OHOPE BEACH SAND SAILORS
Saturday 26th August 2006


Picture below, Slim covered Clem after todays excellent session

-----Original Message-----
From: Clem Kinniard
Subject: Saturday Sailing.
Hi Guys,
Looks like Ohope has the vote for Saturday’s sailing session.
Might pay to bring a storm sail or two.
We will be sailing from “Ohope Beach Holiday Camp”
Low tide is approx 2.30pm.
I want to get some air !
Clem.


Good evening everyone from NZ777.

It is now 7pm Saturday night and I am tucked up in a cabin at the Ohope Beach Holiday Park with the heater on high while I am writing todays report. What a day !

At 9am this morning I ventured outside my place in Tauranga and started putting together my Class 5 yacht. I modified my carbon rims and fitted them on the Black yachts stub axles. At 10.30am I hit the road for Ohope.

At 12 O’clock I pulled into Ron Hayden’s place at Ohope. Ron was ready to go except he need some wheels. We quickly mounted my Aluminum rims and slick tires onto his yacht so he was ready to go. I shot up to the shop for some liquid refreshment for our after sailing debrief. Darren rolled in to the shop seconds behind me sporting some big new 26” tires and rims. Looking nice and all parts sourced here in NZ. I followed Clem and Ron into the camp closely followed by Darren, Rodger and Graeme.

We all rigged and hit the beach. The wind was a West, North West and was a very tight tack up the beach and a broad reach heading back to the spit. We all played around for a hour or so, until Clem arranged a race.

Darren and Clem had a close battle. Rodger and myself, and then Ron and Graeme battling it out. The weather was perfect with plenty of wind. The beach however was covered in Green slim and we all had trouble keeping our glasses clean.

Another race and this time we headed off for the stream, 5km up the beach. Darren was on fire with his bigger wheels and made good gains on every tack. At the top I swam and the water got all the way trough my wet weather clothing. On the way back Rodger punched on one 26” tire and had to borrow a yacht and sail back to grab a 19”. He swapped both rims and the performance change in his yacht was quite noticeable.

The tide started to come in and the beach became quite wet and I was getting cold. The green slim was getting harder to wipe off and one could be forgiven for thinking we were sailing on the west coast beach. The slim was not quite as bad as murimud, but close enough to bring back fond memories of that place. Especially when it was getting late and you had to wipe your glass every 5 seconds to see.

We had our debrief back at the camp before Graeme and Rodger headed home for Tauranga, Darren and Clem for Whakatane 10 minutes away, and Ron 5 second up the road at Ohope.

The wind and rain are roaring now, however the weather forecast is not great for tomorrow afternoon... I will wait and see what it brings.

Good night all
Until tomorrow
Nz777 signing off.


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