Last sail of the season

Was hoping for a entire weekend of sailing but the weather was a bit wild on Saturday with 30 knots forecast, but perfect for a day trip on Sunday.
Took my Dad and his partner Roz out, meeting down at the marina at 10am, planning to sail around Motuihe.  We set sail with one of the other local trailer boats, a Hawk 20. Was interesting to see another boat sailing with us, Roy's boat definitely looked more lively in the water, bobbing up and down, and heeling with the gusts..I'm guessing it is of lighter displacement than the Farr. The owner Roy, mentioned later that he got it on the plane several times on the way out downwind. We had lunch at the back of Motuihe island, and then sailed right around !  Lots of boats anchored in the bay, with a number of H28s congregating...
Had lunch, then sailed back, tacking upwind, in about 15-20 knots with full main and jib, no problem at all !  The trip was approx 16 nautical miles.
We arrived back at the ramp a bit early, and it was dead low tide, making recovery onto the trailer a little more difficult.
The jetty does not go out far enough on low tide for my long boat to be tied up at both ends and line up onto the trailer. And the ramp has a drop off. And the trailer needed to go further out than the ramp.  It was easier than I expected, and the car towed it out up onto the start of the ramp no problem, with my previous experience of launching and retrieving.

Nice furling boom main setup - nice boat

My dad and his partner Ros enjoying the day out

My dad and a ponytail belonging to Eileen

This could be a classic photo.. timeless !

Poor little boy with a kayak pretending to be on a SUP !

Wild weather !

The weather forecast looked fine to me, wind check - not too windy!
June, Allan, Eileen and I went for a afternoon sail out to Motuihe, on a northerly, tacking up, against the tide and wind.  The gulf was very quiet, hardly anyone sailing ! Wonder why... We saw some big black clouds coming through but missed most of the rain. Windwise it was perfect with Bean rock reporting 12-16 knots, so full main and jib were appropriate for the conditions.  Dropped off Mum and Allan at the beach, and let them take some photos, in the rain... along with thunder and lightning... ! Another yacht club was out sailing and joined us out at Motuihe, and they had setup a BBQ tent and eveything. Nice downwind sail back to the Tamaki estuary. Stress level of day 5/10 - not too bad !

Gusty behind Motuihe!

day sail to Rangitoto

7/4/03 - Decided to head over to Rangitoto, forecast was for light southerlies of 10-15 knots.  I had to do a bit of maintenance on the boat first.  I'm guessing years of violent gybes has caused the boom gooseneck track to have some very loose rivets, so nipped in to Burnsco Marine for a couple of large monel rivets. Luckily I already had a heavy duty rivet gun, as these are some tough mothers to set! 

Today it was only one hour off low tide, so launching can be problematic with my boat, needing half my car to be under water, but today I tried a different technique.  Once down the ramp, I slacked off the winch wire, by 2 ft, and then continued reversing most of the way into the water, I braked a little suddenly and it pops the boat down the rollers and floats onto the water, with only half my rear wheel in the water. Much easier!

A different view of Takapuna !

Outboard starts second pull every time, smooth sail out, we had a southerly picking up down the estuary.   Putting up the sail once under way is always a little difficult, we went to the side of the channel, and with the motor still running, pointed the boat into the wind, and put up sail. Not that easy in choppy conditions. Did a big downwinder, to the northshore side of Rangitoto, with the wind coming in puffs.  We were heading for Mckenzie bay, which is sheltered in a S- SE.  Took way longer than we expected as the wind died half way cross.  We have sailed to Waiheke quicker than this! 

It's not that cold Eileen !

Didn't have time to climb Rangitoto, but chilled out on the boat and Eileen made a cuppa and hot cross buns. We shared the bay with 3 motorcruisers, and another yacht. 16 ft of water even close in, but lots of sharp looking volcanic rock around. 
When we decided to head back at 3pm.. lots of motoring as the wind died once we had sailed around to the front of Rangitoto, but the sun was out, and it was becoming a nice evening!
Back near the marina, its always difficult to come in nicely to the jetty, but what worked was :
- Good high tide - 
- pontoon deep enough in water
- coming in very slow, with rudder down
- putting the motor in netural
- measure your drift/speed 
- if the boat stops, put into forward gear again
- neutral again, check drift, angle and distance to pier
- You need a slow parallel drift, once you have this, kill the motor
- have someone forward of the beam, and one person at the back ready to jump off together with dock ropes. 

This worked better to give me a drift that beats the current, but is slower than idle with it in forward gear. Putting it in reverse is definitely a bad thing to do, as the boat stops moving, but the bow starts rotating...  
The source of the problem is the outboard on idle is still able to drive the boat a little too fast for docking. A nice clean retrieval followed.  Got it down to a fine art now !

Looking a bit like Autumn now