Jump to content

2012 Coastal Classic - Race reports here


Guest

Recommended Posts

A video race report from Fineline:

 

Dammit! Sorry I missed it. Seems like an epic trip.

 

A small correction Hamish, I believe that wind was "easing", not building...

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the sound system played a major part in the lack of concentration at the prize giving, I was standing at the bar ( of course ) and couldnt even hear it. Once you loose an audiences attention it is very hard to get it back.

Link to post
Share on other sites
I wasn't complaining about the organisers as I know it's a difficult job. I thought some of those attending the prize giving weren't considerate enough.

 

I also wasn't complaining about the organisers. Just commenting on why we didn't turn up to the prize giving and why we didn't stay when we did find it. The race was really well organised, with all the information you needed at hand. I just thought it was a shame about the prizegiving, and put forward what we found.

 

I'm sure we were not the only ones..

 

One man's äwesome" band is another man's "jeeze that's loud" ... Never thought those words would come from my mouth, but there you go.. :oops: :oops: :oops:

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

One man's äwesome" band is another man's "jeeze that's loud" ... Never thought those words would come from my mouth, but there you go.. :oops: :oops: :oops:

 

Some of my uni colleagues drove up for the piss up and loved the band as well as taken advantage of drunk rich young sailors :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Link to post
Share on other sites
as well as taken advantage of drunk rich young sailors

 

I've met plenty of young sailors, plenty of drunk sailors and plenty of drunk young sailors, but I've never met any drunk rich young sailors. I seriously doubt they exist.

Link to post
Share on other sites
as well as taken advantage of drunk rich young sailors

 

I've met plenty of young sailors, plenty of drunk sailors and plenty of drunk young sailors, but I've never met any drunk rich young sailors. I seriously doubt they exist.

 

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Link to post
Share on other sites
drunk rich young sailors
DEFINITE oxymoron. Even those who start rich tend not to stay that way very long after the bar opens.

 

Thats what happened to this guy. who got played hard.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Nice Video Hamish. Go Pro I presume? What editing software do you use??

 

I think it was a Canon PowerShot G9 in a waterproof dive housing with a wide angle converter. Edited in Windows Live Moviemaker.

 

 

Nahh...it was a canon S95...very nice camera, I really recommend it!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Broken Records Broken Rigs Broken Sails

 

This is the Crac-A-Jac Story

 

The 2011 Coastal Classic Devonport to Russell Labour weekend dash will be remembered for vodafones blistering 100 mile sprint to Cape Brett in 3 1/2 hours. Crac-A-Jac would also record her fastest time of 20 hours 41minutes for the 120mile race.

 

The forecast was for a sunny 15-20 south westerly slowly softening during the night and if we were lucky no parking lots.

 

Vodafone had recently returned from a tour of the east coast of Australia and was ready for another crack at the race record, currently held by the 100ft Alfa.

 

Crac-A-Jac was ready for her 4th coastal, her recent birthday had been focused below the water line and with a traditional south westerly we were ready for a fast trip north.

 

Motoring out to start with all the other race boats is always a great occasion, and with the wind direction this would provide the colourful spinnakers a quick burst around North Head and north to the bay.

 

A boat end start is the call as we make our way into the starting area, ready with the kite at T - 17 seconds we hoist. We have good clear air and are able to reach down over the fleet for an inside berth at the monster, ready for a tight reach out to Rangi Light. An hour later just past the light we still have over half the fleet behind us, as our little sails crank us along at 8knots. With the occasional burst to 10knots sliding down some nice waves. These waves help us hang onto our position well into the Tiri passage and out the other side towards Kawau and Flat Rock - our first radio check in.

 

Passing by Kawau Island the breeze is bending forward and we are needing to reduce sail, small jib and a tuck in the main is the gear we need and Crac-A-Jac is soon planning again laying course to Sail Rock. No point sending it out to sea, this little yacht is better sticking to the rumb line.

 

By the time we make Sail Rock, the seas are a great size for sliding down pushing us along at good bursts of 11-12knots. However the breeze is heading for a sleep and we now need more horse power, up with the big gear and reach off to the east for some offshore gage on Cape Brett, some 40 miles NW. Settling into our watch system we pump and grind our way to 02:00 when Coast Guard radio is called to confirm our position at the Brett.

 

Still with the big gear up we tack our way past Whale Rock, Red Head and finally rounding the last corner into the bay where the finish boat is on station. At 07:01 we cross for Crac-A-Jac's fastest trip north. No broken, sails, masts, booms, ropes or split tea. Just a great ride. Later we would learn that not only had the record been broken but Laury had flipped, Exodus was dis-masted, Spearhead had had Boatslut mopping up bilges and Outrageous Fortune was behind the 1050's at the Brett - others had clearly had a shocker.

