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Since it was decided
at the 2008 Nationals a group of islanders from the
north had been looking forward to and planning all
year their invasion of the southern lake on the
mainland. At last it was happening…
We left Auckland on
the 10th of January enroute to Napier to
spend a few days with my parents before teaming up
with the Napier chapter. I loaded The Rigging Shop
on top of Adrenalin Express and borrowed Dad’s
Holden Olympic to tow them with John Marshall as
co-pilot. Tom Cat and Chaos got lashed up and Dr
Don and John Lindsay with Jane joined the beginning
of our small convoy with Maureen’s Holden Ute. We
left Napier soon after 6am on Tuesday 13th
January and arrived in Wellington and parked next to
Signs at Work and Wet Nuts an hour before our 1pm
sailing. The Bluebridge Ferry crossing was
uneventful but somehow the breeze from the port
quarter was not enough to make up the 5minute late
departure, infact somehow it contributed to us
arriving nearly an hour late and it was after
5pm><”: before we disembarked.
Don had an
acquaintance, Ray Phillips, he wished us to stop in,
meet and have a beer with at the Pub at Springcreek.
Ray was busy in the kitchen so we downed a handle of
brown nectar brewed by those gorgeous girls in
Mangatainoka……… and carried on south. By now we
were running a bit behind schedule for our 9pm BBQ
and bed stop at Rob and Mandy Carpenter’s North
Loburn deer farm north west of Christchurch. We’d
fuelled up on the way to Wellington so drove through
Blenheim intending to fill up further south but
weren’t too concerned as we probably had just about
enough to get there.
There’s not a great
many major towns south of Blenheim and of those that
did have gas stations none where open that evening.
We carried on ever hopeful but getting more and more
concerned but our fuel computer was telling us we
should just make it to Rob’s place and after that we
didn’t care as by now we had a major thirst on for a
rum and that was all that mattered. About 50km
north of Amberley we got a call from Don and John
requesting that they lead the fleet as their fuel
gauge was sitting hard on empty. We pulled over and
waited for them to roar past then followed and found
them 2 kms up the road. Bugger! That rum had only
been half an hour away.
It was about 9.30
and getting dark and we were in the middle of no
where with no cell phone coverage.
Don decided our best
bet was to siphon Graham’s fuel tank as he had
filled up further south than us so figured he had
the most fuel. So all we needed was a length of
hose. Ofcourse none of us had any so Don started
dismantling John’s Ute and ended up with the
radiator overflow hose down Graham’s tank but
unfortunately no amount of sucking produced any
petrol. We deducted that modern cars must have anti
siphon baffles in their tanks these days….double
bugger!! A bit of head scratching and non conducive
ideas and it was finally decided that Graham would
go in search of petrol but was instructed to first
unhitch his trailer. This was to ensure that he
came back again! Don suggested that John and I
continue on and get the party started at Rob’s as
there was nothing much else we could do. Suited us
so off we went.
About 5kms up the
road there was a wee café tucked up off the main
road and we found that Graham had obtained 10 lts
from the proprietor there. Excellent news!
We made it to
Amberley about 20mins later and managed to fill up
just as the gas station was closing for the night.
Fortunately the young lady told us of another 24
hour one further down the road so we phoned up the
afterguard and told them.
We got to Rob’s at
10.30 and managed to get a head start on the Rum
before the others rolled up about 20 mins later. It
was a bit late for a Barbie so Rob fried up some
steaks on the stove and we had a great salad and
spuds lots more rum and some Sicilian red wine that
Don had found in his trailer box. I’m not sure that
the latter was the best thing for the author as the
next morning one was feeling decidedly seedy with a
blinding headache (which wasn’t helped by the
Maximus’ car alarm going off at 5am outside our
bedroom window) and had to have a wee spit…first
time in years and a little embarrassing!
We had our toast and
tea, some of us more slowly than the others…,and
thanked Rob very, very much for putting us all up
and looking after us. He’d actually been in the
middle of his holidays at Akaroa with his family and
had driven all the way home just to host us for the
night so we felt a bit bad that we’d only been able
to get on the piss with him for a couple of hours
before we all crashed. Anyway we all blamed Johnny
Lindsay as it was all his fault for running out of
gas and that made us feel a bit better.
