First boating weekend of the season...

[John B]

While we were sitting on the beach with 16 teenagers ,my friend Charles and his 18 yr old son Matt started on their great adventure in the two handed around NZ race. Thats the boat from earlier in this thread
Race tracker here, boat 10 ,Vingalot.

http://yb.tl/RNZTH


.....

[Dave Hadfield]

John,

Robin and I are sitting at the breakfast table, and I showed her your "morning" picture. "Beautiful shot!" she says...

Yes, it's handy having a thread about your boat and adventures, all in one place. Often I refer to it to explain to new friends what it is we do. Also it's handy for practical purposes, such as changing insurance agents -- you just point them at the thread and they send you the papers.

And if computers crash and photos get lost in the trash, at least there's this record in cyber-space. And a record of a fine thing it is...

Dave

PS -- I start deckwork on Drake in about 3 weeks, as the snow starts to vanish.

[John B]

3 weeks... you should be well into it by now then Dave. ? I think that would be Steve H's morning shot. He's an arty farty type, thinks about stuff, is in touch with his inner self an all that.

Since the 16 teenager hell day sail we managed a weekend at issy bay( an hour or so from home) and shock , walked to Rangitoto's summit. Saw a couple of the Volvo boats in on the sunday and then hauled Riada for a lick and a polish



and then put her back in after being held out by weather for an extra week. I ended up slicking a coat of antifoul on her.

[John B]

Last weekend was a race on Rawhiti around Rangitoto. She's had a jib recut and we found our missing 5 or 10 degrees to windward ,managing to stay ahead of the fleet( except for one modern classic) and finishing with the double line and handicap wins. Good fun, nice raft up after.

That would be our competition behind us....

Go the cone.




10 knots down to the finish






It now looks like the weather may cooperate for an Easter cruise after all so here's hoping...

[John B]

Going back aqbout 3 weeks I helped launch RiadaII and we managed to secure her a berth next door to Riada, So the two near sisters are currently moored together. Riada II is the boat I went to Tonga on last year and hopefully we'll be off to Fiji in her this year.





and may be of interest to some, A friend was invited to a Camper sponsors night and an opportunity to see what those guys are doing.

Spectacular boats, shame they've mostly all broke.



Camper is in the news for not keeping up with the Juan K boats on a reach, her design is weighted to either on the wind or fast running performance( as far as those boats do run anyway)

regardless of all that , pure art in that keel, it looked like a bowie knife with the tip replaced by a bulb to me.



..I found this intrigueing



look at the position of the canards. If we were looking at a motor we'd call it an interference engine, because like valves hitting the pistons when the cam belt goes, those canards will be hit by the keel when its wound out to weather.

Evidently they have sensors on the canards to prevent that from happening.

[snow(Alan H)]

3 weeks... you should be well into it by now then Dave. ? I think that would be Steve H's morning shot. He's an arty farty type, thinks about stuff, is in touch with his inner self an all that.

Since the 16 teenager hell day sail we managed a weekend at issy bay( an hour or so from home) and shock , walked to Rangitoto's summit. Saw a couple of the Volvo boats in on the sunday and then hauled Riada for a lick and a polish



and then put her back in after being held out by weather for an extra week. I ended up slicking a coat of antifoul on her.

John
I see the fleet on display in these 2 pics - the Cooon & E.
Alan

[John B]

Thats where they were... I should have snugged the jag right on under there for that old 'scale of the thing 'thread of mine.
But its not a Falcon , its a Holden . Although it is getting a bit Fix Or Replace Daily lately, its back in the workshop today. I'm seriously thinking about going Volvo shopping, get some of those little family stick figures for the back and everything.

[Willin']

Going back aqbout 3 weeks I helped launch RiadaII and we managed to secure her a berth next door to Riada, So the two near sisters are currently moored together. Riada II is the boat I went to Tonga on last year and hopefully we'll be off to Fiji in her this year.








..I found this intrigueing



look at the position of the canards. If we were looking at a motor we'd call it an interference engine, because like valves hitting the pistons when the cam belt goes, those canards will be hit by the keel when its wound out to weather.

Evidently they have sensors on the canards to prevent that from happening.

Is it just me or does it look like those canard slots were cut by a drunk with a shakey handsaw?

