The Easter cruise ,on Riada.

[John B]

I nearly said Waione. ah well, a constant refrain from people this last week was "I don't know how you guys fitted in that boat for so long" Must have been 6 or 7 people said it.
The funniest was a friend ,Mike, who I helped aboard and sat with talking boats for 15 minutes before he clicked. I think he thought the previous owner was down below having a kip.LOL.

Anyway , we got away not very early on friday and found we a had a nice reach straight to Kawau island, about 25 or 30 miles away. The mahurangi cruising club has been running an easter rally out of North Cove for the last few years. we enjoyed it imensely last year so off we went.
This mizzen staysail lark is a big find. Man what a powerful sail, it adds horsepower right in the middle of the boat and means you simply don't need to change up a jib. You just haul this thing up and voila, another 300 odd feet. A great passagemaking sail because of course with the overlap you cant tack or gybe without dousing it and resetting.



The teak pillow

We were meeting up with three other boats and somehow ours suddenly looked like this

a common theme over the week.There are twelve people in that shot, I think there may have been another twelve on deck and in the cockpit

[John B]

Next morning was spectacular.
Iorangi in North Cove

The days events start at 11 on the Pardeys wharf with the 'race ' briefing, Electron model yacht racing and fine hospitality from Lin and Larry.
The Electrons are designed and built by one of New Zealands finest yacht designers, Des Townson. That really shows and these models sail beautifully, have an avid following ( often by eminent and respected sailors ,and sailing personalities)

Ena, the Haven turns up

into the wind. Larry's workshop in the background. should I say that..... Nah. Lin and Larry's workshop.

the view through. The sort of place you want to linger.As I did.

Ena again.


whilst others were playing , the handicapper, Hugh, slipped away in his skiff and returned with a cradle.

this caused some hilarity and someone , namely me, was heard to comment about usually boats go oncradles , not the other way around. Hugh, a hopeless boataholic , had bought a nice clinker yacht the previous month and was just picking up its cradle.

[John B]

after the electrons came the mark foy or staggerred start race around the islands in the kawau bay . Only about 10 boats this year but ranging from quite small cruisers to an Etchell to tawera , the 50 foot logan.First boat away at 1.00 pm, we were second to last at 1.42 and Tawera last at 1.43
Tawera as we started

I'd dragged out the number 1 genoa for a try


didn't take her long to pick us up but it went very glassy shortly

Jonquil

the fancy #1( which isn't really #1... maybe a 2)


only one thing for it.. we saw Sorceress with a gennaker up so out with the mizzen staysail and it was zero to hero



and then hero to zero as the wind dropped away again and brought the back markers back up,

things got sticky as we were monstered by the Dyarchy( Sorceress) but it turns out that one desperate crewmember had noticed Tony lighting up, and wanted a cigarette

We obliged

but in a despicable move , the skipper insisted on taking advantage of the situation and " walk her back Tony"and "sorry, I can't hear, come closer"

We eventually finished third behind Tawera and the Etchells.
cockpit full again.

That night was a bbq and prizegiving at the Pardeys and very convivial it was too.

They both came for a visit next morning and both of them made some very astute comments about the boat, its condition , and some pointers on what to do not to do etc. You listen pretty hard when people of their experience and knowledge speak. Larry was very pleased that its a resourcinol boat and pointed out the tapered deck beams, something I'd noticed but not really thought too much about. Wonderful to have them on board even just for a brief time.

Steve h to the left, Mike who didn't know we'd bought it ( under the boom), and Des Townson in the big hat ,all visited during the day. Kids seething around the place in general ( why there are so many dinghies)


Things went a bit pear shaped for Iorangi later that day. John was away with 3 kids and his wife but he got some sort of stomach bug. He really was like death warmed up for while there. Several of the women are nurses ... their description in medical terms sounded very dire ,and he was delivered back to the mainland by launch ,and an ambulance called.
Three of us made Iorangi secure to a mooring organised by Lin. He recovered over the next couple of days ok and picked the boat up yesterday.

[John B]

The other vistors on sunday morning...

[StevenBauer]

Thanks, John. First of many I bet.

Steven

[Kim Whitmyre]

Wow, you appear to have all the fun, John Keep it up!

[The Bigfella]

Nice!

[Thad]

And I thought it was all a joke. Thanks. We have snow coming today in the NE US with gales expected nest week.

[Nanoose]

Wonderful! Just how long is your sailing season?

[Paul Pless]

wonderful wonderful shots, I never tire of seeing y'alls boats, cruising grounds, and friends.

thanks

[John B]

Cheers guys . Nanoose,the season is as long as you want it to be but the reality for us is kids sports through winter mean we stop about now.
No winter racing this year but I'm hoping to do the coastal classic 120 miler in this boat in oct.
Glad we came back.. its been cold and wet and very windy.