We left Nth Loburn
at about 0830 and started our 6 hour trek south
stopping to take photos of the Rakaia river and
Fairlie for fuel and lunch at a place that we won’t
ever again. I kept Ken up to date with our progress
and he’d txt us to say that Fairlie had “the best”
coffee but he neglected to say in which
establishment, so ofcourse we chose the wrong one.
Graham was always
tending to lag behind a bit, unless Tom was driving,
and we tried various ways to remedy this as John
and Don were hell bent on impressing Jane with their
progress we often lost sight of the “look after each
other” in the convoy theme. We tried following
close to Jane which seemed the natural thing to do
as she was the closest thing female in the convey
(she sounded nice so we visualised her being so too)
and at times got so far ahead of Graham we had to
stop and wait for him to catch up. This didn’t make
him drive any faster. We tried tailgating him so he
could get a sniff of Jane and keep up. This didn’t
make him drive any faster either. So in the end we
often found ourselves splitting the difference and
losing sight of Jane ahead and Graham behind.
We all safely
arrived in Wanaka at about 4.30 and were met by Ken
with a very welcome round of cold brewski’s at the
club. The sun was shining and it was great to be
there! We unhitched our trailers, offloaded the
cats and after Dave, Pat, Brian and Trevor turned up
we headed up the road to the house Ken had organised
for us. The original house organised had fallen
through and at short notice the owners of this
particular holiday home had been approached and
assured that there would be 4 very responsible
people staying there and they’d have no worries and
find the place tidier than they’d last left it.
We arrived a couple
of minutes after John and Don to find a dead Thrush
covered in shards of glass below a broken bedroom
window. Don gleefully advised us that Johnny
Lindsay had vandalised the place within seconds of
arriving before he’d even been inside! John tried
to have us believe that the Thrush had just done it
but the Thrush was found to be just a tad too stiff
to have been able to have been the culprit….”well
then, it must have hit it and weakened the glass
earlier”….possibly..?…
We spent the next 15
minutes picking up trillions of bits of glass
amongst the driveway gravel and learnt that what had
really happened was John had got out of the car and
thought blimey it’s hot, the window’s are barely
open, must be like a furnace inside (or thoughts to
that effect) and yanked open the window.
Unfortunately he chose the corner that did not have
the security stay on it..!!.. Fortunately Chris
the Neighbour had been a jolly good bastard and
stocked the fridge with beer so we all collapsed in
the lounge and toasted the bloody useless bastard!!
It was decided that
as we were all too buggered to go shopping and cook
tea we were to meet Trev and Brian and their
betrothed at a bar in town. Tom and Graham were also
there. It was a busy upmarkety sort of place but we
grabbed the last big table sat down and waited, it
was about 7.30 by then and we waited a bit longer,
then a bit longer for some service. John M got up
and asked the waiter how long did we need to wait
and was told the kitchen was overloaded and no
orders would be taken for at least 20 mins.
Too much for 4
hungry knackered buggers like us so we left the
others to peruse the overly expensive menu and went
in search for food elsewhere. Actually Don had
headed off to the supermarket to buy breakfast a few
minutes earlier so we thought we’d catch him up and
get some cold meats and salad and go home to eat.
However upon nearing the supermarket we came across
Don retreating empty handed as apparently as he
tried to go through the doors some lunatic started
doing an impersonation of cutting his throat then
waving his arms around like a windmill in a force 9
gale muttering something about closing. Don tried
to point out that there were still truck loads of
people inside and that he only wanted a packet of
cornflakes and would be out of there again before
most of the others but to no avail.
We’d met our first
Wanaka wanka. In fairness to Wanaka though he was
also the last and everyone else we meet were very
friendly and hospitable and we had a fantastic time
there. Wanaka’s a fantastic town and it was great
to be there again but at a time when there was less
snow than there was then on the hills. The weather
was mostly kind to us apart from the next couple of
days when it cooled down a bit and we had a shower
or two, there was even a dusting of fresh snow on
the hills overnight.
The next day was
Thursday. John Lindsay found the local glazier and
brought the new window home but whist screwing the
security stay back onto the frame with a screw that
was a knats cock too long…!#@%!! The next day he
got another pane, fitted it, closed the window and
vowed never to open another one again, ever
Thursday was also
the Club’s first of the two twilight series races,
Friday being the second. Two races each evening
starting at 6pm. Wet Nuts was first followed by The
Rigging Shop and in the second race The Rigging Shop
was first.