[snow(Alan H)]

Thats where they were... I should have snugged the jag right on under there for that old 'scale of the thing 'thread of mine.
But its not a Falcon , its a Holden . Although it is getting a bit Fix Or Replace Daily lately, its back in the workshop today. I'm seriously thinking about going Volvo shopping, get some of those little family stick figures for the back and everything.

Tim Finn has just bought a Volvo so that makes it cool for u to

[John B]

I think it might just be you, Willin, or an optical illusion. I think we can be sure that the boards( with their concave trailing sections) will be fitted to the slots with a tolerance of 'not very much'.

A couple of days later my invited friend and his hanger on mate got to have a look aboard.



canards in coats





....

[John B]

Tim Finn has just bought a Volvo so that makes it cool for u to

Does he have a baby on board sign on a little spring for the back window, because if he doesn't ,thats not very cool at all.

Gee I'm doing a good job here for them aren't I . talking about Volvo cars and Volvo ocean race boats. I wonder if they'd give me a discount .

[Chris.]

regardless of all that , pure art in that keel, it looked like a bowie knife with the tip replaced by a bulb to me.



..I found this intrigueing



look at the position of the canards. If we were looking at a motor we'd call it an interference engine, because like valves hitting the pistons when the cam belt goes, those canards will be hit by the keel when its wound out to weather.

Evidently they have sensors on the canards to prevent that from happening.

They probably rely on the alertness of the crew when tacking to avoid that interference. They'd only have the leeward canard down with the keel cranked to windward, so unless someone got forgetful or they had a crash gybe, canard and keel should not touch. However, having said that, I'm certain that they would carry a spary canard or three to cover that or any other eventuality such as collisions with unidentified floating objects.

Also, agree about the elegance of the keel - work of art that.

CM

[John B]

I did notice that in the pre starts for the in harbour races that Camper keep her canards up when most of the other boats either had one or both down Chris. I think the sensors have lockouts for the keel circuit or they scream.

Anyways.. down below is interesting and not cave like. The big girder box thing in the middle is presumably strengthening / mast step plus a place for the keel mechanism. spare rudder beside it.



and looking forward



I'm wondering if Steve H has been on board...

[Chris.]

They do have sensors do they? Bit too high tech for me. I suppose that these sensors never ever fail do they? :-)

That interior is just like being inside a medium size bridge girder. Which is what the hulls are really I guess. It all looks quite serene in your photos, but once they start moving - and i saw that the Abu Dhabi boat hit 42 knots on a wave (before delaminating the hull aft of keel) the sound effects in there must be fearsome.

CM

[John B]

Being a bit of a technophobe I've avoided uploading the software for my handheld garmin GPS. I took that away with me as one of the back up GPS on last years trip and when we were on approach to land or a pass I'd hit a bunch of waypoints. So it was a surprise to me that it had this active log feature which came up and that it offered an option of opening in google earth.


North Minerva Reef and the pass in...



closer..



not bad eh. Thats exactly what we did, cut the corner in because of the stand up waves and white water in the centre of the channel ( wind against wave) and zoomed away dead centre going out.
Apparently a lot of the charter fleets are going to these garmins as they have the most accurate charts ( Tonga area anyway). My dislike of their touchscreen units ( the boats main GPS/ plotter) came about because the thing would freak out every splot of water, but that was supposed to be a software issue, subsequently fixed by an upgrade.( they say, yet to be confirmed personally)

[Larks]

It now looks like the weather may cooperate for an Easter cruise after all so here's hoping...

Any chance of a couple of names to these yachts JB? I think I can make out "Katrina II" second in, and possibly "Helen" in the foreground, I assume that's "Rawhiti" third along but then???

[John B]

To be sure Greg

Waitangi at the end ( black,) Thelma next in , Rawhiti, Katrina the K class and Helen , another K class beside her. I was standing on Prize.

looking the other way from Thelma.



Prize clicking along at hull speed early in the race


....


Helen in the CYA regatta back in feb



and a not very good shot of Katrina from 10 sometime.



..

[John B]

That was a nice Easter cruise in the end . Four days away despite all the threatening weather forecasts.
A slow trip up to Kawau island on Friday, we ended up getting sailing ok but slow work.

a visitor on the way, heading another direction off to his ' camping groundf' ie the bay they always go to.



another visitor while anchored for lunch at Tiri Tiri island.


