The course for the Simrad 50 this saturday

The Simrad 50 is on this saturday ( July 4) the course is as follows;
Start off Orakei wharf, passing Rangitoto Island (Starboard), rounding Motutapu Island (starboard), Motuihe Green Buoy (port), rounding passage rock (starboard), passing Browns Island (port), to fonish Orakei Wharf (approximately 42 nm).
Bill and I are the crew for MixTmotions, and dad and tom are sailing on ZGY.

Last two races on ZGY

The first of these two races was fine winter weather- crew Tom ,Dad and I. The second was rainy all day with the wind getting up a bit at times, not to cold luckily.

Zgy being waterblasted

Zgys turn

Ken waterblasting

This is Ken at the floating dock waterblasting Mix T's hull

Mix T 's Bulb

Mix T's bulb has flames painted on it to make it go faster

Cleaning Hulls

Dad and I took both Zgy and MixT out of the water on friday via the floating dock, to get their hulls waterblasted in preparation for the Simrad 50 next weekend.

Bens Coastal Skipper Course

Ben is doing the Coastal Skipper qualification with the Coastguard at present, which involves alot of navigation practice, skills that will be brought in to play during the longer races such as around white island and around the north lsland

New Keel For Mix T Motions

Here is a photo of the new keel

wheres Mix T at?

Dad has been plugging away at Mix T motions, the keel is now fitted! We had a trial sail to Kawau Island and back over summer and it feels like a new boat. Now he is getting a new rudder made up as the old one wasn't beefy enough.

The big race for us on the race calender this year is the Around White Island race on November 26, 2009 which we are doing two handed. To do this race the boat has to be Cat 2, which has been an expensive exersize for Dad. It looks like we will get there!

This will be followed by the around North Island Race fully crewed, in Feb 2010. Then in Feb 2011 we will do the around North Island Race two handed.

My crew for the race is Kelvin, who is presently overseas on a small island called St Helena in the Atlantic.

Tom has recently got married and you guessed it, is now expecting a baby on the 29th Nov effectively ruling him out. Bill is also unable to make it.

The first big test for Mix T is the first of the Simrad series which is on July 4. I will be sailing on MixT with Bill and Dad will be sailing on ZGY with Tom.

Return from the Coastal Classic

return from the Coastal Classic

The boys return from the coastal classic after a rough couple of days, they ended up retiring from the race and pulling into Whangarei Harbour, they experienced some strong winds 45 knots at times and some rough seas causing seasickness. Ben was following the drama on his computer at home via the race blog.

The coastal classic had miserable weather. Most of the boats pulled out. We pulled out at Whangarei. The boys sailed back to Auckland the next day.