“Only one more sleep before sailing!” was the excited call from skipper Roger on Thursday night. Three yachts: 31 ft Raport, 35 ft Benedictine and 36 ft Syrena and their crews of 21 trampers were to set sail in the Marlborough Sounds the following day. Three of those trampers claimed to know enough about boats to be given the title “skipper”.
Roger wasn’t the only one excited about the three days of sailing ahead – others were busy packing in anticipation. Even our Chief Guide, who would mutter about being locked up on 35 feet of fibreglass for three days, was secretly excited.
Fortunately the first morning dawned calm. The skippers were able to bluff their way through some basic sailing tuition by baffling their crews with the sailing jargon of halyard, sheet, genoa, main… Despite the language barrier, the crews could soon tack and reef sails with minimal confusion. We left Waikawa marina behind and sailed out into Queen Charlotte Sound.
Lunchtime brought excitement. The wind picked up with a few gusts knocking the yachts on a heel, to the alarm of their crews. As the weekend progressed, the crews began to accept this uncomfortable leaning behaviour of yachts. By the last day, three yachts could be seen battling winds at precarious angles. Raport’s crew took the prize, knocking their craft flat and allowing water to flow over and through the cockpit. Hardly an intentional manoeuvre!
The first day’s sailing took us out to East Bay and around Long and Motuara islands. A fun day’s sailing in our big boats! A comfortable night was spent with the three yachts rafted tog
ether in Ships Cove. The food, as expected, formed a big part of the trip. Each yacht had its own menu of gastronomical delights. A bit of boat hopping allowed a variety of foods to be sampled.
The rules had been set for the inaugural Tongue and Meat Cup Challenge. Each crew had to put their boat through 360-degree turns and sail changes while making headway to the finish line.
A start was declared with a generous handicap allocated to Roger’s floating caravan(Benedictine). Raport’s crew, as usual, was preoccupied with fishing. Hooking a fish (a rare occurrence) soon after the start created confusion on board, The fish flapped around the cockpit, pursued by a winch-handle while Raport continued on an erratic course.
Raport never recovered from the confusion at the start, leaving them out of the competition. Syrena continued in hot pursuit of Benedictine, closing the gap but losing Stuart Palmer Syrena’s crew with Mike at the helm Stuart Palmer it again. Communication was maintained throughout the race by radio. “Benedictine Benedictine, this is Syrena calling Benedictine. ” “Copy Syrena, this is Benedictine. ” “You seem to be pulling awar Would you mind shutting down your engine?” “We’ll take that as a compliment, Syrena. Thank you.” Syrena had to finally concede thatBenedictine was the victor. Congratulations Benedictine.
The afternoon’s sailing took us to Endeavour Inlet and Furneaux Lodge. Tawa Bay provided a secluded anchorage for the three yachts to raft together for the last night.
Monday’s brisk winds made for an exciting and competitive sail back to Picton. By now the crews were getting into the swing of it. They nervously laughed off a few hairy manoeuvres and precarious heeling as they pushed their yachts hard to Picton.
A great weekend and one which will have to be repeated. The punters were:
Benedictine: (Holders of the Tongue and Meat Cup. Pity they can’t hold winch handles – they throw them over the side!) Sally, Jon, Angela, Suzi, Jonathan, Bronnie, Shane, Roger.
Raport: (Interesting technique for washing fish scales out of the cockpit!) Sharon, Harry, Phil, Ann, John, Don.
Syrena: (Look for this crew in the next America’s Cup Challenge!) Jo, Andrew, Mike, Suzanne, Daniel, Peggy, Stuart.