Cook Strait Weather, NZ

[NoTies]

Yeah wheels, you should have seen how reacted on another forum when I dared to criticise Auckland marine suppliers ;-) gMac. What the hell were you doing with your darling daughter and your headsail the other day. Looked wierd.

[GMac]

Don't make me get out the frozen fish and give you a sound thrashing. Morning has come and it is a calmer place

A prototype for a new weapon to try and run down Sportboats in the Simrad while staying inside my 'class' and PHRF Cert. It was a Spinoa. A spinnaker and genoa in one. Hopefully a cunning plan. Not a lot of wind on Sunday but I like it. Hunting for 1-2 knots while reaching. I'm not allowed to fly 2 Acre size Gennakers like them.

[NoTies]

Good to see you're back in the happy place. Looked interesting but from my angle I couldn't see exactly how it was rigged. Let us know how it goes. Wish I could get my son to show more interest in the boat apart from the computer in the nav station so I guess you're doing well.

[GMac]

Just like a genniker. Tack on end of pole, head on kite halyard and clew to sheet. Used the kite sheets and put a downhaul through my bow roller and lead it aft. Takes the compression out of the pole, just in case. It also allows for easy luff adjustment, firmer the tighter the wind angle gets sort of thing.

Haven't quite figured out how to gybe the thing yet and may have to add a 2nd set of kite sheets. At this stage it is more for the longer legs and hopefully no gybing. If we are on a gybe possible leg we would have up the big kite anyway.

Made it on the smaller side as we don't need much to push my beast and it can double as a chicken shute when the wind gets up there. Got 4.5kts of boat speed in 11-14kts of wind with that up only reasonably close hauled so I think we are on the right track.

Chopped up an old lightweight headsail Kenny (Fyfe Sails) had lying around to see how it goes and if it's a winner we'll make a real one.

I just gotta fiddle. This one looks like one of my better ideas though, they do happen very occasionally.

[seafox]

I bet there are a few Mana boats going across the Strait on Friday. Anyone lurking on the forum from Mana who hasn't posted before want to comment on the weather?