News Around the World
Kwok and Jim Delegat enjoying a keen monohull battle all the way in Beau Geste and Giacomo.
But sandwiched between the big red trimaran and the two big monohulls was the smallest craft to complete the course. If you measure performance by the dollar, Dave Robertson’s 1.6m kiteboard has to represent the biggest bang for the buck on the day by a country mile. His unofficial passage was the first time a kiteboard had completed the course from Auckland to the Bay of Islands and will stand as one of the longer point-to-point kite- board trips.
(In passing, it should be said that although he squeaked across the line ahead of both Beau Gesteand Giacomo, Robert- son departed from Auckland half an hour ahead to ensure he did not interfere with the congested starts. Even so!) The race itself will stand as one of the milestone editions. The fleet of 150 yachts set off in a brisk southwesterly, with some early carnage as spinnakers shredded and boats broached in the difficult transition from the Waitemata Harbour to the Hauraki Gulf under the cliffs of North Head. This year the organisers also reversed the starting order, sending the smaller divisions away first and the big boats last. That allowed the smaller boats more day- light and also delivered something of a spectacle as the bigger boats came powering through. Simon Hull’s Team Vodafonestarted wide of the fleet, measured its first gybe to perfection and put the hammer down for a straight shot all the way to Cape Brett, hitting a top speed of 36kt with extended periods at over 30kt.
With the wind lightening at Brett, which marks a sharp left turn into the Bay of Islands, going wide was once again key to main- taining speed. Then it was three tacks up the channel to the gun at the finish line in Russell. The big red trimaran, which has reset the race record three times in a row, crossed the line in just 5h 13m 21s, bettering her previous record time by 28 minutes. The result was obviously gratifying in itself, but now Hull and his crew are determined to break the five-hour mark. ‘Organise a decent sou-easter and we’ll do it quicker… much quicker,’ he promised. The two big monohulls, the 80ft Botín-designed Beau Geste and VO70 Giacomo(ex-Groupama), left the harbour in that order and arrived in the same order just over seven hours later, sepa- rated by only 2m 24s. But the close battle ensured that the smaller Giacomo took the Division 1 handicap win. ‘It was a blast,’ declared a delighted owner, wine entrepreneur Jim Dele- gat. However, the outright monohull record of 6h 43m set by Neville Crichton’s 100-footer Alfa Romeoin 2009 remained unchallenged. While the whole fleet will have its stories of triumph, achieve- ment and occasional disaster, Dave Robertson’s epic kiteboard ride adds a notable entry to the unofficial Coastal Classic record. This includes Chris Dickson and Jeremy Stephenson’s ride in a Tornado ahead of the Sydney Olympics, repeated several years later by boardsailing champions Aaron McIntosh and Bruce Kendall, also in a Tornado. Then Peter Burling and Blair Tuke did it in a 49er. Luke Wigglesworth has also completed at least three trips up on a sailboard.
But up til now nobody had completed the passage on a kiteboard, although Ben Turner had tried three times. This time he made it all the way, but got stuck rounding Cape Brett and lost a heap of time on Dave Robertson in the process. Robertson used a 12m Ozone kite all the way, but swapped platforms, departing and finishing on a 1.6m foiling board, but switching to a 1.9m non- foiling board on the windier stretches offshore. He was accom- panied by a 7.2m Seablade chase boat, which carried spare gear and a supply of food and energy drinks.
‘Actually, I had not done much long-distance training for this,’ said Robertson, a Yachting New Zealand boardsailing coach. ‘Two and a half hours was by far the longest sail I had done in a single day before. This was whole new territory… Generally when we race, our races are just 15 minutes each albeit with maybe five or six a day.’
16 SEAHORSE
He had a rocky start, falling off quite frequently before getting into the rhythm. The strategy was to stay inshore in flat water and go for a steady speed, rather than constantly trying to achieve absolute maximum speeds. ‘I was fortunate in the conditions, because I could sit quite comfortably on a broad reach at about 20kt. At higher speeds my legs would have been taking much more load.
‘Most of the load is on your back leg. My legs and back got pretty sore as I was cranked to one side all the way.’ He was on port gybe all the way from the harbour to Cape Brett, so he was pretty much locked in one position for seven hours, interrupted only by occasional spills, or brief stops for sustenance. ‘I saw Vodafone briefly, smoking past offshore and then I didn’t see any boats at all until Cape Brett when Beau Gesteand Giacomocame howling up.’
Going wide at Cape Brett meant he could keep his kite up, but when he tacked onto starboard he was so stiff and sore from the long port gybe that he had to learn how to sail all over again. ‘I just couldn’t get going on the foil…’
With the two big monohulls closing fast, his competitive nature gave him new motivation. ‘Up til then I was just focusing on finishing. It was awesome to have two boats to race to the finish. It took my mind off the pain and fatigue.’
The upwind leg to Russell took about 10 tacks, more than he needed just to get to the finish, but in his determination to beat the two monohulls he was tacking on each header… ‘I was actually surprised that I was able to point just a bit higher than them and go a bit faster,’ he said. ‘At Cape Brett I crossed only about 100m ahead of Beau Geste, but I got to Russell about 10 minutes before them.’
Although an unofficial entry, he was delighted when the committee boat acknowledged him with a toot on the horn before he peeled off to the beach. ‘Actually, the people sitting on the beach were pretty gobsmacked when I said that I’d just sailed up from Auckland.’ No time for celebrations, though. He immediately packed up his board and kite, got in his car and drove back to Auckland in time for two days of coaching with his squad of youth board - sailers. ‘I have to say, I didn’t really fancy going straight back on the water,’ he confessed on the Monday night. ‘I can just about stand up. I am not too bad now, although I am quite tired. But Saturday and Sunday were pretty terrible.
‘Would I do it again? Not right now, but if somebody beats my time on a kite I would probably want to go out and better it again. I know quite a few kitesurfers who want to do it over the next few years, so we will see. I am happy to have had a good year to do it.’
For the record, the longest known point-to-point passage by a kitesurfer was set by Francisco Lufinha of Portugal last year, who took 29 hours to complete the 310nm trip from Porto north of Lisbon to Lagos on the Algarve. Ivor Wilkins
AUSTRALIA Work in progress
I sat down with Guy Oliver a couple of weeks ago over a small beer and large feed to catch up with his news. Guy is the boss of Olectric Systems, the Sydney company who design and instal marine electronic control systems on, well, pretty much everything. Guy is the sort of bloke who has seen it all – his team were respon - sible for the electronic systems onboard Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats XIback when they were pushing the envelope and hammer- ing across Bass Strait soon after launching, plus bigger and smaller raceboats, survey vessels and plenty of military projects he simply can’t talk about. Nothing really phases Guy. Halfway through dinner I asked him if he was working on anything interesting at the moment; Guy stopped chewing, looked at me and said, ‘Ame.’ Then he carried on eating.
Was this the acronym for a secret defence project? The build
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