Safety at Sea Triple - Our first race. 2018
The SSANZ Triple sponsored by Safety at Sea and a short video on YouTube gives an impression of the day. This was our first outing on Marshall Law without the last owner Craig and only my third sail on the boat. We had set ourselves some rules early in the formation of the Dash Ocean Racing team (well there were only 2 of us so this was easy). Coming from Clipper Round the World training my expectations were high for safety, Ben Irving was also 100% committed to this.
PFD (personal flotation device) always on on deck when racing. Tether always attached.
Tethered on after sunset and before sunrise
Tethered on forward of the mast
Tethered on anytime the wind is over 15 knots
We slept on Marshall Law the night before. Remember we are from Wanaka, flying to Auckland to race a yacht is an expensive luxury so we stay on-board and eat on-board. We woke 0600 and ate muesli and yogurt, and the mandatory stove top espresso to kick start the system.
We slipped lines at 0730 for a 0900 start. There was a dense sea fog and no wind so it wasn’t until we exited Y Pier and nearly ran into another yacht with the white division flag that we knew we were on time and would know where to go to get to the start line. 2nd time sailing in Auckland Harbour and we can only see 30mt… so we kept close and followed the mystery yacht to the start line.
What unfolded was an amazing lesson to us.
As the fog lifted would found ourselves with PFD’s, safety tethers and salopettes (waterproof overalls) and the boats around us had crew in Hawaiian shirts and boardies, nothing else… We didn’t want to look like the noobs (10 year old speak for a gamer that is new and a bit useless) so went and quietly slipped out of our gear.
The start was delayed due to the lack of wind and visibility
Race control called with a short course instruction using local information that was not on the charts. Navy Buoy and Hay Stack.
So as we struggled to find the “Navy Buoy” in the Tiri Tiri Channel and the Hay Stack the race start loomed and so we gave up knowing that there would be many yachts in front to follow. We sailed though the start line with the Masthead Code Zero, but as the wind gained around the corner of Rangitoto and so we furled the MH0 and hoisted our biggest jib the North Sails J2. Craig’s voice in the the back of our heads “don’t try and pinch, you’ll never sail as high, take it low and fast” we left the fleet to tack up beside Rangitoto as we took one long tack out towards Browns Bay.
We made our tack, and patted ourselves on the back for our first start, and first tack complete as competitive short handed sailors! BUT, as the wind built the yacht heeled over and although this is normal and fun, we had not removed the MH0 Mast Head Zero from the fore-deck and it was soon dragged into the water. Ben Irving noticed it first, and we quickly jumped into action. Boat into autopilot, both of us leaning over the leeward (low side) guard rails (wire ropes) using all our strength. We took a look at each other as we pulled the sail inboard, NO PFD’s, NO safety tethers, and the boat sailing by itself on autopilot. In our debrief we realised if a stanchion had broken, if a guard rail had broken we would have both been swimming in the Auckland shipping channel with no flotation or communication, Marshall Law would have sail into Rakino eventually and then someone might have mounted a search for us. Video from SSANZ here shows the offending sail at 4.54 min
We found the Navy Buoy, and due to a wind shift from North to North East we had one less tack than planned, and the bulk of the fleet had over laid the mark so we caught up. Next we had our first beam reach leg to Hay Stack. We popped the A2 and took off. The yachts in front of us were heading towards “The Hay Stack” but we didn’t actually know where it was as this is not the name on the chats. With Ben Irving at the helm we casually pulled up behind and to windward of a competing yacht and called out for directions. After receiving a friendly and honest reply Ben Irving decided we couldn’t pass them to windward and take their wind so with seconds to spare we ducked behind them, as we had been reaching with the A2, the moment we bared away she powered up and passed, it was exhilarating to see how fast these Ross boats are downwind. It turns out the Hay Stack is a nickname for Orarapa Island.
We pushed hard and had a great duel with a few yachts and finished just before dark. The anchorage looked sound but we couldn’t be arsed with getting the anchor out of storage to sleep the night there. Back to Westhaven in the dark using the engine, and a solid sleep.
Key learning
Stick to your own safety standing orders.
Know the short course and have a race plan for it.
Ask race officials for chart names of race marks.
Result 17th of 29 yachts. Race Track
Morning fog burning off. Rangitoto island in the background.
