R11:

A beautiful evening!

The Crew

John (Captain), Dave, Ian and daughter.

Beverage Report

Dave's Red Ale - Very nice - hops and malt... and a couple of left-overs from the fridge.

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Cheers, johnhs

R10: Nick is Back

Nick is back from his boom experience and ready to race! And this week Ian returns to the fore-deck - welcome back Ian.

The Crew

John (Captain), Ian, Mark and Nick.

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Cheers, johnhs

R9: Boom! Literally...

This is how you earn a DNS - as in did not start.

The Crew

John (Captain), Dave, Mark and Nick.

The Start

The wind was southerly and we were cruising up the harbour towards Chelsea. Time to turn back to the box and the start - it was a tack, however as we were reaching when we tacked around we let the boom flop over to the other side... this was not expected by Nick, who received a heavy blow from the boom to the forehead. A trip to White Cross and then Auckland Hospital saw him being discharged - albeit with a nasty dent in the old scone.

Beverage Report

No beer was consumed - although Dave had bought an IPA and we were seriously considering... nah, better not turn up to A&E smelling like beer.

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Cheers, johnhs

R8: Home at last

Maximising the sailing experience - that's what we are about!

The Crew

John (Captain), Dave, Mark and Nick.

Course - 13

From the start line to Rough Rock Buoy (S), Northern Leading Buoy (S), Resolution Buoy (S), to the finish line. 10.3NM - which was longer than we wanted given that the wind was due to go 5 knots variable in the evening. Luckily that did not eventuate and we had a good sail all night.

The Start

A better start, I thought, but the wind angles changed - I was hoping to go angles to get our VMG going - alas no the wind changed more to the south and we ending up slow.

Progress

Will we make it, will we make it... yes! With 4 minutes 24 seconds to spare. Easy. No point coming home too early, need to get as much sailing in as we can. Eh.

Result

Well, last on the water and last on handicap, a clean sweep, 10 out of 10. And so it was at the clubhouse later on with Mark picking up beers and Dave again with a spot prize - on a hat-trick Dave...

Beverage Report

A return for Nick's stout - very weell received by all, including a cockpiut, which bathed in the dark mysterious liquid at one point. It was preceded by an Epic Pale Ale, which is never a bad thing - excellent as always.

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Cheers, johnhs

R7: Did not finish, but very close...

Sailing was the winner on the night, with a return to the finish line 1 minute after the race closed at 9:00PM. Bugger... but a lovely evening on the water nonetheless.

The Crew

John (Captain), Dave and Nick.

Course - I can't remember

Having not done the blog post straight away, and the results not saying... I can't remember the course... maybe ... a very long one...

The Start

A better start, but getting the pole up to goose-wing down the harbour was a bit problematic with our star fore-deck crew on leave.

Progress

Will we make it, will we make it... no.

Result

At least a DNF is not as bad on the results as a DNC. In the clubhouse however it was a different story, with Dave taking home a nice pair of sailing shorts from Line 7.

Beverage Report

We had a battle on the water, and another on the bottle... a superb IPA from Dave and a stout stout from Nick - both were excellent and went down very nicely, meaning that the arrival at 9:00 instead of 8:59 or less didn't seem so bad after all.

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Cheers, johnhs

R6: Last race for 2016

The last race of the year had us hoping for a prize - and our division is very close when the handicaps are taken into account - excellent work from our race director and handicapper Margaret. We made a couple of mistakes and ended the night in fourth - however we did manage to score a spot prize, and the Christmas hamper! John Hamilton-Smith of Kerkira, winner of the gift basket from our wonderful sponsor New World Birkenhead! (also shown, anonymous sailing enthusiast).

The Crew

John (Captain), Dave, Mark and Nick.

Course 15

From the start line to North Head Buoy (S), Bean Rock Buoy (S), Torpedo Buoy (P), Resolution Buoy (S), Bayswater Buoy (P), to the finish line. 10.5NM. North Head bouy not Northern Leading - we had a little discussion about this and I found out later that so did others - not sure if we have had course 15 before.

The Start

In the box a minute late - we got delayed by the main halyard getting wrapped around the steaming light. Nice breeze though so we stayed with the fleet going down to North Head.

Progress

Once we were underway and heading for the Devonport side to get the best tide/current combination, the Captain called for a beer, and was handed a black lager from Garage Project called "Day of the Dead". It slipped down like silk knickers indeed.

Result

Just amazing how well our division is setting up for a fight - a mistake will punish anyone. We unfortunately had 2 - the drama at the start and then a poor rounding of Bean Rock Buoy which cost us the race in the end. Nice to know just how close it all is now - it is fantastic. So we ended forth.

Beverage Report

Garage Project for-the-win. Also had the TUATARA MOT EUREKA NZ PILSNER.
Merry Christmas

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Cheers, johnhs

R5: A beautiful evening in Auckland

A beautiful evening to go sailing - although we did not have the wind of the weeks before, and knew we would have to be extra special to get in the placings this week. However, with a Sev 1 IPA on board, what could possibly go wrong?.


