RNZ2019: Motorboat leads as fleet nears finish of Leg 3
by SSANZ/Sail-World.com/NZ 5 Mar 2019 15:43 PST
6 March 2019
Motorboat II - Start Leg 3 - Half Moon Bay, Stewart Island - Two Handed Round NZ Race 2019 © Shorthanded Sailing Association
Motorboat II (Josh Tucker and Damon Joliffe) have a comfortable lead over the rest of the seven boat fleet on Leg 3 in the Two-Handed Round New Zealand Race.
The fleet are well into the third leg from Stewart Island – Napier, a distance of 620 NM.
The organsiers report, as of 0800hrs Wednesday morning that the front end of the fleet builds towards the finish with light air of about 5kt NE inshore and about 10kts off shore this morning.
The breeze is expected to build evenly and fill in all the way into the coast this evening to about 10-15kts.
With the leaders only about 70 miles out it's going to be an exciting day... still plenty of room for holes in the breeze near Napier as shown by the 1pm image. With only a few miles separating the front few boats it's going to be a battle of tactics and an exciting finish.
Will Motorboat hold off the chasing bunch to make it two bullets? Gale Force is well within range to strike and brotherly love won't stop them trying anything they can to get past! Titanium is closing the gap to both of them and also looking for a second bullet. Katana and Karakatoa still close enough that a park up due to light air at the front could bring them right back into the hunt as well.
Earlier Motorboat II reported a rather bumpy night Monday night with a confused sea state with cracked sheets sailing.
"Seems our positioning paid off dividends with the wind and we were able to extend our lead on the fleet. The breeze lightened throughout the morning until we almost parked, which is what the models showed would happen. After a couple of frustrating hours we managed to wiggle through and we are now in the new breeze and on the wind. We can see Cape Palliser and the Wairarapa Coast to leeward.
"Seeing the North Island is a great sight and has come with a noticeable increase in temperature, making things a bit more pleasant. Bit of a major oversight on the catering front as we only have one cider left for happy hour. May need break into the emergency rum stash, can't go thirsty at happy hour as the wasabi peas have quite a punch to them and need a chaser. All is well on board, at this stage it's looking like a finish sometime tomorrow night. Fingers crossed we can keep our lead up to the finish (a big ask). #rnz2019