Mount Gay Rum Race 15/8

We had an excellent turnout for this race considering the metservice was predicting 35 to 45 knots and heavy rain. Both X Factor and Helvetica couldn’t make it at the last minute so I was lucky enough to get a ride on Exodus. When we sailed out it wasn’t over 20 knots but it kept building and building. All the Multihulls put reefs in before the start except Akarana Express, which was absolutely flying downwind till about halfway to the first mark when they also reefed their main and put the worlds smallest storm jib up! Taeping and Hard Drive even reefed were doing some spectacular handstands, and both pulled out on the way past Westhaven, maybe had something to do with a massive black cloud coming from the west. We sailed very conservatively on Exodus and finished just as the huge cloud came over us almost blowing us onto the rock wall!
It was good to see 4 boats start, I did some texting, calling and emailing to try and remind people, it is a bit hard to keep track of which Rum Races we have a Multi Division in so the dates for the rest of the Rum Races are;
Division M Racing Schedule The Multihull divisions will race on the promotional Mount Gay Rum Nights, 3 October, 28 November, 19 December 2008. 23 January 2009, 13 February, 6 March, 3 April, 1 May, 5 June, 3 July, 14 August & 11 September.
MOUNT GAY Rum Races are open to members of any yacht club.
Division M starts last, 10 mins after the A division.
Mount Gay Rum Races start at 1600 in Winter & 1630 in Summer off Westhaven Tower.

Sam Tucker
Race Sec


More Info here