THE
H28 SERIES
SATURDAY
AND SUNDAY
MARCH
4 & 5
A
three day regatta planned for March 1.2
& 3 attracted only three entries by
the closing date of February 15.
As we all know (from previous
experience) entries are received up to
and on the date of the race and we
acknowledge that not all can take time
off on a Friday for sailing.
However we had good numbers for
the Saturday race.
Race
1 (Mapua reach)
As
there was a strong SW wind the start
line was changed to the Nelson Yacht
Club/Pile 5 with the finish at Brunt
Quay/Pile 8. The race started at about
2pm on Ian's signal and was a follow the
leader with Aramis II out of the harbour
first heading in a NW direction. Getting
out of the harbour in these conditions
required a starboard tack from the start
line that took you far enough south to
be able to tack on to port and sail
straight out of the harbour. However if
you went too far you were in the shadow
of Haulashore Island and in reduced wind
with reduced sail (most had a reef and a
No2) and therefore reduced speed. Once
out of the harbour it was (relatively)
plain sailing in the (estimated) 20 knot
SW wind that prevailed for the duration
of the race. One notable exception was
the spectacularly unsuccessful attempt
by Mr Chips to fly their spinnaker. When
we looked back they had their mast
almost parallel to the water.
The
race was sailed under Syme rules where
the leading boat at 3pm turned and then
measured (and told the boats in
succession) the time they had to sail to
reach the position at which the leader
had turned. The boats finished in this
order :-Aramis II, Quido, Waipuru. Mr
Chips, Pelagian and then Winsome.
Confusion got into serious strife near
the rocks in the cut, had to start their
motor, and recorded a DNF. They then had
to race up the harbour to respond to a
damsel in distress. Dale recruited a
passing fizz boat and all were rescued
successfully.
Race
2 (Boulder
2)
The
Sunday race was started in the same way
(five minute hooter and start) and under
very similar conditions. However once
out of the cut the course was to Boulder
2 which was almost a straight downwind
run. Aramis managed to successfully fly
their spinnaker for some of the time to
the buoy but no one else was seen to
attempt this. In Waipuru's case we
changed to the genoa once we had cleared
the cut and sailed on the main alone
while this was being done. We then
reached out to the North with the
indicated speeds of up to eight knots on
the GPS (my sum log is kaput).
When
we judged ourselves to be in a suitable
position we gull winged down to the
buoy. The question then was whether we
could sail in these conditions with
bigger headsail. We found that we could
although a little overpowered for the
conditions a lot of the time with water
entering the cockpit at one point. With
this sail set we managed to make up most
of the ground that we had lost due to a
bad start. Despite this we could not
catch Aramis, finishing about 2 minutes
behind her. However Neil admitted that
we had him worried. The order in which
we finished was Aramis II, Waipuru,
Quido, Mr Chips and Winsome.
Ian
Syme organised these races at short
notice. Thank you Ian for stepping in
and organising this event. The overall
winner of the two races was Aramis II.
Waipuru and Quido were second equal and
Mr Chips was third. The winner received
a voucher worth $35 and the second place
winners shared $25 with the third place
getter receiving $10.
John
Rogers
Waipuru.
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