Archive for Racing
The Auckland Noumea Race 2009
Josh and I joined four fantastic Noumea based Frenchmen aboard a Young 11 called Route 66 for the Auckland Noumea Race, and what a race it turned out to be.
We sailed into the wind for 8 straight days, through two storms, seeing 5 to 10 metre waves and 55 knots of wind. The yacht took on a lot of water, at one time when I came off watch and snuggled up on a jib on the saloon floor all I could hear was water, I got up, pulled the sails off the floor and realised I had actually been submerged in a foot of water, it then took me some time and approximately 19 large buckets to bail it out!
There are many great stories from this race, which I will leave for another time, but I will say that upon arriving into the lagoon in New Caledonia being aboard a local yacht was a real buzz as one, then two and in the end six vessels came out to follow us in the ten miles. It truly was magical, very little wind, everyone really comcentrating, me down below foot pumping the last of the water off the boat to rid some weight and all the hors blowing, kids singing in French,, great, Thanks team.
I’ll leave you with a quick snippet somewhere between Auckland and Noumea, approximately four days in.
Winning Round 2 of the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club Match Racing in J24′s
On the weekend of the 16th and 17th of May, Bucklands Beach Yacht Club held a grade 4 ISAF Match Racing regatta. I actually had no idea about it until about 8:00pm on the Friday night when I got a phone call from Nick Basto who I had sailed with in the Auckland Tauranga race rang me, they needed an urgent fill in for the Saturday. I obliged and the following day competed in my first match racing regatta on board J24′s. On the Saturday we had five wins from six starts and by the end of the weekend our team Skippered by Graeme Sutherland had won Round 2 of the Buckland Beach Yacht Club Matching in J24. A very satisfying event and result. Thanks to the boys for having me on board. dR
Friday Night Rum Race on Auckland Harbour
Friday Night was a last minute Rum race aboard the mighty Jagged Edge the SR26 co-owned by Josh. The crew for the race was myself, Josh, Andrew Wills, or Willzy, Norm the Rambler Boat Captain, Jamie from Custom Marine and Richard who is the Skipper of the super yacht Silvertip .
As with any rum race the key is fun and from the outset we were going to get heaps of that as we were definetely at the very end of the SR26′s wind range with gusts up to 30 knots. We had the smaller cruising main and the number 3 up, for the entire circuit we were treated to a lot of spray, a thumping upwind and a great sail downwind (no kites aloud), at one point as we were coming to round the second mark Jamie decided to chase the waves and we had a great ride until we realised we actually needed to round the mark.
As with all these races I gain more insight and learning each time out and I have to say it’s such a pleasure sailing with a crew as well schooled as these guys.
dR
The Auckland Tauranga Race 2009
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
