The Spinnaker - Evans Bay Yacht & Motor Boat Club

The Spinnakersitting on the top deck in the front seat, if I could get it, passing Westminster Cathedral and along FleetStreet to Trafalgar Square.Fortunately for our wallets Wendy quickly got a job as a district nurse in Islington which she thoroughlyenjoyed, caring for an interesting range of people in their homes. What I didn’t like, was she push biked toand from work most days even in the depths of the winter and I was always relieved to see her scrunchdown the snow covered dock in the evenings.The first fall of snow was in December freezing the water pipes on the marina which wasn’t something I hadexpected and paid for by having to jerry can water from the far side of the marina. Learning my lessonthereafter I topped up the tanks whenever the pipes thawed. It was in January the real cold hit, waking upone morning to grinding noises against the hull, looking out and seeing seagulls standing on the water anda thick covering of snow on Beyond . This was something quite beyond my experience and while it wasbeautiful to walk around and see the snow covered sights I tended to huddle below listening to the unfoldingpolitical and financial scandals on BBC4. The winter weather was certainly an experience, not one I wouldbe eager to repeat but an experience none the less.But it wasn’t all bad, I had a couple of ‘mustdo’ items when arriving in London. The firstbeing the London boat show at the Excelcentre. Truly excellent with Dockland’s LightRail to the door and the venue was well laidout with a good range of exhibits. I heard a lotof criticism of the show which I did notunderstand. For me it was a yachting meccaand by far the largest boat show I have everexperienced, enabling me spend far morethan intended on all the bits needed for thenext seasons cruising, as it was impossible toget much in the way of parts or services incentral London. Also being able to talk to thepeople that one would not normally haveaccess too, like the harbourmaster fromAlderney, the designer of the NASA AIS radar, a technical expert on Interlux paints and some good adviceon the Admiralty Charts stand on the best route through the Caribbean, was a huge advantage. Wendy andI got to the show when it opened at 10am and were there until it closed at 7pm at which point we weresitting on a beautiful Oyster yacht chatting to the salesman. I came back a few days later for half a day tobuy all the items I had sussed out on the first visit.The other ‘must do’ was to attend a boat jumble to which end Tristan and I hatched a plan to load all thestuff we wanted to sell into his car and head for Essex boat jumble as it was the closest. The day dawnedvery windy, wet and cold and just got worse as the day progressed. Tristan was doing well with thenavigation until he decided he had to divert into Colchester to find a cash machine. “What was the matterwith the one at the marina”, I wondered. Having driven the wrong way up a one way street, as the nicepoliceman pointed out, Tristan’s navigation went to bits finally locating the boat jumble site using a gridsearch pattern method. The site was a sea of mud with other idiots like us setting up, the hot tea and baconsandwich caravan doing the most business. One site opposite erected a small marquee which promptlyrose into the air in the gusty conditions and flipped over the fence. The people simply packed everythingback up and decamped. Despite being insanely cold and wet we sold the majority of our stuff and droppedinto the Ramsgate Pub on the way home for a restorative pint.Before this time in the UK I didn’t understand the special place pubs occupy in an Englishman’s heart, butafter a few months in London and I was converted now having my favourite pubs and beers.Part II, ‘Departing England for warmer climes’ will be in the April Spinnaker.Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.- Plato (427 BC -347 BC)- 9 -

The SpinnakerNew Members - We’re hoping to start a new trend in introducing some of our newermembers to the club, this issue starting with Marion & JT.JT and Marion are long term Wellie residents, butcame to sailing later in life.Neither of us started with particularly strong sailingcredentials - JT has a passion for fishing and hadowned a fizz boat in the past, to get out to thelocal fishing spots. And Marion, even though thefamily had a Sunburst for a couple of years whenshe was young, did no real sailing apart from acouple of family charter sailing holidays.easy accessibility to sailing.After Marion came back from living in England for acouple of years, we realised how lucky we are tohave a fantastic harbour on our doorstep and suchWe decided to do the beginners course with the club's Sailing Academy in the summer season of 2008- Evans Bay being conveniently located about half way between our home and work. Ten Sundaymornings of getting down to the bay by 9am, often to find it was back to the classroom for more theorybecause it was