 

A big shout out and thanks to Mike from Sea Safe for helping us with the tracker and personal EPIRB's also Westpark Marina for helping with a new bottom paintjob, Grunta for helping out installing new keel bolts and long hours sanding. also all of you that like to stay under the radar donating what you can, your contributions are greatly appreciated............. AND the Crac-A-Jac Shore Crew - making food, collecting supplies and all that fetch and carry work. Another great team effort.

 

We finished 3rd on PHRF for the 2 handed division and the smallest boat to finish the 2011 Coastal Classic Yacht Race

 

:-)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Team Vodafone Sailing

Coastal Classic 2011

 

We have had a lot of people ask how the race went for us so here goes…

 

Quite a few comments centred around how the tracker stopped working a couple of times…

Well I’m pretty sure the tracker was working ok, the boat just slowed down a few times!

 

The start was sweet with plenty of room for everybody.

We had the genacker set up ready to go, but luckily we decided to play it conservative a couple of minutes before the gun and did not pull it out.

A nice puff out of the start had us soaking down to Bean Rock in no time, where we gybed for the first and only time in the race.

The genacker was still furled up ready to go but wasn’t needed as we picked up some nice puffs out of Narrow Neck that sent us out of Rangi Channel.

It was a wicked start, sitting on 25kt bursts of boat speed before we got to Rangi Light.

 

We layed through to Tiri Channel ok, without having to deploy the genacker.

This was fantastic as reaching is way quicker than running.

 

1055 we made Flat Rock

1155 we were abeam of Sail Rock

 

We had good breeze, around 20kts of pressure at 240M.

We decided to run outside the Hen and Chicks

Last year in similar pressure the breeze died down the Tutukaka coast so we wanted to hang off the coast hoping to keep the pressure longer.

 

Off the coast a little we got more pressure, it eventually climbed to 30kts, still out of 240M

Damn!

More breeze isn’t necessarily faster…

 

We had three gear changes down, each taking at least 5 minutes and boat speed out of the 20’s

 

Mind you we had some great sends with 2 reefs in the main and just the ORC jib (like a #4).

Sitting on low 30’s for what seemed like ages at a time, awesome!

And on course, even better!

 

10 miles from Cape Brett the breeze started to lighten and we started to shake out the reefs and change back up to the big headsails.

 

Shaking reefs out / changing gear is slow… but we are looking good to make the Bret by 1400 

 

As it turned out we could not shake the reefs fast enough.

While we had planned to stay 2 miles off Piercy and give the Cape a wide berth, we still ran into a huge windless hole, 5miles + around the Cape.

 

We got to Cape Brett by 1400, that is an easy 25kts average boat speed.

When we take into account the gear changes (about 5) we couldn’t be happier with that run.

 

BUT it took us a solid half hour to get the couple miles past Cape Brett and into the Bay

The 000’s came up on the boat speed jumbo several times.

You can imagine the frustration.

The dickhead navigator had shopped us again!

 

Once in the Bay we had bit of a dodgy breeze to start with and didn’t even lay up to the ‘Nine Pin’ on the other side of the Bay (we were hard on the wind).

 

In some ways we were happy to have no tacking options at this stage as we couldn’t tack!!!

 

The mast had been out for repairs.

The mast only went back in the boat on Wednesday night and the boys got the sails on and rigged her Thursday. The short sail we had pre-start was to make sure we the side stays etc were set up ok.

 

Unfortunately we didn’t get to give the newly installed #2 Genoa/Furler halyard lock a test run until we got to Cape Brett, and of course , Murphy’s law it was stuck!

The #2 Genoa is on its own furling headstay, set back from the #1Genoa which is on the forestay. We couldn’t tack the #1 conventionally with it up in place.

In the end we muscled up and un-hooked the bottom of the stay and tied it back to the mast.

 

Back to the race. We pretty much had a dead maggot beat into Tapeka Pt. The breeze went from 2-3kts at Cape Brett to 30kts by the time we finished.

 

The last 15 miles to the finish took us pretty close to 1 hour 44 minutes in total. Ouch!

 

Our elapsed time was 5 hours 44 minutes and some seconds.

 

Somebody will break our record soon, I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t take 1hour 44 to do the last 15 miles.

 

Can’t wait for that elusive South Easterly

Link to post
Share on other sites
Nice Video Hamish. Go Pro I presume? What editing software do you use??

 

I think it was a Canon PowerShot G9 in a waterproof dive housing with a wide angle converter. Edited in Windows Live Moviemaker.

 

 

Nahh...it was a canon S95...very nice camera, I really recommend it!!

 

I second that, the S95 is an awesome little camera. It's only about the size of a pack of fags and fits into your pocket so easily but it's also extremely capable for a compact. I use a big SLR (7D) for my serious stuff but my little S95 is the one I have me all the rest of the time 'just in case'.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...