SSANZ Round North Island: Closing in on Wellington after a long light day - February 26
by Sail-World.com/nz 26 Feb 03:06 PST
27 February 2020
Wired Racing - Start Leg 2 - Evolution Sails - Round North Island Race 2020 - Mongonui, Northland NZ - February 2020 © Deb Williams
The race leader, Wired Racing (Angus Small/Rob Bassett) continues to lead the Evolution Sails Round North Island Race.
At midnight Wednesday, the Bakewell White designed 52fter had 95nm left to sail on the 550nm Leg 2. She was 13nm ahead of the other two 52fters in the race, Miss Scarlet (Graeme Wilson and William Goodfellow) and Kia Kaha (Chris and Rebecca Hornell). The same three yachts were the first three home at the end of Leg 1.
"It's been a long frustrating day watching our lead disappear with the boats bringing breeze up while we sit in no wind waiting for the change", was how Wired summed up their third day of racing on Leg 2.
"Going to be a long night keeping the boys, and girl behind, but that's why we are here. At least it's warmed up."
Although the light winds are expected to persist through the night, providing light downwind sailing the weather and routing model from Predictwind forecasts the breeze to increase into double digits around dawn with a projected finish time around 1000hrs.
Website and race tracker ssanz.co.nz/round-north-island-2020
Here's the rest of the reports from the 38 boat fleet, who have experienced calms, light airs and whale sightings:
Odyssey: all well on board
Deep Throttle - The Path to Racing RNI: Via Coppelia - position current @ 1315 022620 --36'53s 172'55e All well Continued problems with Iridium
Start Me Up Sailing: all well, saw 4knots half an hour ago now 1.5 off to do the dishes for the day, 2 coffee cups, 2 forks and thats it! Have checked on rations due to light air. Have enough food and water but the following will run out by friday. airplanes beer real coke v Need wind or an emergency drop of airplanes! Be good Paul
Distraction: All well on board. Spent the last few hours questioning our navigation choices. Happy to have breeze now.
Pelagian - Stewart 34 On Tour: Very quite day today trying to hunt for any hint of wind... charging is up and running now on emergency fuel supply. All well on board just need wind
Anarchy Racing: Breeze is back, Russian salad tastes great, looking forward to a tot of rum at Cape Egmont this evening
C U Later: All is well. Very light and slow day. Good day for house keeping chores!
The Guarantee: A very quiet day. A couple of park ups. The wind shift in the models hasn't arrived yet. Bugger
Krakatoa II Racing: Just had meatballs for dinner, we can see egmont, sliding along nicely at 8.5 knots. Matt says: we are currently doing this race in unison with urban cowboy Cheers, Scott and Matt
Truxton Sailing: Long day for Wil, light winds and big holes. He has done a great job at getting us through them. On the bright side I got to clean my teeth, put on some deodorant and keep my lunch down, so a win there as well. Thanks
The Good Ship Atamai: Highlight... saw a humpback whale! All is well on board.
Gale Force Racing: Very calm day. Great pork, chorizo and cannellini bean stew for dinner.
Clockwork Racing: Great day here. Saw a Blue Whale about 50m behind us. HUGE. Amazing sight.
Relapse Racing: Glorious days sailing all be it bloody frustrating
Laissez Faire: Curry, beers and showers nice afternoons yachting
Kraken Yachting - Serena: BEAUTIFUL out here, closing in on Mt Taranaki, sun setting and sounds blasting. Happy days aboard the good ship
Miss Scarlet: Happy Campers
MV Sailing Elliott 7.9 - Moving Violation: I'm used to banging the corners in catamarans, but this is next level, hope we're going the right way.
Urban Cowboy Racing: Nice day, but shifty day! Had to drop the main to fix a batten. Bean bag is featuring heavily at the moment.
Satellite Spy Racing: Finally rolling in the right direction, champagne sailing
Astrolabe Sailing & VM2 Racing - High Voltage: Too much time wallowing in holes today, bring on the wind
Fifth Dimension Racing; All good now! Just started moving again after being becalmed for the last 4 hours. Had CU on the horizon doing the same keeping us company at same time. Hope the breeze fills in and stays for the night.
Kick Ass Yachting - Elliott 1050: Hit a Sunfish at 1730, he gave us a salute as he rolled out the back.... Moving along at 6 knots almost laying New Plymouth, all is well.
Motorboat: Beautiful days yachting. Full glamour out here. Can see activator to leward and ahead. Egmont looks awesome
Katana SUN FAST 3600: Frustrating day of patchy breeze. Nothing over 5knots. Lots of holes. Gale Force has slowly taken out the small advantage we had. Nachos for happy hour...Going to be a great sunse
Duty Free - "make mine a rum": All well — Jenn thought today was a tropical cruise so showered before cocktails— at least one of us is clean??
Mr Kite Yachting: Absolute glamour day yachting!! Blue sky and sunshine and JUST enough wind.
Activator Racing: Hooked into nice breeze this afternoon and making good speed. Rested fed and showered ready to tackle Cook straight.