Warm Rain Ship's Log

Lion New Zealand

Lion New Zealand’s construction started at the end of 1983 and the launch date set for November 1984. This date was decided so Lion could enter the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day. The forecast for the start of the race was for the breeze to build to gale force winds from the southwest. Lion finished first in Hobart sailing through very stormy conditions. She survived huge seas and 60 knot squalls in the 1984 Sydney Hobart. Over half the fleet did not finish the race. Lion had proven her strength. The crew got ready to deliver the yacht back to New Zealand and on to England for the Start of the Whitbread. Lion was one of the favorites to finish first in the 1985-86 Whitbread but proved to be too slow in the southern ocean downwind surfing legs. Lion New Zealand still lives to this day as a charter boat out of Auckland. She now does charters out of Auckland's Viaduct Harbour. For more on Lion New Zealand look here: Lion New Zealand 

J Class Endeavour

Endeavour was defeated in the 1934 America's Cup by the defender Rainbow by a three to two score, one of the closest series in history. Laid up at the Camper & Nicholson Gosport Yard in 1938 and then towed to a mud berth it was bought in 1947 by Charles Kiridge who sold her to Richard and Renée Lucas. Twenty years later, they sold Endeavour to some Americans. The Maritime Trust took charge of it for a time before it was bought by Mr. & Mrs. Amos and Graham Jack. In 1979, they started a six year restoration project. In the Autumn of 1984, Elizabeth Meyer bought Endeavour and rebuilt it from 1984 to 1989. She looks great now as we saw her in the Viaduct Harbour.  For more on Endeavour look here: J Class Endeavour

Big Boat KZ1

Big Boat KZ1 was a 1988 America's Cup challenger from New Zealand. It was an attempt by Sir Michael Fay to bring the America's Cup back to the grandeur of the J-class yacht era. Dennis Conner responded to the challenge with a catamaran.  I guess he didn't understand boating etiquette and fair play. Even today the America's Cup is the the courts while Alinghi and Oracle build catamarans to challenge each other. Nothing has been learned in 21 years. Anyway, here is KZ1 as she towers over one of the newer generation AC boat in Auckland's Viaduct Harbour

KZ1 General characteristics

* Crew: 30 to 40
* Length (overall): 36.57 m (120 ft)
* Length (waterline): 27.43 m (90 ft)
* Beam: 8.07 m (26 ft 6 in)
* Draft: 6.40 m (21 ft)
* Sail area (upwind): 627 m² (6749 ft²)
* Sail area (downwind): 1600 m² (17,300 ft²)
* Mast height: 46.78 m (153 ft 6 in)
* Displacement: 39 tons
* Hull material: Carbon fiber, Kevlar/Nomex sandwich

Boat Beddy Bye

During our last trip to Auckland we walked by a big building on the waterfront that looked like a warehouse. When we peeked inside the doorway we were surprised to see hundreds of small power boats stacked on top of each other in little storage cubicles. Our friends told us that it's a great way for folks to store their small power boats - all they have to do is call the storage place when they want to take the boat out, and the workers will get the boats out of their beds and have them ready to go. When the owners are done with the boat they just bring it back to the dock and the workers put it to bed. I think it's a very cool space-saving concept.

What Did You Say???

I know this picture was part of our Sheep World photo album, but I just love the look on this ostrich's face.

Sheep World

Earlier this week we visited Sheep World, a tourist attraction about 15 minutes away from our friends' house in Warkworth. Sheep are a big thing in New Zealand - there are approximately 9 sheep for every person in the country and there are 4 million people in New Zealand! At Sheep World they have, you guessed it, sheep - some of them dyed bright pink. It's quite the sight to be driving down the highway and come across hot pink sheep grazing in a field! In addition to the sheep there are also alpacas, miniature horses, ostrich, emu, goats, etc. We walked around the barn yard visiting the animals then settled in the barn for the floor show.

The hour-long show was great. We got to watch dogs herding sheep from the pasture into the corral then into the show barn. We saw a sheep drafting demo (herding sheep into different pens according to color markings on the sheeps' heads) then watched the MC sheer a sheep. The MC then chose Tom to come up on stage to sheer. Tom did a great job - he said it was just like shaving his head! After the sheep was sheared they brought in baby lambs and I got to feed one of them a warm bottle of milk. After the show Tom bonded with one of the sheep herding dogs before we headed back to our friend's house. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon. Click here to see the Sheep World photo album.