...

We stopped the night at Motuketekete island and did not have a good rest with a slop coming around the corner. Ah well you takes your risks for the greater gain, at least we weren't anchored up with the hundreds clustered up together in Bon Accord.
The next morning was off to North Cove and a meeting at the Pardeys pre the very laid back and convivial 'race' around the islands.
Mahurangi CC commodore Jaques sprung on me the fact that I was 'helping to set the handicaps for the dozen or so boats entered seeing as a club stalwart and mysteriously absent participant STEVE H wasn't there. Why should I be doing Steves job I found myself thinking for at least 2. 5 nanoseconds. Ah well , dint work out too badly.

Gloomy looking kind of weather, a bit gusty and giant lulls, 13 mile course on a staggered or 'Mark Foy' start , Boats ranging from Jaques Atkin cruiser ( Alia) and a small Atkinson cruiser through Arcturus, The S and S K class Sapphire ,and Prize, an etchells and an IOD. Not to mention our ride for the day, the savagely quick Relentless ,plus a Beneteau cruiser. And the evergreen Profile, a Townson 30.
40 minutes we decided. The Atkin and the Atkinson away at 1.00 PM and the rest starting between 1.20 IIRC and 1.40.

Arcturus and the SQ Relentless.



Sapphire and Prize



Another of Prize pre start


...

[John B]

As you see, not much wind. Ah well , that was soon to change.

A minor disagreement with the chief handicapper came about when selecting the scratch boat.
I thought Relentless should be starting well last but we ended up being the same as the big bene. I should have insisted.
Old time WBF members will be no doubt pleased to hear that we 'shared the love' with the start boat via cannon. Ya'll will be very pleased that John and Jill from Gypsy ( who were on the start boat duty) have good hearts despite their recent traumatic events, as there were no emergency services called and they seemed fine at the end of the race.

Shortly after the start.



The bene is back there somewhere ( ah yes there's its kite partly hidden by the backstay) and the fleet was rapidly approaching .

[John B]

As we rounded the first mark the nearest boats to us ahead were the IOD and the Etchells. Of course both of those are fantastic boats to windward and as the Etchells was being sailed by an extremely experienced local man John, and the IOD by Roy Dickson and his son Chris, they were literally travelling at a world standard level.
SQR began to hack them down with her significantly greater w/l. The IOD tacked and so did we , because those dudes know what they're doing. The wind went up to about 20 knots maybe, or perhaps it just felt like it as our eyes began to tear up from the slipstream and the excessive application of sunblock.

Suddenly, there was a bang. No , relative to the cannon, more of a crump really as the softeye on the headsail halyard pinged and we found ourselves with a giant sack of potatoes intead of a jib.
Almost instantly, maybe two or three minutes later, we worked out what had happened and proceeded to discuss what we might do.
option 1. do the race under main.
option 2. pull out and watch
option 3. change the headsail. say what.... back on up here a minute. Change a headsail? You don't mean... go up the front of the boat where its wet and isn't level. ah haha haha.


Can't possibly do that , because the halyard is right up there.
There's two.This is it right here.
Thats a spinnaker halyard and it goes to the masthead, can't do that on a fractional.
Oh here it is , Genoa #2 it says.
Got any beer?

[snow(Alan H)]

FYI Jill & John have had a SV Gypsy trophy made to be presented to the winner of the regatta. The trophy features one of the damaged bronze window surrounds off Gypsy and this is attached to a scale model of Gypsy from waterline to gunnel.
The base plate is an old piece of Matai off their launch Tuna. The timbers used for the hull are all off old vessels. See below
I'm sure John will tell us who the inaugural winner was.

[John B]

The trophy is little bit more bent now as I think John was holding it when I set the cannon off.

[Larks]

These stories of your regattas always make me feel rather envious of your wonderful sailing community there JB, keep them coming.

[John B]

Its full of personalities thats for sure Greg.

