phuket race week day 3

My Internet went down at the hotel i was staying at in Thailand so I missed sending out news of the last few days of racing.

Day 3 was a beauty 20 - 25 knots and a decent swell started to cause havoc with the fleets. We began the day with a long race around the outer islands. We had a brilliant start but there were a couple of green looking team members right from the start. (didn't help that they had only had 2 hours sleep and were already looking green before hoping onboard.)

we worked the left side of the beat and managed to hook into some nice left hand breeze we tacked over to lay the first island on Starboard tack. At this stage one of the boys began to feel really sick he was on the windward rail and began to spew son the side of the boat. The big problem here was that the wind was at 18 knots and as the spew left his mouth the wind would pick it up and send it all over the crew. everyone left the rail in search of cover. We had 4 of us cowering on the floor of the cockpit in fits of laughter trying not to get covered in more stomach liner.

We slipped around the tip of the island and bore away to hoist our nice big A symmetrical Gennaker. We got it to the top of the mast and heated on, it cracked into life and the speedo roared up from 6 knots to 8 knots (wow you got to love keel boat racing for an adrenalin rush.)

the difference for an extra two knots being the boat is now leaning right over the loads double and we push twice as much water. So we had a lesson on heavy weather tight reaching. We worked on de powering the boat easing the main then the Vang and trying to send the bow down to decrease the angle of heel. hard work in a keel boat when the rudder looses grip with not too much warning. by the end of the leg we had really good communication and the boat beautifully balanced and under control.

we bore away to a down wind course downed the Gennaker and hardened up to round the marker and head off for the next island. it was a long port tack to the next island and we worked hard on boat speed to keep one of our rivals off our hip. We sailed well up past the island and hooked our Gennaker up one last time for a short blast to the finish. (it was one of those situations where the wind angle tempts you to put a kite up but its a boarder line call its tight your on a lee shore and the wind is gusty.) we decided to play it safe and take a little height first to give ourselves some sea room. after 2 mins we hoisted and had a shocker the kite didn't make it to the top, the jammer didn't stop the halyard and the jib came down all at once and we were heading for the beach. luckily the boys scrambled well and we got the jib back up spinnaker back down and we 2 sailed back into the finish. in hind sight it would have been good to stick with the jib. some times less is more especially in a short leg.

In the afternoon we had a short windward leeward race. It was a slightly skewed course pin end favoured long port tack beat, and a bear away set at the top mark. most boring course you can even imagine. But due to the simplicity we got the start we wanted and stormed away to a credible 3rd place. So it was another successful day with a 4th in the first race.

We headed back to the beer tent for some refreshments, a swim in the infinity pool, a cheeky chocolate thick shake. We couldn't hang around long cos none could wear their shirts due to the chunder marks down our backs so we took off back to our hotel to get changed.

Our team got a mention on the www.sail-world.com/asia website

'Angry Rob' Heilkema on Endeavour of Whitby said, 'it was the same course as yesterday, so we just made sure that we didn’t fall into same soft patches (but we still scored 5th both times). And it was really lumpy out there – there was a major ‘chunder from Down Under’ - and we had some pretty serious knitting problems. The afternoon race was a good deal easier, a windward-leeward with a pin favoured start and almost a fetch to the top.' Williamson’s office-wallahs scored 4th in race 6 to allow them to hold on to 4th overall, just one point in front of Toshio Furuta’s Mumm 36 Emma on 25 points (after a drop)."

A quote from the day before

"Right behind them was Stuart Williamson’s Endeavour of Whitby. 'We are very happy with our performance so far,' said Williamson. 'For a collection of office-wallahs with rather less experience than the division leaders I think were are making a pretty good showing!'"

race day 2

Another great day on the water. Today we had a forcast of 15 knots from the west. we had a coastal course of around 25 nautical miles. we had a great start and headed upwind to the first of 4 islands we were racing around. We sailed the first leg very well staying ahead of the bigger yachts. We hoisted our big gennaker and headed off downwind.

the crew work was great and we got the boat rocking down the waves. We had a couple of little wipeouts at the bottom of the run but nothing too major. we rounded the last island and headed for the finish. We ripped the gennaker in the last hoist of the day but regathered to finish 4th.

