Three Kings Offshore Race

[Fish 0]

Boom, go the Townsen 32

A proper kauri log takes out the Three Kings race on PHRF

[Aussie 0]

The 2013 Telecom Business Hub Three Kings Offshore Race finally came to a close tonight at 18:09:16 when Cool Change a Ross 8.5 crossed the finish line at Orakei. (104 hours after it started!!!)

 

Congratulations to all the competitors for a fantastic race! It might have been slow but we heard the fishing was fantastic (Truxton caught a King Fish!).

 

Only Isa decided it was too far and are now located at Opua where they will spend a few weeks cruising.

 

There was 61 hours between the first boat to finish, Team Vodafone Sailing and the last boat Cool Change.

 

A special mention needs to go to WANDERING STAR, the Townson 32 skippered by Gareth Wells who won the race on PHRF.

 

Results:

 

PHRF

1st - Wandering Star (Gareth Wells - Richmond Yacht Club)

2nd - Promise (Brett Hampson - Royal Akarana Yacht Club)

3rd - Outrageous Fortune (Quintin Fowler - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS)

 

IRC

1st - Outrageous Fortune

2nd - Truxton (Chris Skinner - Royal Akarana Yacht Club)

 

Monohull Line

1st - Outrageous Fortune

2nd - Truxton

3rd - Expedition Coppelia (Sally Garrett/Rob Croft - SSANZ & RAYC)

 

Multihull Handicap & Multihull Line

1st - Team Vodafone Sailing (Simon Hull - NZ Multihull Yacht Club)

2nd - Triple8 (Roger Pagani - RNZYS)

 

Full Monohull Results - http://rayc.co.nz/sail-wave/3KINGS/13-3KINGS-MONO.html

Full Multihull Results - http://rayc.co.nz/sail-wave/3KINGS/13-3KINGS-MULTI.html

 

A HUGE THANKS must go to Maritime New Zealand for their assistance with the scheduled radio reports throughout the race.

 

Prize Giving will be sometime this week - entrants will be notified by email.

[raz88 96]

Was an interesting but fun race on the Wandering Star... The four of us worked pretty hard at it and we were pretty stoked with the result

 

We had everything from trying to keep the boat moving in the right direction in no wind and sunny conditions, to reefed down main and the small jib with consistent 40+ knots and a lot of water over the decks slamming into a messy and sharp seaway off north cape.

 

Have a few photos so will will try and post them up and maybe a bit of a recount of the journey a bit later on when I have a chance.

 

Thanks to Gareth and Nick for having us on board!

[Kaihe Atamai 2]

Thanks to Gareth and Nick for having us on board!

 

I'll second that! Well deserved result for the Townie, Gareth and Nick!

[Changed 10]

It's a pity that you were able to creep away from us after Bream Head. It had been a good tustle with you and Promise until then. We don't have wind gear but Saturay night was rough, by my standard. Not so windy but confused seaway. Some of the slams were really jarring and the noise down below unbelievable. We also had to reef but were able to hang onto the blade 3 with everyone on the rail.

[raz88 96]

We don't have wind gear but Saturay night was rough, by my standard. Not so windy but confused seaway. Some of the slams were really jarring and the noise down below unbelievable. We also had to reef but were able to hang onto the blade 3 with everyone on the rail.

 

Definitely a good tussle, we enjoyed it too! We were on #3 for that night too. The boat was falling so hard off the waves that the lifebouy light on the back that's supposed to trigger when it's turned right way up, was lighting up while still fixed in it's upside down position... Made being on the foredeck for the sail changes an interesting proposition - when the boat just disappears out from under you and you're left suspended in mid air, while the waves are trying to wash you over the side. Was glad to be clipped on!

[RushMan 31]

#3.... Reef.... Waves over the deck....

 

We saw none of this on Outrageous Fortune. Changed down to the #2 for awhile but the rest of the time the big gear was up.

 

There was a lot of time wallowing bare headed waiting for the wind to fill in.

[Guest]

Could be they went a different way. The fast way. Knot wallowing spitting dummies waiting for breeze

[raz88 96]

3 kings race report from the Wandering Star, sorry it's so long..;

 

The 4 of us met up on the boat at Westhaven early on Thursday morning, finished loading our gear, and the last of the food and other random stuff we'd decided to bring... after a brief argument about whether to bring a bean bag we did final checks of the weather, tide times etc and headed off down to the start line at about 9am (minus bean bag).

 

As predicted it was a light air off the wind start, not exactly perfect Townson conditions, but we managed a pretty good start, got the kite up cleanly, and headed off down the Rangi channel. The wind got lighter and lighter and we spent a pretty frustrating afternoon working our way up towards Tiri. As we approached Tiri the wind started to fill in from behind us and we could see the bigger boats had stalled ahead so we were sailing up to them again. Almost managed to pass Outrageous Fortune before they gybed to go inside Tiri, and then managed to pull up just inside Pacific Sundance for a while as the breeze built again. Could see Triple 8 outside us also drifting around on a search for some breeze. Definitely hadn't expected to be just inside them after 6 or 8 hours of racing!!

