Race News

Jan 29th 2006- Round 1 NZ Longhaul Championship

8.30am, 1st Role Call and Scrutineering.

The weather is absolute sh**, it's raining, windy and looking out to sea the visibility is no more than 2km... and the surf is  2 metres + and breaking over the whole beach.......not ideal conditions to hold a Longhaul !

A drivers briefing is called and the weather and our race course is discussed by everyone. For safety reasons the leg heading out to Taranga Island is cancelled and the boats will run up the coast and back. If visibility doesn't improve at least they will be able to keep the shoreline in sight to navigate.

Those wanting to do their 1 compulsory fuel change further up the coast load their tanks onto Steve's FORD and then head around to the beach at Mangawhai to setup.

By time we get there the low cloud has lifted and the sun is shining, talk of putting in the off shore leg is raised but the extra fuel tanks required are back at the ramp so we stick to the plan, 2 laps of 60 km each.

As Race Director I made the decision to have a rolling start out past the surfline, we have a few new crews on their 1st Longhaul and it would be a shame to end it heading out through the surf and flipping.

17 Boats lined up behind our Mustangs Marshal Boat in single file, drop of the flag and they were off.

As we watched from the beach the different setups of the boats were apparent, with some skipping over the chop while others and noticeably Reaction Screenprint were trimmed out and running flat and fast.

With beach stops at Waipu Cove and Ruakaka all boats were required to pull into the beach and the co-pilot run up to the marshal to check in before heading back out.

Lap 1 finished back at Mangawhai Beach with the new boys in the House of Travel boat landing just ahead of Waikato Finance. The lead group of 5 boats all landed within 30 seconds of each other, fuel changes were completed and then headed back out for lap 2.

4 boats withdrew with ,broken gear box, broken engine mounts (top and bottom), spun propeller bush and a co-pilot that strained his back as they punched a particularly mean swell.

Last boat to complete their fuel change was Marine Workz Racing who battled water in the motor problems all morning. Despite being behind the field the guys got back out there to complete the race.

Almost 2 hours after starting the 1st boat back across the finish line was Hydraulink Racing closely followed by Waikato Finance and House to Travel,

The rest of the field came in over the next 40 minutes with CSI and Dickies pulling into Ruakaka and taken from the water and trailered back.

No real injuries but a considerable amount of broken gear which will have to be sorted out before Round 3 of the NZ Surfcross Championship.

Big thanks to Leigh and Leah for the scoring and Hayley as our 1st Aid person.

Huge thanks to Rhelda and her shore crew for taking all the gas up to the Ruakaka marshal point and making sure all our guys checked in safely, and another huge thank you to Gary Morrison for manning the Waipu marshal point. Our Haines Hunter marshal boat located off the Heads radioed back as the guys went past and made rescue co-ordination very easy.

Once everyone was accounted for we all headed back to Tony's place for a barbecue (time to get a 20 person spa pool Tony...)

Winger Subaru

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