On Friday there was
a bit more breeze and The Rigging Shop was leading
approaching the top mark for the first time of 3
laps, then BaNg, SpLaSh, bugger my trapeze harness
hook sheared off, so off back to the club to find a
spare and be ready for the next and last race.
Whilst hanging
around waiting for the first race to finish (there
were lots of other local boats slower than the A’s)
a nasty looking black cloud started moving off the
hills and down the lake towards us with rain and a
possibly lots more wind. It looked a bit ominous
and a few others decided to sit out the last race as
they didn’t want to trash their boat before the
nationals started. I was umming and arring and with
a DNF in a 4 race series there was no way I could
come anywhere so there didn’t seem a lot of point
risking damage and going out. Then Ken came ashore
too so I thought right that’s it and pulled my sail
down and packed up. When I next looked round Ken
had relaunched. Apparently it had been pointed out
to him that it was not a good look having the coach
of the opti fleet cowering ashore whilst his
fledglings were still out on the water.
The final race got
underway but instead of there being too much wind
there was barely enough! The results were later
posted and the race committee had decided to allow a
drop, so only 3 had to count! This was a surprise
to everyone. It also meant that had The Rigging
Shop done even ordinary in the final race we would
have won and as it turned out even with only
finishing 2 races we still came 3rd!
Never mind we were down there to have fun rather
than race seriously (yeah right!).
The next day,
Saturday was the “Round the Island Race”. The
island being a smallish and skinny sort of shape
which was more or less directly to windward, didn’t
cause much of a wind shadow and made, actually, a
very good top mark. It was a 3 lap course in about
up to 10 knots of wind which took 2 hours and made
for some very close racing with positions regularly
changing. It was in fact far better than we had
envisaged it to be and those that didn’t bother to
do it missed out on some excellent pre Nationals
practise.
After the race the
Napier contingent and I headed out to Hawea with the
two kite buggies as Ken had said there was a good
stretch of road that might suit our purpose. Up to
now we’d been using them on a field up the road a
bit but the wind there wasn’t very clean both wind
wise and as I found out soil wise also. Before my
turn on the 3 wheeled buggy I thought I’d have a go
at flying the kite to get used to it. The 5 metre
kite can sure turn on a bit of power in the puffs
and I was soon getting dragged across the grass
trying to tame it. When I finally came to a stop I
was heard uttering the words “oh shit !!” as I was
literally covered in doggy poo. We figured a pack
of Great Danes had all crapped in the same spot and
run off just before we’d arrived as it was very
fresh and lots of it. Don remarked that he’d
noticed a distinct acceleration as I slid though it
!!
None of the roads
appeared ideal as we drove towards a very white
capped lake Hawea, mainly because they were full of
cyclists competing in the Wanaka Triathlon. During
this drive I received a phone call from the club to
inform me that my boat had been attacked by a
Tornado mast that was lost control of as it was
being lowered.
We gave Ken a call
to see if he was still at the club and could report
on the extent of damage but he was at home and
instead invited us around to his place for a wine,
impossible to decline such an invite as his Tit Hill
Pinot is legendary. Besides we were all eager to
see his estate and Shirl whom we’d not seen since
the Nats in Napier 2 years prior. Ken’s house is
steeped in history having been built by his great
great grandfather in the 18th century and
not been occupied since his uncle vacated it in the
late 50’s. It was pretty run down when Ken started
rebuilding it in the 90’s. The roof had caved in due
to the destruction of a wall caused apparently by
sheep eating it ! It seems as though there was
something in the clay that the bricks were made of
that the sheep found appetising enough to eat the
wall away !!
After a wee wine and
a natter we headed back to the club for the Twilight
and Round Island prize giving. The club did a great
job and there were prizes for virtually everyone.
Sunday was a day off
so some of us went to Queenstown. Don, John and
Jane piled into our car and we set off. Jane got
into a bit of a tizz after John Marshall tried
mounting her on the dash board. She was a bit of a
rebel girl and made it known that she preferred
Ute’s to Wagons. Holding her out the window whilst
we careered along towards Cardrona at speed did
little to help and it wasn’t until Don spent a bit
of time in the backseat fiddling with her that she
regained her friendly spirit and started talking to
us again. We arrived at Queenstown all happy and
went up the Gondola, had lunch and Luge races, the
weather was perfect and we had a great view of the
lake from up there.