too windy. Our impression had been that Wellington would be a fabulous place to sailbecause of the wind - it hadn't really occurred to us that there could ever be way too much wind.Part way through the course I think we must have been close to the record for most non-sail days,while the Wednesday class were the exact opposite, they had so many good light-wind evenings, theyhadn't done any classroom work. But with the help of a few weekday catch-up sessions we were on ourway.What particularly drew us to the club was how friendly and accessible every one was - Martin, Milly andMurray all made our sailing debut a fun one.Sailing in the club's Phase 2's JT and Marion had a reputation for being careful not to capsize. We mightnot have been aggressive sailors, but stayed dry (-ish...) as winter rolled around.Now we knew the basics, it was time to add some racing skills. Marc Hill started a Development course,which we joined. Starting in Fevas, which JT found far too cramped for an adult male, we soon movedto 420s, with all the fun of how to trapeze and rig a kite - someone has a photo somewhere of our firstkite attempt where we're hauling our kite upside down.... unfortunately the rescue boat with thephotographer zoomed off to another boat before we got it sorted.At this point we also started hearing murmurings from club members along the lines of "if you can saila 420, you can sail a big yacht". Still feeling very much like novices, we started crewing on the keelersin the cruising division. Again, we really were impressed with how generous club members were withtheir time and knowledge. Mike and Anne, and Paul Wavish all answered countless "why", "how" and"when" questions during cruising races around the harbour. The appeal of having a cup of tea and asandwich while you race was solidified there and then - there was no going back (sorry dinghysailors!).The May Sounds trip was the real eye opener for us in 2009. This weekend was a great extension tothe training we'd been doing with Marc and the crewing on the big boats. Marc had secured the ratherfabulous 50 ft Millenium Spirit for the Development squad team, and through 4-seasons-in-one-dayweather, we were introduced to luxury big boat sailing. Three toilets and showers on the one boat justadded to the appeal.By now we were thinking seriously about getting our own boat, and a trailer sailor seemed to matchour needs and budget. Again club members helped us narrow down what models would suit us, and wesplashed out much earlier than we anticipated when a well kitted-out Aquarius 22 became available.- 10 -

The SpinnakerTuraco, named after a bright red/orange bird native to Kenya, where the previous owners were posted,has a long history with the Evans Bay club, having been called Gauntlet in a previous life... some oldand not-so-old salts will be familiar with that name.So far we've mainly just participated in weekendracing at the club, but over summer she turns intoa fishing boat, and has been known to catchkahawai and the odd barracuda!This Christmas we took her on her first overlandjourney up to Lake Taupo, and launching fromTokannu, enjoyed day trips and overnightexpeditions. This is what we wanted sailing to beabout - relaxed holiday cruising crossed withweekend racing during the year.Next up will be taking her down to the Sounds in2011.Welcome to new members over the last couple of months:Jon KingAlexander ThorpePeter LeeMeredith WebsterWayne BurtonChora CarletonCharlotte YoungBill RyallsNicholas ThymeConrad BanksNicola HartAnd farewell to those who departed the Evans Bay shores.A ParaprosdokianA paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way thatcauses the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect,sometimes producing an anticlimax.• Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.• The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.• Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.• The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.• Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.• How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?• I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay cheques.• Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says "If an emergency, notify:" I put "DOCTOR".• I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.• Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.• The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!HAVE WE GOT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?The best way to stay informed of events, racing & general information is via ourirregular emails. Often this is our only avenue for issuing last minute information,and we’d hate to think of you missing out. You can unsubscribe at any time, so tostay up with the play, drop Communications a line at eb.comms@gmail.com- 11 -

