Delivery Trip for 2017 Round the North Island 2 Handed Yacht Race

VW and TW had to do their qualifying miles for the RNI on Blink, so we did a 2-person delivery from Wellington to Auckland starting on Waitangi weekend.   We stopped in Gisborne for a few days and did a quick lap of East Cape on land before riding the back of a southerly front around East Cape.  Breezy out of Gissy and around the Cape but dolphins always make it feel so much better.  Otherwise, not much to report but some nice video clips ...

Marlborough Wireworks Sauvignon Blanc Wine Race 2016

Having arrived back into the country from our South America trip at 7.30am on Thursday, we jumped on Blink to have a magic sail across the Cook for the Marlborough Wireworks Sav Blanc Wine Race.

Rainy and windy race this year - at least we didn't run out of breeze!

Blink won Line Honours for the second year running and broke the record this year.  

The vid says it all.....

Opening Day 2016 - Ambassador's Race

Last year the weather for Opening Day meant that the race was cancelled for the Ambassador guests, so they missed out.  This year, there were no weather safety concerns, although it was raining... so not exactly great weather to take guests sailing; some of them for the first time.

We had several of our usual crew away, so we put Florence (French Ambassador), and her guests Aurelian and Jack to work ... they were great to have on board.  Florence was trimming, Jack on mast and Aurelian was helping with trim.  Our relatively simple course around Somes Island and back to the club house for the finish was a good choice by race officer Pedro Morgan.  

It wasn't photogenic weather so no pics.  But I did take a little video ...

We did well with a Fractional Code 0 (FR0) off the start line, lost some ground in the rounding of Somes Island, and tried to use an A3 (sub-optimal choice) which probably cost us a better result.  With a combined fleet, we were 2nd on Line, 2nd on IRC, and 2nd on PHRF.

Blink and you're in Fiji ...

RPNYC Burgee ...

The lead up the Fiji race was an epic adventure in itself.  Getting the boat ready from Cat 2 to Cat 1, filling in Customs forms from NZ to Fiji; from Fiji to NZ (and did we mention more forms if you change crew from Fiji to NZ), all in duplicate.  

Gordy and Craig had also spent an enormous amount of their time helping to do various jobs on Blink as well as donating their time to do a two handed delivery from Gisborne to Auckland when we had to jump off for work.  

video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqB0iI75bUo

Some video clips from the delivery trip to Gisborne.  Dolphins and Dancing ...

To get to the start line was a magnificent achievement and what was to follow was just as exciting.

Gordie was all over (and under and in) it ... 

Our 4 June 2016 11am start was a slow one breeze wise.  We were overtaken by most of the fleet in very light and shifty air.  It was interesting that with all of the professional local sailors on pretty much all of the boats (Blink probably the only all-amateur crew?) there were a huge variety of ways out of the gulf.   

Storm sail sail-past pre-start

Pre-start

Start Pics from the ANZ Sail Fiji Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/sailfiji)

Foredeck's work is never done ...light air for leaving Auckland 

Navigator managed to miss Shearer Rock.  Nominative determinism avoided.

video:

https://youtu.be/6KDf0ByxaqI

Nice video Clip of Colt swapping the gear over at the end of the 3.5m prod. 

Between the barriers - starting to catch up with some consistent breeze, that's Blink highlighted in grey

We didn’t worry too much about Vodafone, the luxury 88 footer (complete with spa bath) Shaman, the Volvo 70 Giacomo or the 52 footer Miss Scarlet; they were all going to beat us, especially as the forecast favoured faster boats who would avoid the NE header at the Fiji end.  We wanted to stay ahead of Crusader having been ahead of them in the 2015 Crewed Central Triangle Race when they overtook us in a drifting match.  We also thought we had a good chance against Hupane (the Class 40) but with a professional crew and their perfect angle of sail, we thought those chances were OK at best.  We weren’t sure how we would compare to Anarchy (YD 37); we thought we ought to be a bit quicker, but ...?   

video:

360-degree video of the race start (speeded up, since the wind was light ...)

https://youtu.be/8Mj123jV-9Q

What we did do is  focus on sailing our boat well and hard with people that we love to sail with; our regular crew plus Craig Partridge who built Blink for us in 2013. Craig is a hell of a nice bloke, a competent sailor and we thought he would fit in nicely - we got it right. 