On the way back to
Wanaka our fuel computer said we only just had
enough to make it so we thought we’d fill up along
the way, perhaps at Arrowtown but we didn’t seem to
come across any gas stations so we crossed our
fingers and kept going driving as conservatively as
possible. As we climbed the crown range though the
computer showed us guzzling gas so fast that we
actually had none left before we even got to the
top. Hmmmm….I started having visions of the 4 of us
pushing a heavy car up a very steep windy road and
doubted whether there was a hope in hell of it being
possible. Jane was no use to us, infact she felt
our best option was to commit suicide and constantly
kept telling us to turn right now!! When ever there
was a steep cliff to our right. I think she was
still a bit rattled from her experiences earlier in
the day.
Fortunately we
managed to get over the hill with the engine still
purring and coasted most of the way back to Wanaka
somehow making fuel all the way. We’d left
Queenstown with 90 kms of fuel and by the time we
got back to Wanaka we had 65 kms left??? The trip’s
about 80k’s. Maybe Jane was interfacing with the
car’s computer and screwing with us.
Monday was our weigh
in and registration day. A set of cattle scales had
been rustled up from somewhere and we commenced
weighing boats. It soon became evident that things
weren’t quite right, possibly due to the higher
altitude or low barometric pressure I couldn’t say
but I for one certainly had no complaints as for the
first time in its life The Rigging Shop was down to
weight, for a couple of seconds anyway then the
scales decided on 75.5kg. Others were not so
fortunate and found their boats well under weight
and Murray ordered them off to the local sports shop
to buy more lead. After all the boats were weighed
it was agreed that the scales must be under reading
by about 2 – 2 1/2 kgs and they needed to be
calibrated, so a big bucket was found into which was
poured 75 litres of water with a measuring jug. It
was then decided that everybody’s weights would be
increased by 2 kgs. Some people still had to add
weight but not so much. There were about 4 new
sails being used in the regatta but we secretly
decided amongst ourselves that we’d let Murray win
the series thus sparing him the responsibility of
measuring them.
Monday was also our
practise day and I seem to remember we all had a
pretty good sail in up to 15 kts of breeze except
for Pat. Pat had dropped Impacts mast earlier in
the day to check it and found it’s hook was tearing
its way southward so whilst Pat headed off to get a
flat welded to the top of the hook, like all the
newer ones have, Tom brought his boat building
skills to the for and reinforced the top of the
mast.
Tuesday I think we
got 3 races away in breeze from 2 – 15 kts. By now
we were realising that the lake was largely
unsussable, Ken had been giving us a few tips and
some of us even followed him around the course in
the misguided belief that he knew what he was
doing. Sometimes it paid off but generally it
didn’t and we soon learnt that no matter which way
you went up the course you had about a 50% chance of
getting it right. Ken admitted later that in the 25
years he’d been sailing there he still found it
frustratingly unpredictable. I think that during
the regatta there were as many tip outs to windward
than to leeward due to unexpected 90 degree wind
shifts or sudden wind switch offs. John Marshal had
a bad start to the regatta after getting becalmed at
the bottom mark and at one point coming last then
finishing 12th and in the 2nd
race his Magic Marine harness ejected its hook into
the lake whilst he was wiring causing a swim and a
subsequent 7th. Bruce Jolly, sailing
“Bucket’s” boat Assassin broke his mast in the first
race during a tip out, fortunately one of us had
taken a spare so we rigged him up and got him back
out the next day.
Wednesday was a
windy one and I think we managed to get one race
away at 1100 before it got too much. Murray, Ken
and I had a good tussle right up to the final
approach. I gybed away from the left side into more
wind and left the opposition in my wake I then made
a fatal mistake by being in front with no one to
follow and had this mindset that we were finishing
at the bottom of the course between the gates. We’d
finished here in the last race yesterday when they
shortened the course in a dying breeze. When I next
looked back I saw the fleet converging on the real
start And finish line. Ken and Murray were still
struggling with next to no wind whilst most of the
rest of the fleet came in from the middle of the
lake and pipped them at the line! I turned around
and tacked back to finish 9th feeling
rather sick. I felt even sicker when the finishing
committee said if I’d gybed back earlier I’d have
won easily. Still, I’d come down to Wanaka for a
fun time, hadn’t I ? It was also nice to share the
first places around a bit too, 6 different people
got a first out of the 8 races.