Happy New Year from the HouseThe SpinnakerWe have had a very busy start to the year. Thank you to everyone who helped and supported the Club leading up to andduring the Paper Tiger Nationals held 4 th to 8 th January. We had a busy old time with 50 entries (46 starters), as well astheir families and friends on site.There were many elves helping out in the House and on the Hard in so many ways. We had elves popping in and putting thepacked lunches together, elves cooking the sausages (kindly provided by Moore Wilson’s) and handing out the cans for theafter racing ‘bobbit and beer/coke’, elves running trolleys, elves buying bar supplies, the elf that chopped up a huge bag ofonions by herself, elves doing dishes, making coffee, and all of the other things that go into making a successful regattahappen.Our wonderful elves are too many to mention here by name, however there are of course some we must let you know about:Sue Luckin was based in the Clubhouse for a lot of the contest as Camp Mother.Lyn Martin and Chrisine McLachlan (Petal) were onsite for many hours doing the myriad of things that need to be done in acontest this size, especially in the catering department.We were lucky to have kidnapped Murray Gibbons from Muritai for our Shore Manager (and resident artist) for the contest.And we were also very lucky that Jocko McLachlan managed to convince our own Admiral - Neil Blance, to adjudicate overvarious events and misdemeanours. He did such a great job that the New Plymouth contingent have specially requested thathe repeat the role at the Paper Tiger Nationals there next year.Much of the contest would not have happened without our terrific sponsors – Altex, Plumbing World, Linton Sails,Placemakers Evans Bay, Lagerfield, Barton Marine, Adprint, and Lidgard Sails Their help meant we could keep the regattacosts down, and therefore encourage a higher participation rate. A great contest, and we hope that everyone who came toour contest will spread the word about what a great Club we have here, and of course – come back to play sometime.We have a few more regattas coming up in the next couple of months. If you are around please consider getting involved insome way – it’s a lot of fun.With the end of the main holiday period the Friday evenings are back in action. Pop in for a chance at the membership draw.Remember you need to be a fully paid up member, and be in the bar at the time of the draw to be eligible to win. If it is notdrawn, the pot jackpots by $50.00 each week.Currently we are mixing the catering up by a combination of takeaway options and BBQ meals. Occasionally we are spoilt byNoeline and Christine making a yummy dessert for us too. Details are sent out in the Communications team’s email each week.If you are not in the list yet please let us know your email address (you can be taken off the list at any time). We promisenot to spam you.Eventually we would like to get back to having catered meals but the numbers are not currently high enough for this to beattractive to any parties. Please help us out by booking by the Thursday so we can ensure we feed everyone.We are also back into the swing of the racing season. And hungry yachties need feeding and watering after their efforts.We have a volunteer roster for before and after racing food prep duties, please get in touch if you can help us fill in someof the gaps.We have a limited number of Special Licenses that we are allowed to have each year for private functions, and we only havea few left, even though it is only February. So if you are considering having your special do in the Clubhouse this year pleasecontact Dale in the Club Office earlier rather than later so you don’t miss out.Thank you as always to the House Committee team, and the volunteers that keep us ticking along. See you on the water andin the Clubhouse afterwards.Cheers!Lynley Manning, Rear CommodoreImitation is the sincerest form of television. - Fred Allen- 12 -

Kiwi Cup and Access Nationals 2011The Glenn Family Foundation Kiwi Cup and theNew Zealand Access Class Championships washeld in Napier from the 26-29 January 2011. Thiswas at the venue of the Napier Sailing Club andhome to Sailability Hawke’s Bay. Competitorscame from Australia, France, Singapore and NewZealand.There were three classes competing in this event,which where: Access 303s, Access Liberty’s andAccess SKUD 18s.The SpinnakerThe SKUD 18s which is a Paralympics classyacht included Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel(Sailability Auckland) who qualified NewZealand to be represented at the 2012Paralympics Sailing Competition.Also competing in the SKUD 18s fleet wereAnnabelle Tye (Sailability Wellington) and Andrew May (Sailability Christchurch), one complete Australian team: Krista Baileyand Russell Phillips (Sailability Melbourne), one team of a person from both Australia and New Zealand: Genevieve Wickham(Sailability Perth) and Hannah Morris (Auckland) and a Singapore team: Jovin Tan and Desiree Lin (Sailability Singapore).In the Liberty fleet, competing were seven New Zealand boats: Michael Jones (Sailability Wellington), John Toole, Max Stacey,Lindsey