The ice goes into the bucket after the beers have been added.

The Crew

John (Captain), Dave (master brewer), Mark.

Course 5

From the start line to Rough Rock Buoy (S), Orakei Buoy (S), Resolution Buoy (S), Bayswater Buoy (P),  to the finish line. 10.0 NM. A good course, downwind to Rough Rock, tight back to resolution and then tacks to get home.

The Start

In the box on time tonight, and ready for the start. I had the timer going and just as well - not sure if there was a 1 minute horn.

Progress

Down the harbour with a very nice IPA in hand and the goose-wing doing its job. Too bad about the guy fishing on Devonport Wharf - he caught a 30ft'er as we cut passed the wharf staying out of the tide. Down to Rough Rock we cut the corner staying close to North Head and missing the wind shadow kept up the speed so caught back up a bit. Sadly that didn't end in a great result as we battled back up to the finish.

Result

Well, not that great on the scoreboard - as I said "A beautiful evening for sailing..." I did snag a spot-prize though... I wouldn't want to let Peter down ;-)

Beverage Report

Dave, a wonderful IPA indeed. Very nice and lots of it at 6.7%!

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Cheers, johnhs

R4: Back on the Waitemata

We missed two races due to the new engine build and me disappearing off to Asia for two weeks - anyway, we were back with avengeance! And wind there was! We enjoyed a lumpy but well-powered ride with the wind in the reaching low 20 knots and our top speed over 10 knots [GPS]. It was not a huge course, but upwind on the way back - yet we arrived home in the light.

The Crew

John (Captain), Dave, Ian, Mark and Nick. New crewmate Marcelo unable to make it out this week.

Course 9

From the start line to Rough Rock Buoy (S), Orakei Buoy (S), Resolution Buoy (S),  to the finish line, 8.9NM. A huge tidegoing in the right direction, luckily, both for the start and the finish (3.6M), lots of wind starting Westerly and going Northwest.

The Start

Hit the start at speed however we were 2 minutes late as we had been up-harbour and got a bit distracted. Probably a good thing as we would have shredded the handicap even further :-)

Progress

Charged off down the harbour - playing a bit of catchup, and really didn't lose touch with our division - it felt very good. I was asked if we had a reef in as the conditions were quite windy - no, of course we didn't!

Result

Yes, a win on handicap by almost 2 minutes - what a little wind will do for us!. We also picked up the crew prize and a spot prize! We had a very good night!

Beverage Report

Nick conjured up his Coopers Real Ale which went down very nicely. We were unsure of the alcohol percentage - a bit of a hit esp in the Grolsh Swingtop bottles - waiting for Dave's next batch to compare craftmanship. I moved onto a Dead Canary which is a Pale Ale with a malty base - very nice, and a Tuatara or two were consumed by the crew on the bumps and many-tacks of the ride home. I have just installed a new electric fridge however the bucket-of-ice method works extremely well in getting the beverages to the correct temperature.

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Cheers, johnhs

R1: Beginners Luck - welcome Marcelo

The wind was in for the first race of the 2016-17 Wednesday night series at Richmond Yacht Club in Auckland. The Waitemata Harbour gave us a great ride with wind in the low 20 knots. A beautiful evening, we arrived back in the dark. The work on the new motor had killed off the electrics but other than that we broken nothing - pretty good for the first outing with decent wind.

The Crew

John (Captain), Dave, Mark and new crewmate Marcelo. Ian sick and Nick lost in the traffic.

Course 6

From the start line to Northern Leading Buoy (P), Rough Rock Buoy (P), Resolution Buoy (S), Bayswater Buoy (P),  to finish line. 10.3NM The tide was strong, however coming in. We made use of it as we arrived at Northern Leading bang on rather than the other boats who pointed at the mark and ended up going with the tide and losing ground.

The Start

Hit the start at 7 knots... headed out to the Devonport side to get out of the incoming tide.

Progress

We stayed in touch most of the way to the bottom end of the course, and as it became dark the wind held on. Hit Bayswater nicely considering we couldn't actually see it until we were on top of it and home in the dark with just a head-lamp to stave off collisions. Looks like I have a job this weekend with the 12V system.

Result

Numbawan on the night - a great way to start the series, and great way to introduce our new crew to sailing.

Beverage Report

As pointed out by one of our regular readers, the Beverage Report aka More For The Beer Than The Sailing was sorely lacking from the original post. To remedy that... read on...

Tuatara Sauvinova a single hop ale using Nelson Sauvin hops, and delivered cold with and ABV of 5.2%. A quenching drop with a delightful bitter finish on an explosion of gooseberries and grapefruit flavours. Ensure you have a few lurking in the bilges - or better still in a bucket of ice near the skipper. Thank you Spudooli for your kind concern - and yes there may be a Heineken review any time soon.

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Cheers, johnhs