We had worked on a strategy of going east and saving our fun tokens for a bit later.  Craig Shearer (our Navigator) had carefully downloaded numerous models of wind data and in discussions with our Skipper Tony, had picked a course for us that took Blink as the most eastern boat in the fleet. 

Starting on the eastward plan.  Class 40 Hupane spends some fun tokens early - we were hoping too early - and with kite on crosses to leeward just behind us

Then a transition zone that most of the fleet had trouble with before the consistent breeze began 

Blink sets out to the east, that's Crusader directly astern, blue is Ran Tan (Elliot 50' canter) near rhumb line, Shaman (88') in orange, red is Miss Scarlet (52')

video:

Day 2 had us in mild ESE wind...

https://youtu.be/poe7GAPI6iQ

2 days in -- Blink is the easternmost boat.  Leverage that was to pay out nicely at the end when we could tight reach at 11-12 knots to the finish, at the same time Ran Tan and Hupane would be sailing upwind at 9-ish knots

As the breeze picked up and the TWA looked a bit wider, we thought it could be convivial to try a different sail combination to the J2, out came the FRO.  Craig Shearer has a fascination with the FRO and at every opportunity an enthusiastic “time for the FRO” would belt out from the nav station after watching the wind clock to the right direction (or so we thought).  Up it went and we made good speeds (circa 19 knots) , but towards Noumea.  No good.  Take it down and tie it down on deck for later.  This occurred three times during the entire race until the crew belted out to Craig “NO FRO BRO”.  


Two and a half days into the race, we lost our wifi connection and GPS puck - we hadn't anticipated quite how wet everything would be after a couple of days, huge amounts of spray and occasional solid water across the deck, and small leaks here and there that don't matter on short races, plus condensation inside all started to add up.  This meant that while we could plot our own course manually, we couldn’t plot where everyone else was, nor could we download new forecasts   This was both exciting and disconcerting as we had some unfinished business with Crusader and wanted to know where they were.  We thought our approach of staying east would mean the boats that had gone more west, would end up with more wind on the nose.  We consoled ourselves with this possibility and continued to sail the boat hard, taking out reefs, putting them back in, reefing the J2 to the J3, shaking the reef out, putting it back in etc.    Not the most exciting of sail wardrobes but we made decent speeds just cracked off (10-15 knots most of the time).  

video:

In the trade winds proper now - sea state not too bad but between the heel angle and hitting waves, still difficult to move around.  And wet, very wet, out on deck ...

https://youtu.be/-Px8rcT33DI

The wind was somewhere between 20 knots and 45 knots for the entire race except for a couple of light patches that were rather frustrating.   Sea state somewhere between 2 and 4 meters depending on the wind - usually around the 4m mark.  What we were most impressed with as we usually sail in the Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour where the water is cold, is the warmth of the sea.   And it got warmer as we approached Fiji. This was rather a bonus given we were continually wet for the entire race where the only respite of dry and clean clothes lasted about 2 hours on the off watch about two days into the race until the wet weather gear had to come back on for the next watch.  The angle of the boat was unrelenting for any hot food preparation (we had two hot meals where we risked life and limb to boil water).  Using the heads was a mission (bilge water in a bucket or have a crew member catch a wave for you as the water intake was  well, out of the water).  Getting around the boat was a mission too and two of our crew (Kimmy and Colty) on two separate occasions took a fall onto the gimbled stove resulting in bruising for Kimmy and Colty splitting his head open (Vesna most disappointed not to deploy the stapler as it was marginal whether it needed it).  One of our kettles didn’t make both of those falls.  100 miles south of Fiji we encountered a colossal wave.  Colty was driving and said in a rather fractious tone “big wave”.  The wave was enourmous and breaking.  It knocked Blink sideways violently enough that the crew on their off watch woke up and thought we had hit something.  No injuries and no damage - just a reminder of how unpredictable the sea is.  

Looking good coming into the finish, at the magic 336° target heading.  Shaman in orange well ahead, we've caught and are overtaking Ran Tan (blue), rest of fleet including the class 40 Hupane (light blue) that are relevant to us tucked in behind. Miss Scarlett (red) has lost forestay so slowed right down

With communications down, we were still unsure of our position and continued to sail the boat hard to the finish despite another light frustrating patch.  We entered the reef at the finish line on our iPhone Navionics software 4 days 17 hours 47 minutes after we started.  We then learnt from the finishing boat that we were 3rd across the line.  We were amazed and rather delighted to have done well.  With the main sail and jib down, we were reminded that we had to deal with the alcohol contraband so out came the rums and beers to celebrate.  Salami and parmesan cheese accompanied said contraband for breakfast as we watched the sun come up on the way to Port Denarau   

Scary hole about 40nm south of Fiji -- probably cost us over an hour, rest of fleet catching us ...