So the boys were sent down into some dank corner and they came out with a #4 from 1985. This sail had evidently spent the first few decades of its life as a bedsheet in a house of ill repute because it was extremely well worn. Once we'd got over the whole 'difficult angle of the bow and wet ' thing and hoisted it up we did have some discussion as to whether it was in fact a spinnaker, but decided that no it was actually a jib because it was white. or used to be. Sheeting the thing in and tacking ,we now shot off in hot pursuit of the fleet again, overtaking Alia and catching up on Arcturus.
Arcturus had a full boat with quite a party on board. It turned out to be a family reunion on a charter and I would now like to formally apologise for what I did to nanna when I set the cannon off again.



More than halfway around, the wind had eased back to 10 or so.

Profile, the Townson 30.



..
Sapphire was well ahead of Prize and we overtook her with just the IOD and the Etchells to go.
We overtook the IOD finally



but as it gasped away, we found we didn't quite have the oomph to catch the Etchells




Which finished 50 metres in front of us in the end( to a bonus cannon shot) and we then watched a pretty close finish sequence of boats right behind.
Prize set a big jib top and overhauled Sapphire ( they'd both been on the same time) and the IOD, Princess also just nipped the much bigger Sapphire luffing right on the line.

Great fun , and fabulous hospitality by the Pardeys yet again, opening their house and BBQ to the fleet and all the crews for the evening and prize giving with the trophy going to North cove resident John Sinclair and the etchells 'John".
Great result.

[Thad]

Thanks again John.

[John B]

No sweat Thad.

I thought it pretty interesting that the Etchells stayed ahead of the IOD. I really did expect the IOD to have the legs. And Prize and Sapphire had a great race. Prize should have won and did but only just after hauling Sapphire down on the reach.

A couple of my favourite old girls, Arcturus coming in to collect her dinghy off Riada.





..

[Steveh]

Thanks for filling in John. I purposefully stayed away to secretly groom you as Rear Commodore position for the Mahurangi Cruising Club. Apparently you passed with flying colours, the canon synching the deal. Unfortunately we had commitments back in Port Albert in the 150th reunion of it's settlement. I wasn't too peeved at missing as Met Service forecast wasn't looking flash. They got it wrong again. With a full moon and glorious days I was chomping at the bit, but alas. Small consolation we did get out to day to take Ngatira out for a run up to Motuora and back. Glassy conditions, just beautiful. All systems AOK. Good to see some other Auckland boats up for the event.

That raft up in Issie Bay looked like days of old with the CYA. And no I didn't get to have a look round any of the Volvo boats, no contacts there I'm afraid. Must have been awesome having a gander round those machines, like the play school style painting down below a nice touch for those dark days in the southern ocean eh.

[Larks]

Rawhiti looks like she's rather quick under motor as well???????....testament to a slipery hull I guess.

[Steveh]

That'd be Iorangi Greg, one of the four big Logan yachts. John G has the hot rod rig in her but judging by Rawhiti's recent performance it's a real match up. Iorangi might have a slim advantage over Rawhiti up wind but no match with cracked sheets.

[Duncan Gibbs]

Yup. I always look at the mast for a positive ID. Iorangi has an ally one and no sign of a gaff.

Lovely shots as always gents, JB in particular. Nice to see a great gesture in the form of the trophy and well named race to come of the recent disaster. Glad that John and Jill could take to the water again. Jill must have good healing qualities: Didn't she receive a broken pelvis from the collision?

[Chris.]

John, thanks for the photos and the commentary. Not as good as being there, but always informative, illustrative and often amusing. These sort of posts are high-points of a visit to Misc. Boat.
Cheers,

[Larks]

That'd be Iorangi Greg, one of the four big Logan yachts. John G has the hot rod rig in her but judging by Rawhiti's recent performance it's a real match up. Iorangi might have a slim advantage over Rawhiti up wind but no match with cracked sheets.

Thanks Steve, I was looking at the main hatch coaming shape, I should have been looking at the spars.

[John B]

Thanks Chris and Duncs. . Steve, Nup no way, turned down several of them sorts of jobs. It doesn't fit in with my curmudgeon in training ethic.
150th anniversary of settlement? you mean failure of the settlement doncha.

