Coastal Classic - Auckland to Russell
https://www.coastalclassic.co.nz
“The Coastal Classic Yacht Race from Devonport Wharf to Russell Wharf in the Bay of Islands, is New Zealand's premier fleet yacht race and has been held annually at Labour weekend since its inception in 19822”
Race Brief evening before was our first such occasion. Large numbers at the RNZYS was a little intimidating for the South Islanders but we collected our bow sticker listened to the weather brief and enjoyed a beer.
Dan, Jimmy, Ben Irving and Jase.
Team: Ben Acland, Ben Irving, Jase Hancox, Dan Shand and Jimmy Herlihy
We slipped lines Friday morning to meet the scheduled time of the warning signal at 0955 hrs and start 1000 hrs. With Jimmy and Dan fresh to Marshall Law and Jase on his third day of sailing we were being cautious. On top of this the stress of getting ready for the race and long hours of repairs etc. and maybe a lack of hydration put Ben Acland off his game and later below deck with a headache.
The fun business on the start line was having a port-starboard incident, we were on starboard with right of way however Ben Irving decided not to push our luck and let Steinlager 2 pass ahead. Steinlarger 2 is a ketch rig twice as long as Marshall Law and we had seen her out in the harbour, she does a lot of corporate work, youth sailing and team building so we suspected the crew might have the same level of experience as we did.
What else went wrong at the start taken from our log.
Late to line and did not have start line sighted
Had the wrong sail (Fractional Zero FR0), furled and then hoisted our biggest Jib the J2.
Drinking water tanks have breathers, the Port one was open and when we tacked filled the galley cupboards (tea bags, coffee, egg cartons) with water.
After the start we were in the channel between Devonport and Rangitoto when our mate Olly Chapman on Geordies power cat tried to maneuver for a photo. Ben Acland who new Geordie and his boat was below and Ben Irving took evasive measures trying to duck behind, however Geordie was flat out in reverse trying to let us pass in front, in the end we went behind but not until we had gone backwards.
1030 log just after the start
Wind Speed 10 kts
Wind Direction 010°
Next up a fatal mistake of tacking out to starboard for a better run (we thought) but snookered ourselves behind a inbound ship. The tracker looks bad, and it is, however the rating for division 1 is any boat above PHRF .85 and we scrape in at .86.
1415 Log
Wind Speed 12.5 kts
Wind Direction 035°
Next we settled into the long reach up to the Hen and Chicken Islands where we went outside. Amazing drone footage shot by Jase (he is a pro, check the link to his work), with the crew on standby to catch the drone. As Jase has an uncanny ability to do things, the return to the yacht was text book (after a couple of attempts).
Sun set near Hen and Chicken Islands
We sailed on through the night with no changes to the sail plan and arrived at Cape Brett around 0400.
Rounding Cape Brett we dropped the J2 and hoisted the Jib Top (a jib with no battens and high clew for reach) however the wind dropped and we had a beam reach so hoisted the A2 to replicate the hot angle we achieved in the Gold 1 Race.
What was very new to us lake and ocean sailors was tide and land breeze both of which were against us for the last leg to Russell. It took us a frustrating four and a half hours to cover 14 NM which could be covered at 7 kts in a straight line in 2 hours. 0530 our speed through water of 4.0 kts.
On arrival we hooked a free mooring buoy and tided up waiting for the Water Taxi to ferry us ashore for breakfast. A yacht not far from us had their crew all on deck with very load music, clearly they had been on the gas since arriving hours earlier than us. We found our way to the Duke of Marlborough for a hearty all you can eat buffet breakfast.
The forecast was for the breeze to die off on Sunday morning which meant that after a big night in Russell we would have a 16 hour motor back to Auckland. This was not what the team wanted out of our training dash so after a 2 hour sleep we slipped out of Russell at 1430 leaving in our wake many a drunken sailor. Sailing was champagne and Jase chucked up the drone for more footage. by 0120 the wind was gone and we dropped all sails and began the motor back to Auckland.
Birds eye view, great tool to check sail trim.
That’s a wrap. So many things went wrong and we also made so many mistakes, the beauty of that is we learned heaps and can’t wait to do it again next year as we have left a very low baseline to improve on…
Marshall Law, Ben Irving, Dan Shand, Jase Hancox, Jimmy Herlihy. Ben Acland photo credit.