Finish line ... Ran Tan, Hupane, Crusader, Anarchy all well behind and sailing close-hauled

One day into the race, we were reassured when Crusader were also doing the same thing while the rest of the fleet where somewhere between us both and the rhumb line. 

At Port Denerau we received the most incredible reception, all rather humbling and delightful.  A wonderful race, well organised, and all credit to our great crew who are nice, competent, adventurous people and who care about each other and have a winning streak.  

Results were 3rd on Line, 2nd on IRC and 3rd on PHRF.  We also received the Vonu Trophy donated by the Muirs of Wellington for NZ design and build.  A superb trophy to receive with Craig Partridge, our great boat builder, on board.  A wonderful few days followed in Port Denerau with VC Paul Atkins and Matt Perry joining us to celebrate and then help Gordy and Craig Shearer sail Blink home.  

Fiji Gold - on the way to Beachcomber resort for the afternoon...

As we write this, Blink is nearing the top of the North Island and heading down the west coast shortly back to her home port of Welly.

Update 22 June: nearly 8 days after leaving Denarau, Craig, Gordie, Matt P and Paul A get Blink safely back to Wellington

Season Prizegiving 2016: maybe we can take off the learner plates now?

Steadily improving  .... Blink's season results this year are another step up ...  in addition to the silverware and certificates, we also set a couple of new offshore race records, and we did much better in the inshore series than ever before.  And a season championship win for Blink on both Line and PHRF for Div 1.   Despite missing several races in the Spring Series as we'd lost our forestay.

Thanks again to the core crew -- Vesna, Craig (Crew Boss!), Gordie, Pete, Kimmy, Janet - who turn up all the time and make sure Blink is on the water and racing well.  Thanks also to our newer crew: Dr George, Jason, Simon, Theo.  And to our occasional guest appearances and coaching from Daryl, Colt, Kimbo.

Vesna is grateful to Gordie, Kimbo and TW for coaching her to step up and skipper the Crew's race - taking 1st on all handicaps and nice silver trophy!

Line Honours Pennant

Inshore results - look at all those IRC wins! Who'd have thought ... 

Not all of the team could make it to the prize giving, but here are most of the usual suspects... 

Kim, Gordie, Janet, VW, TW, Pete. 

The trophy haul ...

Blink Gets To Auckland for Fiji Race Start

Delivery in only weather window for a couple of weeks ... Storm warnings before and after ...

TW/VW/Craig/Gordie for Wellington to Gisborne, then T&V off for Gisborne-Auckland.  At the Auckland end there was a storm jib and 3 reefs

Here's a video with some of the highlights...
https://vimeo.com/167235657

Craig delighted to get the FR0 out ...!

 Sunrise over Palliser ..

RPNYC Line 7 Regatta 2016

We had a terrible last day of the 3-day regatta, went from 2nd with a chance of 1st to (only just) 3rd.  So results-wise a bit disappointing since we were sailing really well for the first couple of days and the teamwork is coming together really well.

However, the regatta itself was fantastic.  The Parrishes produced their usual awesome regatta and see nice varied courses, and the weather ...!  I can't remember ever sailing an entire 3-day Port Nic regatta in t-shirts and shorts, and (unfortunately for us because we're quite good at this) there were no really windy days.

As usual Chris Coad was there taking pics, and as usual most of them were great - here's a selection ...

Nelson Race 2016 Line Honours, 1st on IRC (yes really!) and (close) 2nd on PHRF - all upwind ...

We prepared for the start to this race with 40-50 knot gusts in the marina, knowing it was going to be upwind effectively all the way, and that it was going to be even more windy on the south coast and for the first part of Cook Strait.  The Class 950 got blown sideways coming out of her berth and was damaged, never left the marina.

We saw sustained 50+ knots for about 30 mins, peak gust that we noticed of 60, and a boat near us saw a 65 knot gust.  Wedgetail lost their mast having already crossed the worst of it, near the Brothers.  The sea state was pretty friendly, given the wind speed (except at the corners in tide rips), since the gradient wind was curving around the top of the South Island ... so not a huge amount of fetch.  We didn't take video in the really windy bits (ran out of camera battery) but just before we entered Cook Strait we got this:

In 50+ knots upwind, Blink was still pointing well, fast and easy to handle with storm jib and 3 reefs. We did hoist a Fractional Zero briefly to leave the harbour, perhaps 10 minutes of downwind sailing but with 40+ knots too much breeze for the A6.  Probably ;-).  We also used a masthead zero for a couple of hours near the south end of D'Urville Island.  But not a single downwind sail for a 120nm (rhumb line) offshore race...