It was decided to
start the race on Thursday an hour earlier to try to
get some sailing in before it got too windy. The
first race was pretty full on especially up around
the top mark where it was gusting well into the 20’s
as the wind whistled around the point. More than
one boat flipped attempting a gybe. John Marshal
and Dave Aarons did very well in this race but poor
Graham struggled and pulled out for a rest. The
second race was slightly less challenging but still
very gusty and The Rigging Shop finally prevailed
and had it’s moment of glory on the finish line !
Friday we were
scheduled to have another early start but she was
honking out there and the patrol boat had big
problems laying the top marks in 100m of water and
have them stay put in that breeze. In the end it
was agreed to just have the one top mark that seemed
to be holding and off we went. Very squally and
shifty and gusting 25 + at the top mark at times.
It was quite choppy too and difficult to stay in
touch with the side of the boat. I ended up wiring
quite high not only to stop from being swept off the
hull but also to create a bit of weight on my feet
for traction. Bearing away at the top mark was
exhilarating to say the least and finding a lull to
gybe in was next to impossible but somehow some of
us managed with out swimming. Trevor was getting
quite proficient at pitch poling, having lost his
$1,200 glasses yesterday he had a go at breaking his
rudderstock in the first race today.
The second race was
pretty much the same as the first in that we were
glad when it was over! We certainly had some
exhilarating rides off the wind! I was quite
pleased just to have survived ! I got a 3rd
behind John Marshall and Murray in the 1st
and despite getting ahead of Murray a couple of
times in the second race I wasn’t prepared to push
to the limit and risk an already risky chance of
tipping over, so was quite content with a 2nd.
Graham pulled out at
the beginning of the first race and sat out the
second as it was all just a bit much for him (I
think secretly we were all a bit envious and felt
like doing the same). But full credit to him as
although the results don’t show it he was still up
the front a lot in the races, even some of the windy
ones before he pulled out he’d be right up there.
I’ve often sat behind him on the wind in past windy
races shaking my head in disbelief wondering how
someone over 10 kg lighter and only ½ my height can
hold their boat down and go so fast ! John Lindsay
sat out the last race too, something to do with his
age and buggered body I think he said. Pat and some
of the local boys pulled the plug too. There had
been rather a lot of swimming going on amongst the
rest of the fleet and some people were
understandable all puckered out !
Finally time to pack
up and get changed for the sit down dinner and prize
giving. The clubs’ commodore Chris Conroy, his
committee and Ken had done a top-notch job of
running the regatta and we all appreciated the huge
amount of work that went into keeping us organised
and entertained. The dinner, catered for by The
Albert Town Tavern, was delicious and the prize
giving was fantastic. A lot of thought had gone
into it and I was pleasantly surprised to have
received a trophy as I’d only managed 4th,
however this wasn’t a “place” trophy it was “The
Black Cat” trophy for the person who had the worst
luck and it must have been a hard decision as there
were a few of us, for instance - John Lindsay:
running out of gas, breaking two windows (and a wine
glass at the end of the evening !); Trevor losing
his Glasses and breaking his rudderstock; Bruce:
Breaking “bucket’s” mast.
Anyway, I was very
honoured to receive The Black Cat Trophy as
compensation for my doggy poo incident, Harness hook
breaking and Tornado mast shattering my starbord
hull (not too much damage, fortunately Fossils are
Tuff).
I was also pleased
for Tom to have come second. He almost didn’t come
at all but Graham got him at a moment of weakness
and he changed his mind but I got the impression
that he felt he’d made a mistake as once on the trip
down he started to realise how much time and money
it was all going to be costing and he’d left behind
his daughter to turn one without him. When we
stopped off at Lake Pukaki he asked if it was
anything like Lake Wanaka and he wasn’t very
impressed when we explained how big the race area
was to be, surrounded by high hills etc. “I’ve come
all this way for that !” he remarked. However, I
think by the end of the regatta he was pleased he
had come, as were we all.
