Making Waves in the Bay of Island Regatta 2017

California kiwi a local boat from the Opua cruising club, with it's regular crew
of 10 manning the controls entered the Bay of Islands regatta for the first time
after 12 year's. We had just won the twilight series, so I could see why Gary
Hack had entered the boat. The last time Gary entered he didn't do so well.
Maybe this time with his regular crew, just maybe we will have some good
fortune.

The regatta's start point was just off Russell harbour with 104 yachts
participating of which 17 were racing in our class. There were some serious
boats amongst them.
The opening race didn't get off to a good start. Firstly there was the long wait
for the wind to fill in. Then there was the recall from a spinnaker start in our
class because of the confusion with the count down and quite a few boats were
over the start line. Thank god for that, we were still sailing from the other side
of the line to get into position.
On a spinnaker start, Gary prefers to sit a little back and not to be dragged into
the battle for the leading spot. It can get messy at the front and with California
kiwi's stream line profile, she had the potential to make up the lost distance
anyway.
The second start of the B class was a lot better with an explosion of colourful
spinnakers ballooned in front of us.
Just when we thought all was going well, our spinnaker halyard disconnected
and the sail fell into the water. We had just barely covered a few boat lengths
from the start line but with our sharp crew, we had the spinnaker on board in no
time .
We now had a problem, we had lost the only forward mast head halyard. The
only other halyards available to us were the two fractional. No one wanted to
climb the mast to retrieve it because we all thought that it had broken off with
the end already inside the mast. The only mast head halyard was the main's
which was now in use. With all the large head sail's designed for a mast head
lift we had to think of some way to solve the problem. Luckily the wind shifted,
forcing the fleet to drop their spinnakers and sail on their jibs. It would be only
for a few hundred yards, until we cleared the north head land to head east and
then the fleet would be back onto maximum power. This gave us the
opportunity to jury rig the spinnaker.
The plan was to hoist the spinnaker with the pole pointing down as low as
possible. Once we had the sail up we were able to make final adjustments.
We were a little off the pace so we decided to attach the pole sheet to the bow
spirit tact, flying the spinnaker like a gennaker as the wind had moved ahead.
To our surprise the boat was starting to catch up with the fleet. Our local rival's
Mr Wolf gave us indication of where our likely position in the race would be
as the two boats always battle for line honours in the local regattas. Mr Wolf
was sailing well, with his new main sail advertising some medical advise Sex
for life, so trying to make a good judgement was a little difficult.
It was obvious that the team wanted to make up for the bad start and sailed the
boat well. Then the spinnaker pole accidentally tripped the spinnaker sheet on
the second down wind leg of the day but all was under control in a flash, with
just a small tear in the sail.
It was the first race that we wanted to make an impression.
California kiwi was sixth over the line and fourth on handicap. A very good
result for all the hard work that everyone contributed to solving our mishaps of
the day.

The second race day got off to a better start, with the spinnaker masthead
halyard back into action and the small tear repaired with some sail tape.
I had climbed the mast to retrieve the halyard and with our stroke of luck, the
connector was still attached. It just needed prying out of the sheave and
lowering back down onto the deck.

Again Mr Wolf got off to a great start leaving us to perform well to keep up with
the pace. It was the J120 Simply Red that pulled us through the fleet as she
made some good decisions over the other boats, pulling her ahead.
We didn't get to pass her but we did manage to catch up to Mr Wolf after she got
caught in a wind hole just off the north head land from race one. With just two
minutes off her pace, we managed to cross the line in fifth place creating a first
position on handicap. Who would have thought that!

With our shifting handicap due to our performance over the last two races, we
had to perform well on the final day. A little anxious we had our group talk. Les
our main sheet trimmer was unable to make it so Lorna who was from a
cruising boat filled in. Luckily there were no breakages to worry about.
Everyone knew their positions and what was expected of them. All we needed
was a good northerly sea breeze because from this direction the winds are
steady. With the light conditions forecasted the chance of northerlies were high
but not before some of our crew and crew on other boats dived into the calm
water avoiding the early morning increasing temperature's. You could see the
sea breeze building in the distance and before long 17 yacht's in our class were
entangled behind the start line for the windward leg. Gary our skipper
positioned California Kiwi well at the start putting us at the front of the fleet
with our competitor from yesterdays race Simply Red. Mr Wolf was having
trouble getting out of the starting blocks which just left the red devil to deal
with and a couple of other vessels behind us who might course us trouble. Our
new main sail trimmer kept us up with the pace. There was not a moment where
the main sheet didn't move as Lorna co-ordinated with my son Joshua, working
the back stay.
The 23 nautical mile race saw us on the tail of Simple Red who seemed to
make tidier large head sail changes than we did. Besides the nervous
atmosphere we managed to keep it together putting pressure on the red boat.
It was on the final leg, Simply Red lifted a huge asymmetric for the first time in
the race, making a dash for the finish. This was California Kiwis favourite leg
and they knew it. With a few boat lengths between us and our course being the
committee boat marking the left side of the finish line, there was silence in the
cockpit. Slowly but surely we were hot on the tail of the leading boat, trying our
best to shadow his sails slowing him down when possible and passing him to
starboard. With the finish less than a hundred metres away the most unusual
thing happened. Simple red started to push us up way beyond the port side of
the finish line only to stall his boat when he tried to jibe. This gave us the
opportunity to sneak across his stern to the other side with clean air and 30
metres to the finish. The J120 was unable to jibe and sailed the asymmetric
almost by the lee towards the finish. With the boats side by side and only metres
from the line, no one dare to make a sound. It was the blast from the finishing
horn that broke us all out into a huge cheer. We had won.
What an amazing race, just two seconds separated first and second place over
the line.

At the presentation California Kiwi not only took line honours for the final race
but also won the Bay of Islands regatta in class B. There goes Gary's handicap!