The Adventures of a Sailor Girl: WINTER WINDUP 2010

Last weekend was the final race for the winter series. I was fortunate enough to be racing in the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron on Saturday and in the Weiti Yacht Club race on Sunday. I was one very happy sailor after 2 consecutive days of racing! The weather saw the season out in true Auckland style with a lovely 30-35knot Southwester for the Squadron race. There was a very impressive fleet out for the final soiree. Alot of the big boats were out - V5, Systems Thunder, 888 and of course all the usual multihull suspects; Tigre, Dirty Deeds, Taeping etc.

The multihulls and big boat divisions were away first, leaving the rest of us sneaking glances at the beautiful sight of multihulls roaring down the harhour in 35knots of breeze while we jostled precariously with the other vessels still in the starting sequence.

As our division took off we had a rather entertaining view of the big boats up ahead losing control of their spinnakers. In that kind of breeze its easy to get overpowered, espcially with such a large sail up, and trying to reach with it no less... I don't think a single yacht managed to successfully fly their kite and we were most amused at the escapades happening ahead of us. There were yachts broaching and rounding up all over the place!! (Broaching is when the boat gets pulled on it side due to being over powered. Rounding up is when the boat is overpowered and pulls up into the wind).

Needless to say we decided against a spinnaker ourselves and charged up the harbour with the number 3 headsail instead. (A small headsail for windier conditions - reducing the risk of losing control of the vessel). For the beat back down the harbour, with the wind hard on the nose we reefed our main down too, to reduce sail area even more. I have never raced with so little sail before. The number 3 and a reef in...and still getting over powered in the gusts. It was a very exciting and very hair-raising ride!! Not bad for a Farr 1020. They're a great boat.

Sunday was equally as exciting and almost as windy. I was racing out of Whangaparoa on a Birdsall 37, Charlatan, that I'm doing the 3 day White Island race on in November. There were only a handful of boats racing in this one as its a very small yacht club. With an olympic course set up outside Gulf Harbour and a crew of six we were good to go. For the first time ever I was put on foredeck and mast work. This meant I was hoisting and dropping sails and dealing with all the dramas happening on the foredeck, all whilst the boat is heaving all over the place and leaning precariously. I loved it! One yacht, (not ours thankfully) even lost its whole rig. The entire mast had snapped off. That would take a phenomenal amount of pressure to do.

I have 3 big races coming up. The Spring Regatta later this month, the Coastal Classic next month then the BIG one...3 days, 320 nautical miles...the Round White Island Ocean Race. Its looking to be another great season of sailing =) Bring it!!