Race report for the Brin Wilson Memorial Race

Mix T Motions Race Report for the Brin Wilson Memorial (started 26/03/10)

The forecast was for about 15 knots, we had been preparing the boat with new additions being a modification to the prod, (after breaking the last one in the last race) and a new chartplotter with a through hull transducer (this was still being fitted on the morning before the race). We arrived at the start line and I was keen to be mister gennaker and get the new prod working gibing down wind as I have seen other boats doing, of course it was a race so we had to go big! So I prepared the big gennaker which we have never had up before, the wind did seem quite strong, but I figured once we were running with the wind behind us things would hopefully be under control, wrong! We hoisted it and the boats positioning on the start line was pretty good, we needed to be quick to release the sheet to avoid a broach……… to slow……… on our side now………. trying to avoid ramming the other boats…….. no control. I am busy yelling all sorts of instructions, one of them being get it down, the prod was at an angle pointing at the sky and there was really very little pressure required form the sail to snap it, which is what happened next. Okay! #@&! (sorry dad I feel terrible about this) Just keep the speed on the boat, out with the furling headsail while we get the masthead kite up. Got the kite up and away we go, looking good and not far behind, then after a few minutes… snap the downhaul to the pole snapped, okay get it down, fix it, and put up another spinnaker, That didn’t take long, good job Tom, the fractional this time as my nerves are shot. This feels like a good sail choice, plenty of wind, going well, 9-14 knots of boat speed when surfing down waves, looking around only one other boat has a kite up and Travellin man is not far in front zipping around using their small gennaker, looking really good but not sailing in the right direction. We are right on the rhumb line, there is a nasty little sea running which means the boat is rolling from side to side and with the wind right behind us it takes a bit of concentration to prevent the boat from gybing. We watch Danaide in front of us with a masthead kite up with broad shoulders, her roll is worse than ours and as we watch….. the inevitable happens, and it doesn’t look pretty, they drop their kite and go to two sails,. Lets hope they keep it that way as we are catching them now and all the other boats are behind us (but not a long way behind) one other boat has a kite up now (and they are a long way behind). I am thinking about gybing the kite at this stage as its going to get windier and we have now crossed our rhumb line no longer able to lay our course. The crew runs through what their going to do, then………. it doesn’t go well, and we end up with a badly wrapped and knotted sail around the forestay, by lowering the halyard Bill is able to free it after what seems an agonisingly long period of time, finally its free and we are off again, wind increasing now and sea state worse, having to concentrate again, so head up a bit as a safety net (Danaide doing the same), Danaide drops their kite and has to sail to Channel under two sails as they didn’t lay it. We are doing better and made up some ground by actually managing to lay it, it put us really close to the rock though as we drop the kite and move to two sails (Wind strength about 30kts) big schools of dolphins all around us, work ups with gannets diving en mass (exciting stuff for a fisherman). Once out of the wind shadow of channel Island we put the boat on course for Sail Rock, the boat loves these conditions, and with cracked sheets we are doing 7-8 knots consistantly, its just after 4.00pm and high tide. Bill uses the sat phone to make the sched at 6.20. Tom puts a reef in during this time and the boat goes a bit faster and handles a bit better.
We can see Sail rock as the sun sets and we pass close to little barrier. Bill steering and he is able to steer by sight to the rock despite it being dark. On the horizon behind, is the loom of Wharangei, intermingled with some occasional flames leaping from the horizon from the oil refinery there. We round Sail rock under moonlight and it looks like something from another planet with all the light and dark areas from, crevices all over its surface. Strong toilet smell downstairs so the area is avoided till about midnight when Bill and I have a lye down for a couple of hours, Bill and I wake up at with Kawau to starboard, apparently we lost the wind for a while and boat speed went down to 3 knots but we didn’t notice this and the wind was back up again when we emerged, I grabbed the helm and we begun the process of tacking in to round Moturekareka, negotiating all the reefs and rocks, the new chart plotter was great and I didn’t even turn on the handheld. Rounding Moturekereka we had a three mile run to the finish where we hoisted our masthead kite, this was great and got everyone awake again, we felt like we were racing, imagining not many of our competitors would be doing the same and that a few minutes could make all the difference. Crossing the finish line beside Martello Rock at 4 oclock 11 minutes, 36 secs, no finish boat in site .

We later found out we not only won the race but the whole series! The finish boat was on station at 5am not expecting anyone to finish before then. The next day we were invited aboard Starlight express (very impressive boat), for drinks, there ended up being 38 of us on board, all talking shit, a bit of a drunken debrief, followed by us departing for a swim, then attending the BBQ, and prizegiving, being presented with three big silver trophies, and having to make a speech! Not used to this. Then we decided to sail home through the night, arriving back at x-pier about 1am. Mission accomplished.