First Regatta!

Today was the first day of the Evans Bay annual regatta. It was moved to the Matariki weekend (Friday the 24th was a public holiday) from March (or something) to try something different and encorporate some Waka Ama folk with an activity they wanted to run for the weekend.

The weekend was set over 3 days, the first was 3 races of the Evans Bay Regatta, the second was the Matariki classic, a 3hr race for the fastest average lap time, and the final day was the last 2 races for the Evans Bay Regatta.

Day 1 - Evans Bay Regatta

It was a good 12 gusting 20 knots, northerly but still pretty chilly. Briefing was pretty busy, lots of people. Big talk about hypothermia saftey as it was gonna be easy to get cold and wet and tired.

I pulled my boat out on Thursday afternoon and put the mast up so I ended up arriving at about 9:20, a little later than most but I knew I didn’t need much time. Briefing at 9:30, then back to finishing rigging. I added an additional shackle to see if I could get the mainsail onto the top hook but that didn’t work. Annoying since I knew I’d need lots of cunningham to depower for the day.

We had to wait for the ‘D’ flag before we could get out onto the water, safety reasons which are totally fine, but they didn’t put the flag up til 10 min before the first race was supposed to start! I was the first PT out on the water which was nice, had a good blast upwind to the start line. The boat didn’t actually feel overpowered at all which was a good sign. I got to the start line and went to tack over but I just couldn’t! I didn’t really know why at the time either. I tried 3 or 4 times to tack and kept failing which was a bit dissapointing, I kept calm and eventually got round.

I practiced reaching up and down the start line just to get a feel for the boat and the conditions, it was my 3rd time in the boat and the windiest by far. According to my Race Qs tracking I was reaching along at over 8 knots which was pretty cool, I felt super in control and had absolutely no issues with the hull flying in the air. It felt super natural and stable, which is the main thing I was worried about. I took my time with the takes and timed them with the waves and that made a big difference.

Race 1

Before the start we were all parked up, as the PTs do, for basically the whole 5 minutes, just inching toward the line. I was actually very suprised as to how easy it was to just park the boat up and stop and sit still, was quite nice. I got a pretty good start close to the committee boat end. I stuck with the fleet for a couple hundred meters but noticed that I was slipping back a little. Not too sure why but I think I was pinching a bit and I was definitley going a tad slower than everyone according to Race Qs. It also appears that I wasn’t quite fast enough off the line and lost a fair bit of ground off the line.

At the start I haven’t been able to acellerate as fast as any of the other boats, despite crossing the line within a second or two. This is possibly because I was actually in the dirty air of Platinum and most likely K2 as well. I wasn’t in the clearest air I could have been and looking at my speed off the line it is very clear that this was the case. It also could have been that I was not quite sheeted in as much as I should have been, or was fluffing about with other ropes (most likely my traveler).

According to Race Qs on the first upwind leg, and from what I felt to, the boat was super stable and I was quite consistent with not pointing too high and keeping speed on. I just pointed it as high as I needed and just shot off. The first tack went well which was nice. A tad slow but worked out. The second tack not so much but oh well, lost a lot of ground. I had a really good reach and top mark rounding though which felt good. A bit of a patchy downwind leg though which was a shame, probably didn’t help too much.

The rest of that race was much the same, a fair few crappy tacks but had much better downwind legs though. Got messy during the end but I was happy I completed the race in the end. I finished about 10 min after everyone else, so the start for the next race was basically already happening!

I hit a top speed of 13.4 knots which is insane! The feeling of flying around on one hull getting pelted by waves was so much fun.

Race 2

I totally messed this start up, started behind everyone in all the dirty air, not very smart. I should probably have just tacked off early and seeked cleaner wind. I felt like the left side of the course had more wind so kinda wanted to stay there though. My speed wasn’t actually too bad though and I kept a similar separation to the first tack where I had a meh tack but then recovered badly after I had started to speed up. I had the wind shift to the right and got pushed down quite far on first tack going back up to the top mark, compounded by another set of bad tacks it was looking like it was going to be another slow race for me.

Finished this one 13 minutes later than everyone else, not very good.

Race 3

I was nackered, wet, sore, and starting to feel the cold and getting cramps. I was pretty sure that I could do one more and when they told us it was going to be a shorter course I was pretty happy. I think it was getting a bit windier too. I didn’t know it at the time but the course also was shortened slightly with the top two marks pulled south about 100 meters.

The start was OK, a little late as always. I’m pretty sure there was someone to windward of me as well so I couldn’t move too much. I fell behind the fleet after a bit once I was properly in their dirty air which sucked but not suprising. A terrible upwind leg stuffing up every tack too, not a good race to be honest but I got round the course and I’m happy.

Learnings from the races

• Tacking is hard. Take it slow and watch don’t oversteer as it just stalls the boat.
• Never point too high as it is so easy to stall and takes forever to regain that speed you lost.
• Get out from the dirty air, it makes a huge difference straight off the start.
• Reaches are wet, be prepared to take a wave or two to the face. But they’re also hella fun and fast.
• Watch the waves and avoid them.
• Get a decent mainsheet, the 6mm ‘just for now’ one doesn’t quite cut it and probably never will.

Bring on the next day of racing.

Full results Race Qs link

• 2024 1
• 2022 8