Heavy weather fun

Sunday saw a good strong breeze, puffing up to around 30 knots, with calmer bits of around 20 knots in between.

Three keen Laser sailors decided to give it a go, and had an absolute blast.

Rob and Pete both decided to reduce sail, and reefed their boats, while Aaron opted for full rig.

After a few minutes, Aaron started to wonder if he had made the wrong decision, after capsizing in a gybe during one of the calmer patches.

Pete discovered that some of the lines on his previously untested boat were not quite right, and also had a few swims.

As the day wore on, all three attempted several gybes, mostly successfully. All three showed signs of rust, and improved markedly during the day.

After an hour or two of ripping around, Pete got a little too close to the lee shore, and with those lines stretching uncontrollably, found it difficult to get sailing upwind off the shore, so decided to wait for a tow back to the clubhouse.

On one occasion, Rob and Aaron lined up for a bit of a drag race. Upwind in the 25-30 knots, there was very little difference in the speed of the full versus reefed sail, at least in the steep chop and over the short distance they had. Turning downwind, however, was a very different story, as the power of the full rig came into play, and speeds were poles apart.

Big thanks to Simon and Murray for manning the rescue boat - we probably wouldn't have gone out without you!

Coming up next we have the first of our River Races on Saturday 17th November, followed by our first Harbour Race on the Sunday.

The River Race is open to all boats, and will go towards the motorway at Papakura, while the Harbour Race is limited to bigger boats, sunburst or larger, for safety reasons as we will be leaving the sheltered area of the estuary and hitting the exposed waters of the main harbour. The course should include the LPG terminal as a rounding mark.