OREWA, AUCKLANd, NEW ZEALAND

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2001

From NZ350 Mervyn Hurley

Auckland Land Yacht Club members went back to Orewa Beach for some more and this time Mother Nature delivered. The day should be titled "Orewa Revisited" as it was only three days since we were all rigged and ready to sail on the east coast beach but went nowhere on account of Mother Nature's capriciousness. Today (Saturday April 28th) was a vast difference... we had WIND, and plenty of it!

On our previous outing on Wednesday which was the New Zealand public holiday ANZAC Day the Auckland club turnout had been stymied by the lack of wind. It was a beautiful warm day but no breeze to make anyone but the Class 3s move. All the same those who attended were determined to make the most of the easterly conditions which have been settled over the upper North Island for much of the week so the call was on for Orewa again for Saturday or Sunday. As it turned out, after a quick ring-round and email on Thursday evening it was discovered Saturday suited most people so a start time was set for 2pm - a sensible time I could cope with.

The three-kilometre Orewa Beach as seen from the northern vantage point high on the hill which is the main road north of the town. As you can see the beach has some wet areas which, if ht esun don't shine, don't dry out. On a wet winter's day sailing at Orewa can be a cold, miserable affair but on a warmish day like today (if you were togged up) conditions weren't unpleasant.

With my wife Cherrill not about this Saturday - she's doing a university course - it was down to Matthew, Courtenay and myself to get things ready. Courtenay got a good deal of the food ready, Matthew helped with the re-loading of gear from Wednesday, much which had been unceremoniously dumped in my garage and not yet stowed away.

We managed to get things together pretty well and we were ready to set off at 12.20. We were leaving much earlier than necessary as we had to pick up Richard, a friend of Matthew's who lived a good 10 mile away to the west.

Once we had Richard on board it was a quick dash to the service station to top up diesel then we hit the motorway north. we were astonished to arrive on the beach and not another landsailor in site. Yes, we were there by 1.45pm but heck, it's unheard of for the Hurleys to be on time for anything.

Not wont to let a good chance go by, we quickly set about unloading and assembling yachts. Within 20 mins we had everything set up to go. The wind was light - around 6 knots - but as we set things up it began to freshen and, by the time we were ready it was coming in square onto the beach at around 12 knots. With no one about still, it was down to Matthew, Courtenay and I to put the first tyre tracks on the virgin sand.

Matthew cherished to opportunity of a clear un at the beach and sallied forth at a great rate leaving my good self to chase him. Meanwhile Courtenay, in her Class 6 all resplendent with its shocking pink sail, raced off along the dry part of the beach having a ball.

I was having a bad day. Fraught with problems. My sail cap kept giving way and the sail falling down the mast. It was fall down, stop and put it back on, sail off and down it would come again. I was getting heartily sick of the boom bouncing off my sconce so went back to the pits and, with Ken Teeboon's assistance (he and son Dan had just arrived) I duck taped the whole affair. That last one and a-half runs of the beach and down it came again, much like the proverbial bad woman's drawers.

So it back to the 4WD and sort among the boxes and gear for a screw. Yes, I decided to screw the cap down much to the amusement of John O'Donnell who'd just turned up. New kid on the block, Neale Jones, who is also a work colleague rather timely wandered across the beach so his first introduction to land yachting was helping out with a bit of maintenance work. After perservering with a longish screw that Ken had at hand - no one else had anything remotely usable - I decided to remove a phillips screw from the floor of my Muso, a handy resource these vehicles when you're short of necessary items. The short screw did the trick and for the rest of the day my sail remained in an upright position.

Meanwhile Matthew was out with one of the IMAC Duos taking some of the beachgoers out for a run, getting thoroughly soaked in the process. After half an hour he came back in and handed over the "keys" to Ken who took Neale out for his first taste of landsailing. Matthew was cold and decided to have a hot Milo and change of clothes in the hope of thawing out.

By now Phil, Chris and Jason Augustin had arrived closely followed by Karla Mason and Geoff Hall and then Coln Palmer. The beach was rapidly filling up with yachts. A Blokart was on the scene buzzing up and down, none too sensibly without a helmet and wearing jandals but he seemed to be happy.

Two WindThrills arrived and they were quickly out on the beach and John O'Donnell had brought is old Seagull along for a gentleman to try out, the pair quickly united and set forth on the beach.
I went over to help Colin put his craft together and was offered the opportunity to take his IMAC YOTT for a burn. What a great craft and so forgiving not like the Feds. Did have a tussle or two when I got my sweatpants caught in the centre sheeting blocks and after that sailed with what could be termed as a "spread-leg look".

While out there in NZ301, I spotted was up in the distance John O'Donnell in his yellow submarine, oops mean Hawk so gave chase. Colin had put up turn markers when he arrived so we had the makings of a good sailing course, around 1.5 kilometres long.

Round and round we went, with me gaining every lap on John till at the top mark I was right on his tail. Out of the turn I knew I had him and what did he do? He pulled up, he didn't want me topass him! Now John, that's not fair...