McGregor , John Buchanan, Ross Miller and Helena Horswell (Sailability Auckland), one Australian: Chris Cook(Northern Rivers Australia) and one French: Magali Moraines (Vaile Handi Valide en Midi-Pyrenees).While the whole 303 fleet was made up of nine New Zealand boats. Three single person yachts: Alexander O’Connor, Alice Leslie(Sailability Wellington), Dennis Hebberley (Sailability Hawke’s Bay) and six two-person yachts: Tess and Briar (SailabilityAuckland), Robbie and Luke (Sailability Hawke’s Bay), Genevieve McLachlan and Jane Thomassen (Sailability Wellington),Sharlene and Andy, Neil and Hayley, Shawn and Megan (Sailability Rotorua)Day one: and a fresh south westerly welcomed all sailors, but as racing continued the breeze had a mind of its own dying out andbecoming light and shifty. But this wouldn’t ruin our fun as we got in four races for the SKUDs and three for the Liberty’s and303s. It capped the day off with Tim and Jan leading the SKUD teams by six points with three 1 st and a 3 rd . Annabelle andAndrew - the new SKUD combination, finished with a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. The last race of the day was a tight one with allSKUDs crossing the line within 10 seconds of each other.Liberty fleet, current World and European Champion Magali Moraines was two points behind runner-up World and EuropeanChampion, Chris Cook. Michael Jones was close behind trailing by seven points.The Access 303 was showing a wide range of skills and experience. Tess and Briar sailed consistently to 1st in all three races,closely followed by Alexander O’Connor with seven points and fellow Wellingtonian sailors Alice Leslie on seventeen points andGenevieve McLachlan and Jane Thomassen on fourteen points.Day two: had in store a moderate to fresh north-easterly scheduled for the whole day. And the weather behaved itself to stay thatway. In the SKUDs a last placing didn’t stop Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel who still hold 1 st spot. Annabelle Tye and Andrew Maymanaged to finish 4 th . In the Liberty fleet, Magali Moraines is raining World and European Champion and Chris Cook is therunner-up, however this proved to be beatable as Michael Jones showed us edging out the champ by one point to come in 1 st placeand overtaking the runner-up who finished the day in fifth in the fresher breeze and choppy waves. Michael Jones achieved somebest results in this day with three 1 st and a 5 th .The Access 303 pair of Tess and Briar continued their dominance with three wins. Alexander O’Connor maintained second placeoverall with a 1 st , a 2 nd and two 3 rd s. While Genevieve McLachlan and Jane have moved up a spot into 3 rd and Alice Leslie comingin 5 th place.Day three: with gales in place it looked like it was calming down to allow us to get one or two quick races in, but oh no, not to be.We got out there and a while before the scheduled start the race officer wisely called a halt to the regatta as a southerly of 25+knots came all of and sudden. I believe we all had to be towed back to the club by the rescue boat crews with assistants by theNoelex 25 fleet that had also abandoned racing and had a regatta at the same time.Wellington sailor Michael Jones has won the Liberty fleet.Wellington sailor Alexander O’Connor has won the single person 303 fleet.Wellington pair Genevieve McLachlan & Jane Thomassen finished 2 nd in the double person 303 fleet.Wellington Alice Leslie finished 3 rd in the single person 303 fleet.- 13 -

The Spinnaker(Photos thanks to Dave Staley from the International Access Class Association Inc)Annabelle Tye and Andrew May finish 4 th in theirSKUD fleet.The Kiwi Cup generously supported by the GlennFamily Foundation was won by SKUD 18 pair TimDempsey and Jan Apel who also took out 1 st place in theSKUD fleet.An excellent regatta was had by all sailors. Thanks to allvolunteers, helpers, supporters and organisers.The Kiwi Cup has been generously supported by theGlenn Family Foundation, Hooker Pacific Transport,Mondiale Freight Services and New Zealand Sailabilityprograms.By Alexander O’ConnorAround Greece in 21 days – by Nikki JohnsonThe journey began in Athens with a 3 hour bus ride to Epidavros where we were introduced to our boatOlympia (Bavaria 44), met the other 10 boats and their crews, and our lead crew. As were part of arelocation flotilla we took the boats from where they had spent the summer – the Saronic islands - backto their winter home in Corfu.During the summer, the yachts host 1 or 2 week cruises around the Saronic Islands, with Epidavrosbeing the start and finish point for each cruise. Many of the people sailing the boats have limited oreven no sailing experience but each flotilla is headed up by a lead crew consisting of a Skipper, anEngineer and a hostess. The leadcrew set the destination each dayand then set about teaching peoplewhat they need to know, includinghow to back a boat onto a dockeach evening. Our relocation flotillawas a bit different as