 

As the breeze came up again the faster boats sailed off and we were left to dice with Isa and Cool Change, and we organised some dinner started to settle into our watch routine. The breeze seemed to die with the dark, and we were more or less drifting again, a few miles off the coast, with Isa more or less directly inside us, Cool Change inside and ahead, and most of the other boats outside and ahead of us searching for a more steady breeze out wide. Nick and I took the 10 - 2am watch, and just as we came on deck the breeze freshened, so we popped the kite, and had a great few hours trucking along at 9 - 10 knots, seeing the odd 11 and 12... I'd just started to think "maybe this could be a quick race after all", when the breeze died again and we were back to rolling around in not much breeze doing only a couple of knots.

 

Woke up Friday morning to the pleasant surprise that Cool Change had slipped behind, but in the light tight reaching conditions was going a bit quicker and gradually over hauled us again in the next few hours. Had a fairly frustrating day in crazy heat battling to keep moving in the light airs, trying different sail combinations, and watching those remaining in the distance gradually sneaking further away from us. Managed to go for a quick swim though, and we had a visit from some friendly dolphins, so not all bad

 

Friday night Isa had pulled out, and we could just see Cool Change and Promise in the distance ahead. The light winds continued, we ended up taking a reasonably wide course around north cape, and thought we saw some lights belonging to Outrageous Fortune and Truxton coming back around the cape as we were heading out. Had a pretty frustrating night, the sea was sloppy, and the winds were so light we couldn't fill the kite, and were flogging the hell out of the main (broke a bunch of the mainsail slides and had to drop the main briefly to replace them the next morning), so decided to run flat off in what breeze there was with a poled out headsail which at least didn't collapse constantly like the kite, and managed to generally maintain a couple of knots in the right direction.

 

Saturday we once again woke up to find we'd had an overnight blinder and passed Cool Change and Promise! We'd seen them going wider than us trying to play angles and keep flying their big gear, but the uneven sea state meant that keeping the kites full was difficult and our poled out headsail seemed to have been the right approach. The breeze started to fill in again in the morning, so we re-hoisted the kite, and made it to the 3 kings around 10am, and cooked up bacon and eggs and had a breakfast drink to celebrate arriving Carried the kite around the islands, dropped it soon after and settled into a close reach back to north cape, with Promise and Cool Change hot on our heels. Not our favoured point of sail as Promise powered past us and we could see Cool Change gaining again.

 

As Saturday went on into the evening the wind shifted to head us and continued to build from smack on the nose, and about 10 or 11 at night it was all hands on deck to change down to the number 2 headsail. By then the sea state had got pretty nasty - not huge, maybe 2 meters - but extremely steep and confused, we were sitting on about 7 knots straight into it all, and the boat was driving over waves and crashing down into the troughs on the far side. Very noisy and uncomfortable and wet, with the bow picking up a lot of water and shovelling it back over us all as it came back up the front of the next wave after each dive down the back of the previous wave. Pretty interesting on the bow doing the sail change and trying to wrestle the number 1 down with the boat falling out from underneath you every ten seconds while torrents of water are trying to wash you overboard. Was well and truly glad to be clipped on.

 

We had planned to head further east and then tack south, but the headsail change required a tack, and once we had tacked we noticed we were handling the sea state easier heading south, so decided to stick with that. Carried on beating down the coast, with the wind gradually building.

 

Awoke Sunday morning, no pleasant surprises finding boats astern this morning - in fact not much idea where the other boats were at all... Hadn't seen anyone but Cool Change or Promise for ages, and lost touch with them when we tacked south the night before. Wind had got heavier and the sea was still nasty, so it wasn't long after getting light that we decided with consistent 40+ on the wind gear that it was time to shift down to the number 3. We were quite well offshore, having tacked off again during the night, and decided it was time to tack back and see where we would land against the other boats. Came in between the Cavalies and the Ninepin and saw a boat against the land, decided it was too big for Cool Change so must be Promise, noted that we had a good couple of miles lead on them and tacked back out again. Next board in we cleared the ninepin, and layed a couple of miles into the bay of islands, taking advantage of the flatter sea to have dinner and give the interior a bit of a sort out after the pounding of the previous 24 hours. As we came across we could see two boats a few miles up rounding the Brett, who we assumed to be Coppelia and Pacific Sundance.

 

After dinner tacked back out, to find the boat we'd seen behind us was coming back in towards Cape Brett as we were coming out towards it. As they got closer we realised it wasn't Promise, but Pacific Sundance! We just managed to cross ahead of them, rounded Cape Brett, then tacked over and headed south along the coast. Turned out Promise had got ahead (again!!) and was the one we'd seen with Coppelia rounding ahead of us. We'd also managed to pick Cool Change out behind us, still breathing down our necks...

