• Join
    • Join online – simple
    • Our Membership Options
    • Join the Club
    • Renew your Membership
    • Reciprocal Membership
  • Notice Board
    • Notices and Protests
    • Sailing Documents
    • Racing Programme
    • Race and series results
  • Calendar
    • Calendar
    • Inshore Racing
    • Offshore Racing
    • Club events
    • Volunteer Rota
  • Sailing
    • Inshore
      • Line 7 Port Nicholson Regatta
      • Wellington Harbour moorings
    • Offshore
      • Offshore Races
      • Offshore Race Records
      • Crossing Cook Strait
      • PredictWind Tracking
    • Race Management
      • Sailing Documents
      • Notices and Protests
      • Results
    • Entries
      • Entry List
      • Entry Forms
      • Boat Register
  • Social
    • Coming events
      • Social calendar
    • Buy tickets
  • About us
    • Rules
      • Club Rules
      • RPNYC flag protocol
    • History
      • Learn about our past
      • Yarns
    • Contact
      • Our Crew
      • Volunteer
  • Venue Hire
  • Learn to Sail
  • Youth Scheme
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club
Login
  • Join
    • Join online – simple
    • Our Membership Options
    • Join the Club
    • Renew your Membership
    • Reciprocal Membership
  • Notice Board
    • Notices and Protests
    • Sailing Documents
    • Racing Programme
    • Race and series results
  • Calendar
    • Calendar
    • Inshore Racing
    • Offshore Racing
    • Club events
    • Volunteer Rota
  • Sailing
    • Inshore
      • Line 7 Port Nicholson Regatta
      • Wellington Harbour moorings
    • Offshore
      • Offshore Races
      • Offshore Race Records
      • Crossing Cook Strait
      • PredictWind Tracking
    • Race Management
      • Sailing Documents
      • Notices and Protests
      • Results
    • Entries
      • Entry List
      • Entry Forms
      • Boat Register
  • Social
    • Coming events
      • Social calendar
    • Buy tickets
  • About us
    • Rules
      • Club Rules
      • RPNYC flag protocol
    • History
      • Learn about our past
      • Yarns
    • Contact
      • Our Crew
      • Volunteer
  • Venue Hire
  • Learn to Sail
  • Youth Scheme
Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club
Yarns

Richard Martin’s recollections of his 2007 Trans Tasman Single Handed race

by Richard Martin
By Gavin Pascoe7 May 2023No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Richard Martin

For many years we had raced Flying Machine in the Port Nich Y88 fleet, and then moved to a bigger boat when we bought Xanadu II, a round bilge Spencer 40. She had always been a Wellington boat, and held the Wellington Akaroa record for many years until Chain Reaction, an Elliot 1050, took it off her. So she is a good sea boat with few vices, a moderate rig and an easily driven hull.

Xanadu II at Hamilton Island

And so, I started to look for more sailing challenges, and ended up taking her around the North Island twice and the South Island once. Fiordland in your own boat was stunning – everyone should aspire to do that trip.

After that the Trans Tasman race caught my eye. I had never sailed singlehanded before, so it seemed a worthy challenge. I read a lot of books, and upped the equipment level on the boat to incude a drogue and parachute anchor and radar. I did a series of 3-4 day jaunts into Cook Strait and beyond to understand how I and the boat would cope. Apart from having to cope with chronic seasickness at the start, that all went OK.

And so to the start in Easter 2007. There was a mixed fleet that varied from a 50ft Bavaria down to a 35ft ferro boat. They were all sailed by their owners – there were no rockstar skippers to be seen.

The race itself was light to start with, with a southerly front coming through mid Tasman to liven things up, and then light again as a high off Brisbane caught us in its grip.The southerly was fun. I had a max of 50kts on my instruments, but some of the others had 70kts. The sea state was quite manageable at that stage because the southerly had a very long fetch, meaning we were reaching across the face of some very large waves which were widely spaced. That was fine until we reached the breaking water on the crest – but there was generally enough time to duck inside and avoid getting too wet. The boat would be totally immersed in this foaming aerated water for a few moments, then shake it off and continue rushing on until the next crest hit. The boat went well in those conditions. For two consectutive days, I had the best noon to noon distance figures.

After that it got very light. I remember how the water was a very deep deep blue when it was calm, and went for a swim around the boat just to say I had done it. But I did keep my harness on!

I managed to keep going through the light to finish second in the singlehanded class. One boat finished an hour behind me, but the next boat after that was 24 hrs behind, with the rest of the fleet well and truly caught by the high. Xanadu was a bit sticky in the light, so I was lucky I got a good boost from the southerly front when it came through.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. My position in the fleet was never a big deal to me – I was just so pleased that I had got there. I had no fancy electronics or sat phones or routing software on board – I just used the HF radio to download NZ and Aust weather maps each day. And I kept my sail invenory very simple.No spinnaker although I did have a gennaker that could be doused wth a sock. I didnt try to be heroic and change headsails on the furler – I had a heavy duty slightly overlapping genoa on all the time.

 

Related Posts

Nigel Crisp – my neighbour

The Yachtbreaker line**

Sydney to Southport

Comments are closed.

Notices to competitors

A Notice to Competitors has been posted

Purchase
  • Enter all Inshore Racing, with option to add the Offshore and Interclub Series
  • Enter selected Inshore or Offshore Series
  • Enter selected Offshore or 'Special' Races
  • Enter the Interclub Series
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter
Subscribe to our calendar
Upcoming events
Sep 29
6:10 pm

Rum Race

RPNYC Start Line
Sep 30
1:10 pm

Interclub – EBYMBC Opening Day Race

EBYMBC
Oct 6
6:10 pm

Rum Race

RPNYC Start Line
Oct 7
10:00 am

RPNYC Opening Day

Oct 7
12:55 pm

Interclub – RPNYC Opening Day Race

RPNYC Start Line
Oct 13
6:10 pm

Rum Race / Women’s Helm Series

RPNYC Start Line
Oct 14
10:25 am

Fitzroy Bay Race

RPNYC Start Line
Oct 20
6:10 pm

Rum Race

RPNYC Start Line
View Calendar
Weather and Tides
  • MetService Marine Forecast
  • CentrePort Port Weather
  • Port Marlborough Weather
  • Windfinder
  • Windy
  • Beacon Hill Webcams
  • Tory Channel Webcams
  • Tide Predictions
  • Tidal Stream Predictions - Tory Channel
Copyright © 2017-2022 Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Sign In or Register

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below.

Lost password?