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EXPEDITION COPPELIA SIMRAD 100

 

Sally reports ….

 

We left Gulf Harbour at 6:20, in light fog. Like most we were slightly caught out by the punctuality of the start. Luckily we had a jib on deck and were able to get behind the line. We started at the windward end of the line under #1 then changed to our larger fractional kite. Rob again making a great start out of something that could have been very ordinary.

 

We worked our way along the Rangitoto shore, with Kiwi to windward, then worked the middle to right up the beat towards Rakino. At this point we needed to decide if we were going to go to the north of Rakino or not. The wind was supposed to go further left, and Expedition clearly showed the current wind already meant it was a lay from the north end of Rakino to Gannet. We decided to go to the south. The only danger was the boats to the left us getting more breeze, however our closet competition on series points Outrageous Fortune has committed to the southern track.

 

In hindsight, the wind did allow those to the left of us to catch up, however, due to timing we lost very little, while maintaining a lower risk.

 

After the restart at Gannet, we perceived we were struggling a bit with speed against the other boats. I am not really sure that we have had an opportunity to sail with boats close to us in these conditions, but we definitely both agree that we will be spending some time between now and the Round New Zealand race gaining confidence in our upwind numbers.

 

From Gannet to Little Barrier we decided to sail higher than the rhumb line, not something we usually do but, the now castings were indicating the breeze was continuing to go left. Rob took a break and I was lucky enough to get a nice drive using our very clear reverse LCD red NEXUS displays. I just cannot believe how clear they are! No need for new glasses for me.

 

Rob drove the boat as close as he dare to Little Barrier, and we hoisted once again our larger fractional kite, our early hoist allowed us to break from the “pack” we were with, which included Zen and Room to Move. The wind and waves gradually built as we sailed towards Kawau, we gybed in a very orderly manner, heading through the Tiri Channel at speeds up to 15 knots.

 

The wind continued to rise and close to Rangi light we decided that our “upto 12 knots true” kite should come down. We quickly changed to a heavy cloth class kite, nick named the whale catcher as we are pretty sure you could land a whale in it without damage.

Finally, the finished, it was great to hear the voice of Steve Cranch calling our boat name as we launched into a second letterbox drop for the night.

 

Things that worked well:

1. Our letter box kite drops, being able to get the kite down when we want gives me a lot of confidence.

2. The NEXUS NXR reverse LCD displays and the great pod Rob has built for them it is so nice to clearly see the numbers.

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Simrad 3 – Norseman II

 

.Some pics attached from the leg to Gannet.

 

 

Richard

 

Thanks for the great photo of Southbound - first we have of her under sail since we purchased her some months ago - have PM'd you to see if we could get a high res version.

cheers

Simon

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