In the 2nd race of the day we had a shockerstart almost hitting the commitee boat, then at the top we had spinnaker issues gybing issues and the breeze built to 20 knots. we never recovered and were lucky to hold onto 4th.

Race day 1 in Thailand

We had good wind 15 knots to play with. My crew has done little to no racing ever and its my Job to teach them as we go.

We had an interesting first race slowly sorting out positions jobs and trying to get sails up and down without any damage.
we had a bad first race but luckily the first 5 boats did the wrong course so i think after the protest we will be doing quite well. we toughed out the second race and managed a 3rd place overall. we made lots of mistakes and are stoked with a third. if we can get around the course without any trouble we should be able to win the regatta.

We had a big night on the first evening here and all the boys were very hung over including myself. we forgot to take the lunches so you can imagine after 6 hours sailing how we felt.

a little more organisation and results will improve.

hope you are all having a blast. ill keep you posted

ps check out my website for more updates
www.robhielkema.blogspot.com

robbs pix

Robbs in Thailand

Well I'm here and what a fantastic place. its soooo hot and humid which is such a change from the kiwi winter.

Yesterday was a classic first day in a new country. I reset my watch and put it forward making the date wrong so i was thinking it was a Wednesday and took off to register us for the regatta. A 45 min taxi mission and 30 mins wondering around a strange resort to find race hq closed and a sign come back tomorrow.

I walked past a health spa they invited me in gave me a cool towel and let me have a look around. I wasn't so keen for a mud mask at this point so i headed into town Chalong bay to try and locate our boat.

I sat with some locals who called me a taxi, they invited me to go fishing with them that evening. random!! I declined and 1 hour later the taxi was still not there so i set off on foot. a tuk tuk driver saw me walking (bopping) along listening to the ipod and gave me a ride into town, it was much further than i thought and i would still be walking now if it wasnt for him.

I walked along the pier and was stopped by two Thai bankers who wanted a photo with me they then gave me a tour of the beach in their flash car which was hilarious to say the least. I remembered my mission and took off down the jetty. I found our boat and called out to Adek the captain to pick me up. (see photo) he rowed over to me with a deflatable with 1 oar against the wind, i was laughing my head off when he arrived and he had a smile in return.

We went over to the boat and had a look at all the sails and fittings, we serviced a winch that was full of old black grease and then dove into the water to clean the hull. I was not expecting the water to be warmer than the air but it was as warm as a bath no kidding. As we rubbed the bottom you got up a sweat underwater unreal.

Adek the skipper is from Malaysia and i don't think they had compulsory swimming lessons like i had a Westmere primary school. bear in mind he as sailed for 3 days to get to Thailand, so he rigs up a line from bow to stern donns a life jacket ties a rope round his waist and to the boat and leaps in to help me. He turns to me and says i can swim a little but i like to be sure that i wont float away. (legend)

Adek and i had a beer then took off back to the pier. He offered to take me shopping in Kata beach and then back to my hotel. We boosted off on the little motor bike, free for all roundabouts blind corners hills where you have to get off and push elephant crossing signs!! we saw it all. We stopped found some shops bargained for some cloths which by the way I'm really crap at i just want a price and to pay. i tried my best I got two shirts and a singlet for a great deal but the girl new it was a tough deal and you could tell that she was a little disappointed which made me feel stink then the next shop i went into i got some shoes still feeling stink i didn't barter so hard and this shop did well out of me and i still felt stink. lose lose situation! oh well on the positive side i got some mean cheap cloths.

We headed down to the beach to meet up with an Irish dude and 3 Norwegians. We had beers in a beach side bar with raster's smoking joints next to us and hundreds of people surfing right in front of us.

We donned our motor bike once more and headed for home. I looked up to see a massive Buddha under construction on top of the tallest mountain. I couldn't take my eyes off it, so massive what a feat. As i was looking on my hat came off in the wind. we stopped and turned round to pick it up. i jumped down from the bike swooped up the hat and saw a massive elephant in the bushes next to me. There was an elephant trek going on and i was so impressed to see this beast no less than 20 metres from me, a real elephant!!!

So that's the first installment from Thailand and i hope the adventures keep on rolling in. Today I'm off to register us (second time Lucky) and we start racing Thursday.

keep you posted from Robbs