 

From there the race was a fairly sedate affair, the wind lightened off again as we travelled down the coast on Sunday night, Sundance pulled ahead, the wind came on the nose again around sail rock, Monday morning the wind built again for a few hours, by late morning we made Kawau and eased away towards home. Wind came further aft and very light coming up to Tiri, and we knew we must be tight for time against Promise on handicap, so popped the kite and had a pretty frustrating last few hours trying to eek everything we could out of the few knots of breeze trying to get back as quickly as possible. We could see Cool Change behind us all day on Monday, and Promise and Pacific Sundance were in and out of view ahead over the day as well. Ended up finishing amongst what seemed to be an RNZYS race coming down the harbour and rounding Orakei buoy as we came back in past the wharf. Headed back to Westhaven and had a quiet drink and de-brief with Steve from Promise.

 

Overall an awesome experience. The Townson 32 was awesome (no surprises there - I grew up sailing on one), and took everything we threw at it. The only breakages were a few plastic mainsail slides and the toilet seat (!!!?? still not sure how this happened - was just suddenly gone!), and Gareth and Nick have done a great job of having her well set up, which I think was the key to us doing so well over the nights as we were able to keep really pressing on short handed during night shifts and gain ground on the fleet.

 

Many thanks to Gareth, Nick and Bryon, couldn't have done it with a better bunch of guys. Gareth and Nick, the way the boat is setup and kept is a credit to you and you definitely know how to get her going well.

 

Thanks also to the organisers, and the other competitors, there were some frustrating and challenging conditions out there and everyone who made it in did well. Especially Promise and Cool Change who kept us on our toes the whole way around.

 

cheers

Ryan

 

PS. Steve, you'll be pleased to see that the photographic evidence at the 3 kings didn't show you behind us, these camera phones only have a limited range!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Changed 10]

The Cool Change’s Three Kings Race

This was a long race. In fact the longest that I have competed in. I had done a lot of preparation and was pleased that I had. I hate things breaking and fortunately the only failure that we had was the tack ring in the number 3 finally failing off the BOI on the way home. Carbon cloth ans s/s don’t seem to like each other. The quiet start on Thursday meant that we able to stay in touch with the fleet in spite of being the smallest boat and by Friday morning we were north of Piercy with a number of boats around us. Friday was a slow slog north. A rolling swell and little wind made it difficult to keep the kite full and we swapped to the gennie a few times in order to keep rolling. Finally north of North Cape we made slow progress towards the Three Kings with Promise and Wandering Star close by. We all converged for the rounding on Saturday morning- Morning Star, Cool Change and Promise. Exciting after 250 miles. The islands were very grand. Rugged without anywhere much to land. Definitely worth the effort to get there. Once around it was all on for the trip home. We stayed in sight of each other all through Sunday morning with Promise and then Wandering Star finally drawing away in the heavier conditions. Yes we did get some- and it was pretty wild for a few hours. Finally back at Piercy around 6.oopm on Sunday night and to our great surprise crossed ahead of Pacific Sundance. But in the lighter breeze they got away from us fairly quickly. Sunday night was another quiet one of following illusive masthead lights and wishing they would come just a little closer. We stayed inshore hoping to keep the breeze off the land. Unfortunately the better breeze stayed out and Promise drew way to be a speck on the horizon come daybreak. Wondering Star then became our sole focus. They also got better pressure down the back of Kawau and stretched out their lead. We finally got the kite up in the Tiri Passage for the run home, but still too little breeze to make any significant difference. In fact Wandering Star put quite a lot of time on us in the last fifty miles. They worked hard for their win and I’m looking forward to congratulating them at the prize giving on Thursday.

This race was a real challenge for all of us. Five on a 8.5metre boat is cramped and amenities are minimal. We largely ran a three up two down watch system but everyone was in their gear at all times. When the weather cut up the noise down below was amazing with every jump off a wave amplified tenfold. It was great to have an experienced crew with all five capable of helming. Graham, Alex, Dan and Josh were great to sail with and kept at it the whole time.

Suellen and the Akarana team did a great job in organising the race and should be congratulated on their courage in organising these longer races. Maritime radio were amazing. Friendly and helpful. It’s amazing how bright some people can be at 5.30AM. The trackers were a new innovation but proved to be battery hungry and the 3G coverage was patchy further north. VHF coverage was great all of the way. Safety was taken seriously and we were checked at Westhaven on the Tuesday. I was surprised to be boarded for an additional inspection inside the five minute signal. That was distracting. Won’t make it for a rerun in 2014 but will have another go at some stage. I am looking forward to the Tauranga Race next month. Back two handed this year. It will seem like a short course by comparison.

[RushMan 31]

Could be they went a different way. The fast way. Knot wallowing spitting dummies waiting for breeze

There was a fast way?

[JK 28]

Lifelines shall be taut. When a deflecting force of 50N (5kg) is applied to a lifeline midway between supports, the lifeline must not deflect more than 50mm.

[Changed 10]

And?

[JK 28]

Just commenting, looking at the photos it seems more like 250mm.