The next day we went for a bit of a sail with a couple of the other boats. somewhat of a trial as we hadn't been alongside the boats we'll cruise with. Riada has legs on Contour atm but she ( Contour) desperately needs some new sails and a clean.She's a Birdsall 42 that has circumnavigated.

The other boat is Destination, a Lidgard 42 we raced on the coastal classic a few years ago.

We found an island and settled in for the day.

It was interesting looking out at the three 'new' boats, finding they're all from that mid to late 1970's period, and all built of cold moulded kauri of 3 skins ( in Riadas case, 4)



Where, as so often happens, we ended up staying for the night.

[Steveh]

Thought we spied you in at MotuKete on our way out Tuesday morning. Sorry to leave Kawau on such a glorious day. Jo and I were green with envy.

A great weekend had by all. Except John of course. Glad he came right and has picked up Iorangi.

Nice pics, as usual, John.

[Hwyl]

Glad to see you've joined the ranks of the mizzen staysail fans. (Blakey was a big fan too). If you had a proper triatic instead of that backstay, you'd be able to put the tack to windward.

Looks like a great cruise. I'm envious.

[John B]

You mean triatic as in go without a standing mainmast backstay ? No way
It does tack about 3 ft to weather as it happens and you just set the halyard so it sort of curves around the mizzen forestay. I love it when you start the sheets and it bellows forward like a spinnaker, man she picks up her skirts then.

So we left Motuketekete for the 30 miles or so to Waiheke's ' bottom end' and I was itching to try out the gennaker ( which has a sock/snotter).
All went well, it set very easily and we charged off at 7 knots or so until the wind went a bit on the beam and I started to wind it in.
Something is wrong on the self tailer tongue that attaches to the winch though. Its seems ( in retrospect) to be slightly bent or undersized because it munched the gennaker sheet and no persuasion nor vile word would move it. Its not a problem that has emerged with the jib sheets, they're a couple of extra mm diameter so it was a tad unexpected.
I mean I had sea room, but the thought of charging along with no way of easing , at an island,( we'd been headed a bit by then) left me less than happy.
I tried all the usuals, a rolling hitch off to another winch to take the pressure off, tried to winch the thing out, but nothing worked so we peeled away and snotted that sail down.And that worked really well incidentally, I'd never used a sock before so that was impressive to me.
Back to headsail and mizzen staysail for the reach and off we flew.

gennaker set for the first time


the bad boy.

the tongue looks turned up at the end but it also must be too thin. Those are 16mm sheets but the 14 mm got munched under the tongue. I think its fabricated so I'll get a plate welded on to build it up.

[Hwyl]

Is the angle on the stripper correct for the lead you have?

Edited, the age of your winches (if they're original) is diameter dependant, it took them a few years to figure out how to put springs in the tailer.

[John B]

We sidled in for a look at gannet rock



The good weather was leaving us though.



we still make use of our primary method for looking after children aboard boat,

The next day improved over the afternoon and was downright lovely at sunset
but the forecast was getting worse, they'd upgraded it to a gale warning and it was due am instead of pm.

so we left for the marina ( about 2 hours away)

Zoe misses her bowsprit but seems happy with the pulpit


We ended up having a beautiful sail in about 8 knots of wind in the dark, but had to motor the last hour. Pine harbour marina has a dredged channel a few hundred metres long but only about 40 to 50 ft wide. Approching it at night seemed very straight forward to me as its well lit with pile marks and leading lights. What surprised me though was the intensity of the marina lights in the background , and that made it a fairly intense experience. No problems though, we got ourselves all tied up but woke early in the morning to the wind really starting to howl. By the time we left the boat at about 11 am, the water outside was nearly pure white with spray and chop, at least 40 knots anyway.
So we did the right thing by coming in early.

here's a shot of the channel at low taken another day. Thats dirt either side, not something this boy from the Waitemata is used to seeing.LOL.

[brian.cunningham]

Great pics, looks like you had fun

Just a few visitors there! LOL

[John B]

Gareth, the self tailer has springs all right. I think the stripper( is that what its called) may even be the wrong part or its been mickeyed up . The port one has a longer tongue and fills the gap better. This one even looks like its been put in a vise and had the tip bent, possibly to stop sheets jamming on the up( but its created the jam on the lower side) so I'm going to get it fattened up and then I'll spend some time aligning it properly. It may need some shims on the top plate to make that happen.


yeah Brian.. like that all weekend LOL.

[IanG]

Looks like a great vessel. I look forward to getting onboard sometime for a good look.

I know what you mean about Pine Harbour at low tide. I got a bit of a fright when I first went in there at low tide on a charter boat. You can just about jump ashore and work to the car.

[brad9798]

I love it ...