[John B]

Our Summer has officially ended and the last of the seasons races were this weekend . I was lucky to have an invitation to sail on Talent, the late Des Townsons own boat on Saturday with three well known and very good yachtsmen.
The day was an absolute pleasure with a nice breeze in the morning and very light in the afternoon. Three races, two windward leewards and a longer harbour race of ( at a guess) 10 or 12 miles in the afternoon.
Terrific day and great company and a revelation as to what a boat can be. Talent is absolutely and without doubt the loveliest boat I've ever had the pleasure of helming. Just a perfect sailing yacht with a light and responsive helm and a lovely motion through the water.



crossing a T25 Bliss,( handicap winner of the mixed Townson division)



Camille, the same design as Talent

[John B]

The Davidson 28's were also racing in their own division. This one was bought as a hull and decks and finished off by someone who became a friend of ours and when we were first racing Waione back in the early / mid 80's, she was always out there as a new boat, particularly the RAYC cruising races.



I have a giant amount of respect for these boats, they're just a perfect fit for purpose yacht.

Just an interesting aside.... I met the man who made all the D28s and he told me that his design brief to Laurie Davidson was for a Hauraki gulf cruiser designed with a fair hull with no respect to rule ,and to look like a small Riada.

[John B]

We did ok in the racing , the 25 won our division and was totally impressive . The lighter winds lessened the disparity between the yacht sizes ( Talent being a 34 ft boat) But the results were incidental for me anyway, it was just a great day with really interesting people and a real pleasure to be on that boat.

[Hwyl]

Nice report John, thanks.

[John B]

It was a pretty active weekend . Sunday was the last of the Classic Yacht Assn races and I was aboard Rawhiti again. Masthead bermudan, minimalist boat saturday, gaff topsail 54 ft racing boat from 1905 the next.
We had wind for the start but it went very light through the middle of the day. Unfortunately we had a bad start and that put us well behind our major competition Thelma and the day was spent playing catchup. We didn't catch them but we did turn a 12 minute deficit at the windward mark to 30 seconds at the finish line so it was good day too.



the might Ranger..



Prize..



Waitangi



Gleam the B div line honours boat



and Little Jim just pipping Thelma over the line ( and us). They sailed an exceptional race.


....

[Larks]

JB, do LJ and Ranger sail in the same class/division as Rawhiti? If so how does the handicap work with the Bermudan Rig against gaff topsail rigs? Or is it just a first over the line regatta?

[John B]

For that race , I think it was just a PHRF result Greg, but I might be wrong. Generally we'd race the same course as the bigger bermudans but be in our own div results wise. Ranger was line on sunday, as usual.

a couple of Talent hauled 2 years ago .

[John B]

We're taking Riada out this weekend, light wind ( if any), looks glorious. Might be the last gasp of the summer weather and certainly we need to make the most of it. Its beginning to be a bit chilly in the mornings now.
There's a funny thing thats happened in a rush... our kids have become 'independent'. They aint coming with us, none of them , its weird.

[Larks]

We're taking Riada out this weekend, light wind ( if any), looks glorious. Might be the last gasp of the summer weather and certainly we need to make the most of it. Its beginning to be a bit chilly in the mornings now.
There's a funny thing thats happened in a rush... our kids have become 'independent'. They aint coming with us, none of them , its weird.

They'll be back when they have boyfriends/girlfriends who they might want to imress, or when they break up with them and want to escape to the sanctuary of their childhood experiences, or when dad finally says "sure, take her out by yourself, take your time, have fun, stay safe and don't worry: if you break anything, all can be repaired......"....or perhaps simply for those two days that the weather is nice again next January..........

How did your friends go in the round NZ two handed race?

[John B]

The boy is on at me about he and his best mate Jake getting a Piedy now. I don't see how they can do it , its not the capital so much , its the overhead of maintenance and mooring costs etc. Anyway being clever, I announced that it was out of the question because they didn't have their Boatmasters ticket. Boatmasters being your baseline boating ed qualification. So off go the two devils, and do the course and pass with flying colours . Snookered part 1, now comes the ' how you going to pay for it?' standoff.

