Sailing a Breeze - Auckland Regatta long weekend

I keep having to pinch myself to believe we are really here! The summer has settled in earnest with hot days, warm seas for swimming and the niggly on shore wind has died down, so our flat is perfect now for BBQs and swimming after work. What a life!

We also have 2 long weekends in a row - Auckland day last Monday and Waitangi day next Monday so time away from work to enjoy the sun!

Shona took an extra day off on Friday to be part of the Auckland Maritime Museum crew delivering the brigantine ship Breeze up to Mahurangi where a series of classic yacht races were being held on Saturday and Sunday. This is her without the square sails set. maritimemuseum.co.nz/breeze

This is what she looks like with most of the sails set (7 of the 11!) -

What a lot of sails - 11 in total, and many of them have multiple sheets, clews, bunts, uphauls, outhauls and other assorted ropes..... luckily most of the others on board knew what they were doing! We had very light winds so had lots of time to practice setting and stowing all the different sails during the 6 hour journey. And guess what Shona got to go up the mast and out on to the yards to stow the sails!

 we had 2 watches so red were on while we in green watch had our morning coffee - all very civilised

 Before heading aloft everyone had to have a harness on and instruction on how to always be hooked on

 The first yard above the course sail doesn't look that high from the deck but the other way round looking down it seems a much more significant height - and the views are great too!

Sailing a brigantine is very complex, but I had an absolutely MAGIC day!

 

Meanwhile Malcolm also took half a day on Friday to race up to Mahurangi on Spray with John Duder - they raced both Saturday and sunday up there.

There was a huge number of classic and other yachts as well as steam tugs and other boats on the water, the weekend finished with a big party and prize giving at Scotts Landing. Spray had a couple of great races, and they won a prize in one of them for coming 20th - a couple of very nice bottles of wine - thank you!

Malcolm stayed at John's family batch or Kawau island one night and the other night on board.

 The start boat - Jane Gifford, the only other scow sailing apart from Ted Ashby, which Shona sails on a Wednesday at the maritime museum/

 

 A lovely shot of 'Spirit of Waitangi' and 'Thelma' both 'A' series classic Logan yachts -these all date from before the turn of the century! Interestingly spray is also a Logan yacht dating from 1938 - same year as her hardy skipper, who celebrates his birthday next week - Happy Birthday John!

The race home was sailed with Tessa and Lisa Duder as well

 

On the actual Auckland Day holiday Monday we both sailed with John in Spray in the Auckland Regatta. It was amazing to see so many of the original Classic Yachts out along with Steinlager 2

 

 What a city of sails!

Another MAGIC day on the water.

Of course Steinlager 2 is the hugely famous kiwi yacht skippered by Sir Peter Blake which win the Whitbread round the world trophy in 1990 (plus he won the Joules Verne and Americas Cup - twice!). Peter Blake is an absolute kiwi hero, who grew up sailing in Bayswater just up from Devonport where we live. Shona has just finished reading Tessa Duder's book 'The story of Sir Peter Blake', so seeing Steinlager 2 in full glory out racing was very special.

and Malcolm saw 'Ladybird' the Blake family yacht -  they all learned to sail in, when he was up in Mahurangi. NZ is the kind of place where these wonderful coincidences happen!