Wanaka Yacht club,
as a regatta venue is hard to beat. The wind may
not be as clean as we’re used to and luck rather
than skill did prevail at times, however the club
was very friendly, never ran out of Brewski beer
(despite us drinking more in one week than they’d
previously sold in 2 years, so we were told – thanks
Ken for all those trips to the brewery before racing
in the mornings) and it was just awesome having the
start/finish area on “Expert Point” right outside
the club, it made an awesome lookout for spectators
who could follow the whole race from there with
Brendan, the race officer and co. giving a blow by
blow commentary.
It was also great to
catch up with other members of the Mainland Chapter
whom some of us hadn’t met before or seen since the
worlds in ’04, namely Peter Kerr, Chris Riley, Greg
Clark, Mark Davidson and Bruce Jolly
Saturday the 24th
was heading home day and we headed off at about
8am. John’s wife Karen had joined us for the last
few days as John’s brother was having his 50th
in Wanaka and had taken it upon herself to clean the
whole house the day before which saved us all a heap
of time and stress. We took a different route north
to Christchurch, where we were to spend the night at
Murray and Christine’s’ house, via the Benmore and
Waitaki power stations then up SH 1 through Timaru.
This trip wasn’t
without its incidents. Early on in the piece we
missed a turn off and Jane started to get a bit
uppity about it and demanded we turn around. We all
pulled over and consulted the maps and felt that we
were on the right road and as Jane hadn’t made it
clear that we were supposed to have turned off
somewhere earlier we decided to carry on. A couple
more miles up the road and Don phoned us to say that
Jane was getting hysterical and things were getting
a bit tense in their car. We stopped and checked
maps again and decided she could be right so then
had to turn around on rather a narrow road. This
little escapade didn’t help our fuel reserves. On
the bases of Don’s memory there was supposed to have
been a gas station 113 kms out of Wanaka where we
would all fill up. We never found it and were down
to our last 14 kms worth when we made it to Omarama.
The Benmore dam was
quite spectacular. It’s the southern most power
station that can supply the North Is. The weather
was awesome and allowed some spectacular photos to
be taken but thank goodness for air con as it was a
hot one.
We made a brief stop
in Ashburton to visit one of Don’s old flatmates
from Uni days, also a Dr. but he was out at a
wedding so we fished out some cold Tuis and sat in
his driveway and got some training in for the night
ahead at Murray’s. All the empties were then lined
up outside the front door, as Don said his mate
would appreciate that !
We arrived at
Murray’s around 4, sunk a couple more cold ones then
headed off to his factory for a tour. Very
impressive and we learnt that he actually made a bit
more than just the electric blankets that John
Lindsay thought he did. We also found “The
Chocolate” hidden away behind some racks. Tom spent
most of the couple of hours we were there chipping
away at it with hammer and chisel. Back to a BBQ
then a demo of the new home theatre. Boy! I didn’t
think they made screens that big and if the house
hadn’t have been built so long ago with heart timber
it would have shaken itself to bits!!
Off again at about
8.30 to catch the 1430 ferry. We stopped in Spring
Creek again and this time met Ray Phillips who did
turn out to be the person I thought sounded familiar
who used to own a Lidgard 35 call White Pointer in
Auckland back in the 90’s.. Had lunch and a beer
then off to the ferry. The crossing was a bit
breezier than the last and we spent a wee bit of
time on the foredeck as we approached Wellington
standing at 45 degrees and watching an 11 yr old boy
repeatedly running and trying to hurl himself over
the windward railing only to be blown back across
the deck. When he got tired of that he’d sit down
on the updraft coming up over the side of the deck.
We bid goodbye to
Tom and Graham and headed up to Paraparaumu beach
and had Kentucky chook for tea at Hamish’s place
whilst he downloaded the photos out of Don’s
camera. We then followed the red Ute back to Napier
arriving at about 2300, spent a couple of nights
with my parents then back to Auckland – “no more
normality back to reality” as the Eminem song goes.
If someone had asked
me, before I went, if I’d likely go again I would
have said no, this is a once in a lifetime trip.
Ask me now and I’ll not hesitate to say “Yes,
when?!” |