Round NZ ? Really well, better than they expected because she's a big ole cruiser with old sails in general, but they did it and sailed all the legs . 2 boats pulled out and several had to seek shelter on one of the legs ( the weather bomb that came through and destroyed one unrelated yacht in a similar location and did a swag of land damage in the 'Naki.) Anyway , the results were computed 2 ways . one on points per leg, one on total elapsed time. On points per leg the light boats which sheltered just got baseline points once they resumed the leg and finished so they won out on overall points once they had sailed away for wins on other legs. On total time elapsed , some would argue real world, Vingalot came 3rd I beleive. Brilliant!
In some ways its not about the result so I have to confess I didn't register that so much . I actually just have giant respect for all the people who did the race. There was some fantastic seamanship!
Riada was out on the hard at the time of the finish so two of the boats ended up using my berth as they came in. I hope some of it rubs off.
...

[Larks]

In some ways its not about the result so I have to confess I didn't register that so much . I actually just have giant respect for all the people who did the race. There was some fantastic seamanship!

...

Thanks JB, it sounds like it was a very tough trip. I agree with you with any of those type of events: just completing the race is an amazing achievement in most cases and when I asked I was thinking less about where they may have placed and more about whether they finished and what sort of experience they had, it sounds like a "character building" one at the very least.

[John B]

Results for the race here

http://www.ssanz.co.nz/results.html

they came 4 th in two categories ie total points and total elapsed time on the water.
They came 3rd in PHRF total time.

Note Sunstone , the S and S!

Yeah it was really tough on the second leg when they were caught by the bomb. Talk of wind gear pegged open at 70 knots and 10 M seas. That night we were going by boeing to Nelson for the Classic boat show there and although it skipped over Nelson, there was serious damage in the sounds and Taranaki like I said.
....and then there was the bloke airlifted off his yacht before it blew ashore and disintegrated south of here. Pretty dramatic stuff .

[John B]

That was a great weekend, once we made it past the unearthly silence of no kids. Really nice weather but very little wind so we mostly played launch, although we did get one very pleasant little sail in.
Following our normal protocol , we went where the boats weren't and had 6 nice little anchorages with only a boat or two around us. Even at night we only had one other boat in the general vicinity/ bay we stopped in so that was ideal. Listened to The Band at night and paddleboarded the days away. poifect. We left getting home a bit late and ended up motoring back with some tide under us at 9.2 knots! pacing the displacement launches beside us.

a bit of rockhopping..


one other boat in saturday nights bay..


.....

[snow(Alan H)]

John
Thats Nereides - Mark Lever, one of our newest CYA members, a great guy. You should have said hi.

Cheers Alan

ps we got a little dressed up for Saturday lunch in Waikalabubu Bay

;

[John B]

You , you, toffs!

ah , its all coming back to me now, I ectually met Mark about a year ago when we were getting Riada 2 ready for Tonga. I even did the 'you should join the CYA' job on him so ... where's my commission?

ps , didn't look like him on board from what I could see at a distance, but we sort of didn't cross so no, we didn't chat.
....

[John B]

Ah, Anzac day. To make up for some 'alone time' lately we made a now rare for us day trip out to Motuihe Island with a boat of my youngest daughters friends plus a parent. Lovely day and that big ole high thats been swamping us for over a week was still there. ( leaving today though).

Lightish breeze in the morning, we matched up with Little Jim( tacking away in this shot)



the SQR was out but her jib was still at the sail loft( the Kawau weekend casualty)



and she was matching us under sail on the wind at 7 knots ( reading off both boats)!. flat water and maybe 10 or 12 knots of breeze, pretty neutral tide ... great what a clean bottom will do fer you.




I think this boat could go quite well with a new main and mizzen. The mizzen is pretty flat but our main is a bucket full of busted bums.

[John B]

Anchored at Motuihe was better than the usual summer weekend bunfight( which is why we normally avoid it), the kids all went in and had a ball despite the rather brisk water temp.
We anchored where Relentless went and they pushed it. The significance of this shot is the people walking beside their fizz boat.





We did end up with boatload of visitors, 14 or 15 aboard at one stage!, one of whom was our very own WBF Paul G out in his newly rebuilt Patiki.



I haven't had a look aboard but she sure looks remarkable and fine from this viewpoint.

Patikis or Stewart 34s have a position in NZ roughly equivalent to the Cal 40 in the US, a breakthrough giant killer boat, very keen class racing to this day. For many years they were the go to boats for Citizen cup matchracing for example.
Patiki translates as flatfish IIRC, and that's what they are, I've seen them planing under kite.