we were takingthe boats all the way back to Corfuin 21 days and sailing experiencewas a requirement. We had about 4days spare to account for badweather and some long 30-40 nmdays so no time to wait for thesunshine.Our first night on the boats wasinteresting with no wind but a veryhealthy sea surge coming into theharbour all night testing my resolvethat sea sickness was not to win onthis trip. I survived and was veryhappy to sign all the paperwork and get going the next day. I could use pages telling you about allthe places we went to but I will stick to the highlights. The highlight of day 1 was sunshine – althoughwe didn’t know sunshine was going to be a rare thing at the time, it was sunny, hot and there was nowind – Greece as they say it should be. We spent a few days getting to grips with the boat before thefirst ‘storm’ hit us – not so much a storm but a decent breeze requiring the furling sails to have a reef,rain and some decent waves to provide an introduction to sailing with a wheel. First major highlight of- 14 -

The Spinnakerthe trip was sailing through the Corinth Canal. The canal is 6.3 km long and was built between 1881 -1893. The Romans actually started the project in 54AD which was not completed but you can still seesome of the early works they did as you are sailing through. It’s a very impressive place and saves a lotof time that would otherwise be spent sailing around the mainland. On the other side we stayed inCorinth town where we were advised by the lead crew (on instructions from the harbourmaster) toinspect our boats for Algerian stowaways before departing the next day.Next in the big highlights was the Rion bridge a few days later. It is the world’s longest multi-span,cable-stayed bridge which is 2,880m long. Despite the fact it was raining (again) and we couldn’t seefrom one side to the other, it was an impressive experience to sail underneath it and we got somegood VHF practice getting clearance from bridge control before we were allowed to pass under it.After spending a few days cruising around the Ionian islands, were we did in fact get some sunshine,we headed for the Leftkas Canal. It is narrow, it is shallow and it has a 4knot speed limit. Just beforewe headed for the entrance, the wind came up with some great enthusiasm. With no sails up and themotor in neutral we were doing 6 knots downwind in the canal, fast catching up on the boats in frontand hoping nothing was coming the other way. Despite the depth sounder permanently soundingalarms, we made it to the harbour on the other side and docked for what turned out to be 2 dayswhile we were hit with a storm. Leaving the port turned out to be relatively dramatic as well – circlingin a narrow channel while we waited for the canal guards to get around to opening the gate,motoring out the narrow channel with a cross wind and then heading into some impressive waves onthe other side.We headed out at the front of the fleet and were enjoying some great sailing with full sail – then thewind started to blow in earnest, it poured with rain and the Greek airforce decided to send a Jetfighterout of the fog and over the top of our mast justto completely scare the crap out of us. Wepulled back on the sail area, and motor sailedour way at 9 knots in 5 foot waves. And yes,being on the helm is the best place not to beseasick and yes, I can now (mostly) navigate a44 foot boat through waves without gettingeveryone wet. We arrived at our destinationinto brilliant sunshine, a full 2 hours ahead of therest of the fleet and had a ‘nice cup of tea’(beer) to recover!From there we took the final few days to cruiseup to Corfu, our final destination. Weattempted to spend the night in a bay on theborder of Albania but the fish farms and thestories from the locals put us off and we wentback to the safety of the flotilla. The final day on the water involved sunshine, some boat cleaning andsome tricky parking manoeuvres (Mark stuffed it up) in Gouvia marina where we ended up parkednext to a Hanse 531 owned by a NZer just to prove it really is a small world.The upshot of all this is that it was a great holiday. While the weather wasn’t typically Greece summer,it was October. The relocation cruise gave us some good sailing weather and we saw a lot of Greecethat would otherwise take several cruises to cover. If you happen to find yourself in Greece, Irecommend you have a talk to Sailing Holidays – they are based in the UK and owned by a NewZealander - www.sailingholidays.comDebt Recovery CostsThe Management Committee agreed that from 1 March 2005, all newoutstanding debts will incur interest and any associated debt recovery costs.Interest will be charged at the rate of 19% per annum.- 15 -

The SpinnakerClockwise from top-left. Annabelle Ty & AndrewMay compete in the Skuds. Napier dock ascompetitors prepare to take to the water. CarlSyman airborn in the PT Nats, the Straitsmanabout to round the bottom mark in 5 th place andthe PT fleet in all its finery.- 16 -