MixTMotions Race Report Simrad 50

Mix T Motions – Richard Edlin design 8.0 Metre

Simrad 50 Report, Shorthaul Sport Boat Division

The Crew
Our crew was made up of myself (Ben Allen), and my good friend (Bill Lavelle), this is the first time we have sailed two handed together.
The Start
Our day didn’t start to well, as while hoisting the genoa my headlamp torch got knocked off my head and fell in the drink, this led to the discovery of another problem with the roller furling, which I was fussing around with all the way to the start line (where does all the time go), lucky I had some duck tape wrapped around my drink bottle because, in the words of my friend Sam - if you cant duck it f@#% it.

The consequence of all this fumbling around was, that we didn’t have the best of starts, but we were racing!
Shortly after starting we tacked over to port with the aim of getting out into deeper water where the outgoing tide would be stronger and also escape the variable wind strengths that are often encountered around North Head (done that before).

A number of multihull boats began to overtake us in spectacular fashion (many flying hulls) as we neared Rangi Light.
Mix T Motions felt like she was moving through the water nicely still bringing up the rear at this stage.
Tacking up to Billy Goat Point
Just past Rangi light we saw Travellin Man (an SR26) tack over towards Rangitoto and she passed behind us (that was a good sign). But we opted to continue on, in the more open water for a bit longer rather than follow them. Then tacking and working our way up to Billy Goat Point, giving it a wide berth, very aware that we draw 2.4 metres.

Around Motuhie
Coming around the back of Motutapu we hoisted our fractional spinnaker (masthead would have been better) and carried it down to Motuhie Channel Green Buoy (a fairly short run), close in behind “Bump and Grind”. It was a tidy drop and we cruised around the back of Motuhie with cracked sheets. The wind hadn’t been strong at any stage so far, but Mix T Motions seemed to like it when the wind blew a little harder, that’s when we began to make some ground on the boats around us. “Bump and Grind” got away on us through this section then we were into the run up to Passage Rock.
Up to Passage Rock
This is when we got our best wind, (still no need to put a reef in) and we had our sights set on overtaking Jagged Edge (another SR26), hard on the wind, and with a strong wind we achieved this just before Passage Rock, as well as getting a much needed lift back up to above the rhumb line, then just before reaching Passage Rock the wind lightened, and Jagged Edge crept away from us again.
Passage Rock to the Finish
Jagged Edge tacked just in front of us around passage rock and upon rounding it hoisted their big green gennaker and took off, they were soon quite away ahead of us. We hoisted our masthead spinnaker (the wind was now light), but it was no match for them.

There were a lot of boats ahead of us and a lot behind us also. During this stage of the race we didn’t have any boats in site that could give us an idea where we were in our fleet. We just concentrated on keeping the spinnaker full and making our way towards Browns Island light. The scenery around us was awesome, lots of boats all with kites up (what a great race), the bigger longhaul boats came screaming through us in spectacular fashion, many with massive kites up. Just past Browns Island, Waka overtook us with a big black gennaker up broaching momentarily before regaining control and tearing off again.
Back at Westhaven
Back at Westhaven we chatted to Richard from Travellin Man and discovered we had crossed the line ahead of him, our colourful patchwork spinnaker being visible to him on the run home from Passage Rock.
But it wasn’t until Sunday morning that I discovered that we had won our division on handicap and my father (Jim) had won the smallboat division on handicap sailing on ZGY.

A great start to the series for us and Jim.