So the downwind weaponry had to wait until the return trip, the delivery back to Wellington ... this was a great sail, crossing the Strait faster than the ferry when the breeze picked up on the eastern side.

Cook Strait Classic 2015 -- Video

[The copyright holders for the background music are monetising this video, so it is blocked in some countries and won't always play in this Blogger window ... If it won't play for you, here's the link to watch it on YouTube ... Blink's Cook Strait Classic 2015 ]

New Cook Strait Classic Record - by 22 minutes

Adding to our Kapiti-Chetwoods record earlier this year, we had great conditions for this year's race. Taking such a big chunk out of the record was quite a surprise as Blink was in cruising mode,  -we were heading away for a few weeks in the Sounds immediately after.  

Lots of video to edit ... But won't be available until we are back to civilisation and computers 

Vesna with some editing from Dave put a description of the race on the RPNYC site, www.rpnyc.org.nz, included below 

The pics are from Debs

----------

Happy Anniversary, Dear

 0

BY VESNA WELLS ON 22 DECEMBER 2015OFFSHORE

A couple of days out from the Cook Strait Classic it was looking like a drifter, but we weren’t that concerned as we only had five crew available.  A day out and the drifter was changing to something more promising so a couple more crew would be rather helpful, and we were pleased to rope in Vicki and Stephen from Incantare. It happened to be their first wedding anniversary and we thought we should set the bar fairly high for experiences. Stephen also had the same idea and arranged some beautiful dolphins for Vicki at the start line.

head of the start we ummed and ahhed about flying the fractional zero or the #2 jib but poking our nose into Evans Bay to find the wind quite forward from the SE settled the argument – the #2-that-reefs-to-a-3 was the go. We got a decent start below the fleet and got our nose ahead to lead the fleet to Kau Bay, which normally ends up as Blink’s parking lot. This time there was good breeze and we kept the lead on our main rivals, Wedgetail, and Satellite Spy from Waikawa.

The breeze settled in to around 18-23 and the boats split at Point Howard. We wondered about covering Wedgetail but had a good lift so worked across to the Eastbourne side of the harbour and tacked our way up to Moaning Minnie. The wind was gusting around 28 knots and there was some chatter about reefing but we dismissed the idea as it wasn’t far to Minnie where we expected to ease off to a nice reach across the south coast. Wedgetail made a gain by going in to Scorching Bay but it wasn’t enough and we led at the mark.

Cracking off at Moaning Minnie the obligatory check was made for any chance of flying the fractional zero to Sinclair but, as is always the case, it was too shy so we two-sailed it. The helmsman, trimmers, and foredeck staff were getting twitchy so we prepared the 200m² A2 gennaker for the big yee-ha that would follow.

We launched the A2 at Thom’s Rock and it did not disappoint – a boisterous wind gusting to 30+ kept us busy and consistently doing over 15 knots, with a top speed of 19.6, which let us put some ground on Wedgetail and Satellite Spy. A couple of small lie-downs and skids indicated the the wind and waves were on the up, and the race record looked like a possibility.

The happy couple trimmed their seal-skin socks off and got to know the Blink day spa experience.  Vicki, not to be outdone by Stephen’s start line dolphins, had arranged a graceful albatross or two.

A couple of miles out from Tory the big red kite was getting to be a handful and we pinged it for the fractional zero – setting up for the drop was the cue for Huey to send send a puff and we had a little lie down. This is where Wedgetail made a significant gain and we could see big white Bertha approaching fairly swiftly. Tory was typically fickle and unpredictable, and we had to get rid of the fro and tack/gybe/furl our way to the finish line where we arrived about 22 minutes ahead of the record set by Wedgetail a couple of years ago. Wedgetail came in about 8 minutes later, also beating their record.

We popped some bubbles to celebrate a great win and romantic anniversary getaway.  A wonderful day out, with great crew and a top way to finish off a year of sailing on Blink.

The next race is the Wellington to Nelson Race starting on Friday 22nd January – the forecast is sunny and mostly following breezes