Handover Sail - 2018

Taking over a boat when you have done a bunch of sailing would be easy. My experience is Noelex 22 in Lake Wanaka, and then straight to 70ft Clipper Ocean racing yacht with a professional skipper. So with no lake shore and retracting keel to beach on, and no experienced skipper to ask questions I was keen to get the most out of Craig Smith the prior owners generous offer for a handover sail.

Ben Irving joined on this first sail, it should be noted he has had a bunch of experience of around the cans in Wellington on similar sized yachts. He would have more confidence, but less at stake financially… The plan was to sail the SSANZ Shorthanded Sailing Association New Zealand winter series sponsored by Safety at Sea Triple Series Race 3 the next day.

We set out from Westhaven and out the Channel towards TiriTiri. Craig was all over the boat showing us the ropes. We eventually got some height and bared away for a Masthead Kite launch. The Marshall is set up for short handed racing so the kite is in a sock, this proved invaluable as we had only been sailing under kite for 15 minuets before Rangitoto Island loomed up and we snuffed the kite.

Craig was very generous and had promised a good handover after his own not so easy start to sailing Marshall Law. However Craig can’t sit still and would keep getting into the business of sailing so Ben and I soon realised that we would simply have to do the Safety at Sea race without Craig and learn by jumping in the deep end the very next day.