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Bump N Grind's coastal report..


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Well here it goes...again..

 

Started off with a Very early morning start at Gulf Harbour.. we aimed for leaving the marina for 7am, which I can confirm that it did happen! Then spent a good two-two and a half hours motoring down along side Charlatan and Expedition Coppelia.. Got to north head and the battle flags came down and then hanked on the no3.. We had a very funny feeling it was going to be windy.. Hmm Maybe the forecast was a give away? Made sure that we was all set up for a good clean start with no f^^& ups with the halyards etc.. got the main ready and motored up to the start boat with Georgia and V5 playing around close by... Hoisted the main and decided it might be a good Idea to get out of Div ones start area..

 

We opted for a very safe start and kept going back up the harbour as needed so we knew we were well clear of the start are.. Down to one minute were right down by the Wharf and trying to de power the boat.. Five..Four..Three..Two..One.. Go! up along side all the big Div 5 boats, We opted to just two sail down from the start so we didnt end up like all the div one boats..Saw RnB hoist their little gennaker which didn't actually make them that much faster until they rounded north head.. Round north head with a clean gybe with the gennaker all ready set up, Get the go ahead to hoist and all is go, One last check up top to make sure we were clear then hoisted, Clean hoist as we soon started boogying along.. Trying to get some height but just wasn't holding it high, so we went for boat speed,going along nicely leading Div 5 and most of div 3 with a few exceptions from north head to rangi light, Then its all... "uhm, I don't think were going to lay rangi bruce..." hold it for a bit longer.. "were defiantly not laying! " The decision was made to drop the little black bag and two sail.. as we dropped the kite we ended up underpowered so we shook the reef out and carried on..

 

Kept two sailing for most of the race, From rangi up until tiri we were along side Drop Dead Fred for most of the way, and actually got in front of them at one stage.. Blasting along with Stratocastor just ahead, chomping down most of the Y88's along the way.. Felt pretty good to be ahead of Div 4 boats! sitting around 12kts hitting 14-15kts between town and rangi, The occasional burst of 15.5 down some waves.. get to Tiri channel and the wind starts gusting from the land, Felt real bad for the guys on No Worries who ended their race pretty quick.. Surfing down the waves we ended up hitting 16kts.. Hitting 15-16kts through out Tiri channel and sitting on around 14 still..

 

Coming up to kauwua Island we were surfing down some huge rollers and hit our magical 18kts! sitting on a constant 15kts hitting pretty often, we were flying! Leaving our biggest competition T-Rex and Erazer in our dust.. But they were still in sight! Passing Sail Rock we were still in a good position with only Pelagian two ahead of us, Our aim was to get as far north as possible before the wind dropped.. Still surfing waves trying to keep the boat in one piece hitting 16kts occasionally because the wind had swung forward just a tad.. we were making steady ground but were absolutely soaked! almost like a mini Truxton, White water everywhere.. But man are we glad to have a retracting prod..

 

WE had decided to go outside of The Hen and Chicks.. that way we could keep having fun surfing waves! by now the wind had tightened up a bit more but we were still sitting on around 11kts hitting around 14.. We were one of the few boats that went around and were questioning our move as we didn't see anyone else following.. We had the wind drop to around 15kts for a short period and the one on the talking stick said put the gennaker up.. BAD MOVE... We ended up trawling it it under the boat! Bugger! But being the bullet proof thing it is, Its still in one piece.. Jib back up, haul it into the boat, and set moving again, We saw Erazer blasting down after us and they were catching us at a blistering pace! They ended up around half a mile behind us And did exactly what we tried.. that didn't last long! haha! the wind tightened up just forward of the beam.. Not our ideal conditions, ended up being over powered in the still 20kts of wind and reefing.. Erazer ended up shooting past us in what looked to be their perfect conditions, and jsut did a complete horizon job on us, and guess what.. They just kept on going ..and going..and going! until we lost sight of them as night fall came..

 

Coming up to Cape Brett we heard them radio in around half a hour ahead of us, Bugger we thought to ourselves.. We knew that we wouldn't catch them,so we just set our sights on trying to keep on going and not loosing anymore spaces..With Local knowledge on board we decided to go outside of Percy Island... Good move I reckon, It sounds like it can get pretty hairy at times in there.. We actually ended up having more wind outside of it, we decided to go really wide coming along into Russell as we didn't see the little christmas lights on top of masts moving very fast in close to the cliffs.. good job we went out, Averaging 6-7kts upwind in around 10-12kts of breeze, the wind kept dropping and dropping.. Slowly drifting across the finish line.. We ended up making just over a hours ground with half a hour on Erazer who went inshore more..local knowledge is the trick! But geeze did it feel good to finish! sails down quicker then ever and off we were to find our mooring! pack the boat up.. get some dry gear on.. then onto the long awaited rum.. One down then we just crashed..

 

Overall a pretty good race for our first coastal with the boat, Little bit of damage to the boat that prevented us from sailing back, but everything is all good! A very wet and fast ride up the coast, a HUGE thanks to the race organizers who race a superb race again! We will be back next year!

 

Ended up 2nd on line and 2nd on handicap

 

No photos as we had abit to much on for most of the race.. OHwell!

 

Enough from me.. Ill probably remember more at a later stage..

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....for the record, the boats all good, except for this wee bit of damage as 203 says....nothing that time and money yet again can fix - so they say....BnG is still in Opua until a new rudder is made and fitted....great Coastal though..... :clap:

labour weekend 2012 039.JPG

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Hay Bruce,

I think the idea is the boat goes faster if the keel cants. I'm fairly sure it doesn't help if you cant the rudder :lol: :lol:

 

Hope you get it fixed without too much drama. Guess you wont make Sundays Barfoot & Thompson two handed race?

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