Gladwell's Line- Huey hits the turps for the next three daze

by Richard Gladwell on 10 Feb 2009
'Huey', as the Wind-God is known by some, deserted the Waitemata today, or rather made a drunken appearance. He was sober for the first couple of hours, providing enough wind from a constant direction to enable the Sailoffs to be conducted.

After a few beers over lunch, Huey was gone for all money as the wind performed a drunken dance for expectant sailors, officials and media.

Principal race Officer, Peter 'Luigi' Reggio could only wring his hands as he waited and hoped that Huey would stop his antics. But it was not to be, and around 1600hrs, Reggio pulled the pin on the rest of the day's sailing. And Huey lost his audience.

Four teams have now exited the regatta - China Team and K-Challenge went today. Greek Challenge and Team Shosholoza were dispatched yesterday.

Today was set to be 'Super-Tuesday' - a crunch time for five of the teams to be knocked out, with just one Challenger remaining to sail in the Challenger Final with Alinghi - winner of the Round Robin part of the competition.

As it stood, four got a stay of execution - their time will come tomorrow or the next day - depending on Huey's state of inebriation.

Our spies outside the local drinking establishments tell us that Huey is still raising his drinking arm, but planning to sleep it off Wednesday with winds of less than 5kts all day from mid-morning before increasing to 8kts around 6pm. Not much use for the normally good natured Luigi.

On Thursday, our spies differ with one saying that Huey will have come right with a 12kt Northwesterly. However the other says that Huey was seen drinking a concoction, a Lady Mountbatten, known for its savage after effects, and winds of 22kts from the NW will be the outcome.

Come Friday both agree that Huey will have had enough and will be looking for a very quiet day - less than 7kts all day. What is Luigi going to do with that? Not a lot even he can do, we suspect.

After the quiet day on Friday, Huey's mates are in town and he's back on the jungle juice. A severe hangover is expected Saturday with a NE 'breeze' of 22kts, accompanied by big seas. Another test of Luigi's patience?

Maybe the inshore course in the lee of Rangitoto is the antidote?

Expect some tough decisions ahead on the competition schedule.

Good Sailing!

Richard Gladwell
USA & NZ Editor

nzeditor@sail-world.com

The opinions expressed above are those of the author and not of Sail-World.Com

PS: 'Hitting the turps' is Kiwi slang for a heavy drinking session, usually followed by a severe hangover.