad stuff can be.

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