Gold Cup - Race 1 - Spring Cup - 2018
Team: Ben Acland, Ben Irving, Jase Hancox
So to set the scene, the Gold Cup is different race series organised by the Royal Akarana Yacht Club in Auckland. These guys lead the charge in organising the offshore racing and have just opened an amazing new club room in Okahu Bay Auckland. The Gold Cup is a 5 race series with best 4 results counting, all races are between 50 - 80 NM so a good day / day and a half. The race also had a variation from the SSANZ Triple in that short handed racing was 3 POB. So as Jase was keen to join the Hobart mission we took him for a test sail.
The course was set as a start off the Okahu Wharf, leave Bean Rock to Starboard, then straight down to Passage Rock just at the entrance to the Waiheke Channel, leave that to port then head for home. The start went ok, but we still got rolled as not at the pin end of the line. Still we are only sailing this piece of water for the 3rd time so happy just to be in the mix we some rad yachts.
Due to Jase having never sailed before, and Ben and Ben lacking the confidence (balls) to use the big Masthead Kite, the A2 was the weapon of choice. This big Asymmetric Running Gennaker flown off the 2 metre prod, requires only a trimmer on the working sheet and helmsman, no big spinnaker pole to deal with. The drawback is we didn’t run as deep as the symmetrical kite flying yachts and so ended up sailing lower toward Motuihe Island. We completed the gybe and found our angle to Channel Island had us at AWA 100 degrees (should be 105 - 155). The wind was light around 10 kts so we managed to hold this angle but it was running hot.
So the angle is hot, we have three sailors. Ben Acland the owner goes forward to man the sock to snuff the kite if we broach, Ben Irving takes the sheets and trims ready, that left Jase on his first day sailing helming. Jase is annoying because he can do anything (especially if he doesn’t know you shouldn’t be doing it) and so he steered the boat. The wind dropped and we saw yachts behind us firming up on the find and reaching for J sails, but we stuck to the A2 and on the other side of the soft wind we hit more breeze. Jase did amazing as we skidded out three times as the wind built and the 100 AWA was well over cooked.
Long story short, we made Channel Island, tacked back up the course and finished 6th of 14 in division 1. We even beat (on handicap) Ran Tan II famous recently for loosing her keel in the Pacific 3000 kms off the coast of Mexico.
Lessons from this trip.
Chart Plotter on the Bulkhead is prone to knees.
Jib sheets were trimmed from Lewmar 2 Speed winch into a Cam Cleat. Trimming on the low side was very awkward so researching self tailing winch for replacement. This also meant Jase’s knee was needed to balance (see lesson 1)
Spinnaker sheets require careful attention. Don’t assume that they are running out of the block because someone is pulling them…
B.O.A.T Bust Out Another Thousand (new MFD Screen and spinnaker sheets $2,899 to be precise)
Whoops, Jase’s knee was holding him in the boat but the unfortunate placement of this screen saw its end
Lewmar winches that are not self tailing, replace these on the short list of early mods we will need to do.
Jase contemplating his first DASH
