On Thursday the 9th of April 2009 I was lucky enough for Josh Tucker to invite me to join the crew on board Higher Ground a Ross 35 and current record holder of the Auckland Tauranga race. The crew were all experienced aboard the yacht and I was on mast for the race. Higher Ground has a very comprehnesive sail wardrobe and trust me we tried every one, on ocasions more than once, in all I think we must have topped out at around 20 sail changes in the race (and man I feel it even as I write this a week later, and I thought I was fit).

The gun was at 10:00am and we crossed the finish line in Tauranga at 1:30am Friday. It was a fantastic yacht with high speeds of 22.6 knots records at the time with the main up and fractional kite. We only had one near wipe out, which has got to be better than a lot of the fleet. When I have a bit more time I’ll take you through the highlights of the 15 and a half hour race..

dR