Just after that Geoff Hall rounded us all up for some racing and we call lined up for the first run of the day with Ken in charge of setting us off - 2 laps he said. Hell, that was a short one... a case of "he who has a good start gets home first". Colin in his YOTT, John in his Hawk and Jason Augustin in his blue machine were quickly off the rank. I didn't have too bad a start but got caught in the bad air from Karla Mason who was to windward of me. Her Seagull has about the same pace as my Fed 5 and so the chase was on. I collared Karla in the upwind leg and thought I had fourth in the bag until coming to the final mark and "bang", a flat. I had enough speed on the make a rather "chokka chooka" sounding turn and scoot acoss the line without dropping a place. Then off to the 4WD again for a bit of untimely maintenance. Colin had easily got home first with John, then Jason in third, me then Karla and the stragglers which included Neale in Matthew's NZ384, Matthew having chucked in the towel because he was too cold.

Colin Palmer in his IMAC NZ301 draws first blood from John O'Donnell's yellow Hawk (rounding the mark) and Jason Augustin in his blue Hawk with luminous lime-coloured sail coming home third. The rest are off in the distance.

Next on the grid were the three Class 3s. Colin made it look easy with Phil Augustin giving good chase, Chris Augustin in the former Tony Clark Sanderling coming in behind the pair.

The "5s" were out again but I didn't make the start, I was still trying to get some air into a repaired wheel. Colin and Jason had a reasonable tussle, over the two laps, John fluffed the mark and had to round the cone again while the chap in John's Seagull made it into third.

The c3s had another turn belting up and down with Colin showing the way from Phil and Chris then it was our turn again. I'd given up with the pump and the problems I was having with my wheel and took a wheel of Matthew's Fed 5 seeing as Neale had chucked in the towel, having exhausted himself with the buzz he had out on the track.

On the line again and this time a three-lapper. Away we went, Ken not mucking about with the starter's flag. Karla got a flyer as did Geoff Hall in Colin's YOTT. John and Jason quickly put some distance on the rest of us and Karla had the Seagull travelling well. I had to first contend with a strong challenge from Geoff then set out after Karla but just couldn't haul her in, getting stuffed with her dirty air upwind and downwind. Finally, in the last upwind beat I managed to get within striking distance and made a do-or-die shot rounding the mark. Karla went to windward and I ducked underneath with enough "legs" to get my wheel in front on the line. Later found out Geoff had turned Colin's YOTT over in a spectacular spill on the start line after putting the yacht sideways. Geoff's discovered a new way to exit the yacht by sliding down the sail... or Geoff were you brushing the sand off the sail for Colin?

We were hardly back and Ken called us to the line again. This racing was taking a toll on me. Not fit, that's for sure. The wind was pretty strong at times. I'd bagged up with sand after unusually waving a front wheel about in the air a couple of times rounding the bottom mark. The extra weight a precaution as I didn't want to go swimming in the tide.

Ken had the c3s out and Colin headed the fleet with Phil giving chase all the way. Chris wasn't too far off the pace and can only get more competitive as he gets accustomed to the new yacht. It was great watching the big machines flying wheels and ti certainly enthralled the many spectators.

I was all for packing up but the others wanted another run so back out we went. This time Geoff had usurped Karla from the Seagull, foregoing another run in Colin's YOTT (I wonder why). It was helter skelter downwind to the mark with Geoff making a good feast of it. In fact he had the front for a good 1/2 of the leg before John and Jason overhauled him.

I was content to sit back behind Geoff and make a run at him upwind when I knew I had a bit more power but Geoff held me off. In the second lap I chased him to the bottom mark, right on his tail and so close I could've rubbed my front wheel on the back of his seat. Geoff later said when he looked behind to see where I was he couldn't even see me. I followed his line into the turn and came out better than I hope, sheeted in and bolted ahead of him much to his consternation. So I had another third in the bag.

It wasn't a bad outing for a well-out-of-tine old Fed 5 - a 4th and two thirds. Began to pack up while the others debated whether they'd have another race. It was getting too dark and so I opted to bow out. As it was we left the beach in complete darkness - it was almost 6pm.

We'd all had a great day's sailing - Courtenay had worn herself out sailing her Class 6 up and down, Matt was tired having burned up the beach with the IMAC Duos for a good hour and a half and everyone else had their cups runneth over with fine sailing. All I can say was we went, we sailed, we had fun. What a day!

Mervyn Hurley NZ350

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GEOFF HALL'S IMAGES Saturday, April 28, 2001 Click on photo for larger image.
Mervyn at full throttle in Colin Palmer's IMAC YOTT.	Karla Mason had her Seagull flying at times.	Class 5s on the line ready for the start of Race 1.
Jason Augustin in his Hawk.	Phil Augustin getting his CP Class 3 ready to fly.	Colin Palmer and Phil Augustin battling it out.
Colin getting the black & white from Ken.	Colin Palmer waggling his wheel at the cameraman.	Getting dark and Colin's still at it!
Chris Augustin in the former Tony Clark Class 3. Chris is really coming to grips with the yacht and will be a force to reckon with this season.	Brother Jason Augustin, current Class 5 PACRIM Junior Champ and NZ Junior Champ.	Two "newbies" having fun in one of the ALYC's two Lion Foundation-sponsored IMAC Duos.
Mervyn up close and having a ball in Colin Palmer's IMAC YOTT.	John O'Donnell and his "Hawk" trying to get away from Mervyn in the IMAC YOTT... he failed, didn't you John.

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