The Epic Surf to City Yacht Race

by .. on 20 Jan 2009 As we left the marina there was a hype of activity on board Whisper Four. The 11 crew were ready for the challenge of a strong wind warning and three metre seas.

Going out the Gold Coast Seaway it was blowing 20 gusting 25 and the call was for the big 186 square meter mast-head kite.

When it blew to 30 it was then the fractional symmetrical kite.

5 minutes after that the start gun had gone five miles north of where it was supposed to be and the call was then for the fractional Asymmetrical.

It came out of the bag the wrong way and after sorting that out we were off! constant 10-15 knots speeds.

The wind had gusted up to 35 and we must have broached four times before we poled out the asymmetrical and took of again, and it was so stable.

Speeds were then going up to 15-18 knots.

But as the perils of the sea and wind go, the block we had the brace running through split apart at the sheave.

We then had to re-run the brace through the more heavy duty block and after 20 minutes of surfing up and over waves like a skiff, the brace itself snapped at the clip it was attached to on the tack of the Asymmetrical.

This time we tied the brace onto the tack. We were just getting settled down again and then the halyard snapped about 10cm above the clip so the actual halyard broke not the clip.

So while Dad settled the boat down the boys got the kite out of the water, how? I do not know, 136 square metres of spinnaker and they must have done it in about 30 seconds!

We discussed what our best option was to do and we decided to pole out the No. 3 and once we did that the boat took off!

Although we didn’t have a higher average speed with the No. 3 we had higher top speeds because the boat became stable and the skipper was cheering and yahoo-ing as we hit 24.9 knots down a wave.

The speedo head was jumping in and out of the water so it was going from 5 knots to 18 then back to 6 then up to 15 and then it came 24.9 knots.

The boat lifted out of the water and became skiff-like and just wanted to hunt the waves and get on the plane.

Not bad for a boat that is 44 feet long and weighs over 12 tonnes!

We had a few navigation problems at Point Lookout, it didn’t matter though we had crossed in front of the rival Beneteau 44.7, On Y Va, we jibed and headed for the coast of Moreton Island and at that point I was downstairs navigating while the ever humorous Bob Howie was on the helm.

The skipper was resting at the time. I told him that we just received a gust of 49.9 knots of wind. We jibed shortly after and that was the most damaging jibe I have ever done.

Five batten cars on the main snapped and black plastic went everywhere. When I went up to get the reef line ready to put into the main there was black powder all over the deck, the vang had snapped out of the casing and we were vang-less.

We got rid of the pole on the jib and nanna-jibed (tacked) around slightly north of Cape Moreton.

The reach across to NE 2 was a ride and a half, we broached once but what did it matter, the reef line was in, the main was settled, the jib was ready to go and we were ready to enter Moreton Bay with smiles on our faces.

John, the skipper and also my father steered very well up into Moreton Bay.

On Y Va had got ahead of us when we broke the vang and main batten cars so we began to chase and hunt them upwind.

When we reached NE 1, we had passed Dancing Lady, Out of Orbit, Corum and Extended and also was within a mile of Southport’s very own Alacrity and On Y Va.

At M9 we had passed On Y Va and Dream and was trailing Alacrity by about five minutes. We are not expected to beat the Beneteau 44.7’s but we certainly matched them. The Dufour 44 Performance loved the upwind conditions.

On the 15nm reach across Moreton Bay the faster Dream and On Y Va passed us to leeward but by the time we got to the fisheries beacon near the finish line at Sandgate, Dream was about two minutes ahead and On Y Va 10 seconds behind.

We finished at 20:20:11 with an average 8.6 knots.

Our Damage was as follows: 1 Broken Block, 2 Clips, 1 Brace, 1 Halyard and Tore the Mainsail about 15 cm and the No. 3 about 10 cm, we also broke the seat at the back of the boat but most of all, the vang.

Our damage was nothing compared to the other boats in our team, Alacrity and Sled. Alacrity having similar issues to us but Sled had mast issues.

Their D2's separating away from their rig. We Came second on PHRF Handicap with fellow Southportian Adam Brown winning on the boat Likatiger.

Unfortunately Sled had to retire so our Southport Team was disbanded!

The Surf to City Yacht Race was another success for the offshore fleet with only 4 retirements, nothing compared to the inshore divisions where only about 25% of the fleet finishing!

We enjoyed our sail to Sandgate and the Dufour 44 Performance handled the conditions very well.

Tim Hall, 15, Navigator on Whisper Four.