Louis Vuitton Pacific Series (continued)

While visiting the Auckland Viaduct Harbour we saw many generations of America’s Cup boats including those used last month in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. The Louis Vuitton Series is always run prior to the actual America’s Cup race to determine who the AC challenger will be. Since the cup has been held up for over a year in the courts this was a great idea on New Zealand’s part to get the racing back on the water where it belongs. More can be found about this event here: Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

Here are the Louis Vuitton round robin racing results in order of how the boats finished is shown below.

Country                                                 Boat

New Zealand                 Team New Zealand (Louis Vuitton Pacific Series Cup Winner)
Switzerland                   Alinghi
United States                BMW Oracle Racing
Italy                              Damiani Italia Challenge
United Kingdom            Team Origin
Italy                             Luna Rossa
China                           China Team
France                          Pataguas K-Challenge
Greece                         Greek Challenge
South Africa                 Team Shosholoza

This series saw Oracle helmed by Russell Coutts being eliminated in the finals by Alinghi (Yeah!) and Alinghi being trounced by New Zealand to take the Louis Vouitton Pacific Cup. Life is good now in Kiwiland. Here are  some random pictures of the spectator fleet and AC boats at the Viaduct Harbour.

Louis Vuitton Racing

This past Friday our friend, Sally, took us into Auckland so that we could bum around Viaduct Basin while she was running errands. We met up with friends Brian and Cathy (s/v Tarun) and went exploring. The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series races were on - they are the precursor to the America's Cup races - and we wanted to see if we would be able to see any of the racing. We were there during the Louis Vuitton finals between Alinghi (Swiss) and New Zealand. 10 other chalangers had been eliminated in a 2 week round robin series up to the finals.  Unfortunately we were unable to watch the race since the boats had already returned to the dock so we found the race compound and it was great to see the boats. Team Alinghi  had raced New Zealand that day and unfortunately New Zealand lost the race, however the following day New Zealand won three races from Alinghi and won the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series - yeah!

In addition to the racing boats, there were many mega-yachts in the harbour and we had fun gawking at the multi-million dollar boats. The race boats are pictured below.

Hedgehogs

Last Tuesday we took off in the car and headed for Warkworth to visit our friend Sally. We told her that we wanted to come visit to help with some household chores that she couldn't easily do in Alan's absence, and we all decided that cleaning the rain gutters on the house and garage would be a good chore to tackle.

Sally said that there were hedgehogs in the gutters on the front of the house. Tom and I hesitated a minute (both thinking that Tom would get bitten when sticking his hands into the gutters), then Tom said that he could get rid of them during the cleaning process. Sally said, "No, you need to put them back after cleaning out the gutters!" When she saw how perplexed we were at that statement, Sally went on to explain that hedgehogs are not live critters - they're something that looks like a big bottlebrush that you lay in the gutter to help keep out the leaves and debris. Both Tom and I were quite relieved to find out that they were not live. We spent Wednesday cleaning out the gutters and hedgehogs with no hedgehog attacks - only a couple wasp nests to deal with. Whew!

Waka Loading Zone

This past Friday, February 6th, was Waitangi Day, New Zealand's birthday - the date that the treaty between the Maori warriors and the British was signed back in 1840. The treaty was signed at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds about 5 miles from the marina here in Opua and they hold a multi-day celebration of the event with food booths, music, and racing wakas, the traditional Maori war canoes.

We opted not to attend the festivities, but on Friday, as I was driving to the grocery store, I saw about a half dozen wakas in the shallow water near my favorite fruit & veggie stand. There were several men in the water holding the wakas in place so that they wouldn't float away. On shore were 5 or 6 semi trucks and a huge crane. I parked alongside the road and went to investigate.

The wakas were huge - some looked like they could easily hold 50+ people. They were works of art with intricate carvings on the sides, bow and stern of each canoe. Apparently the story was that after the races the wakas were towed by large dinghy from Hobson's Bay at the treaty grounds to this small bay. They were then picked up by the crane and loaded onto the semi's for the ride back to wherever they came from. When I left the bay for the grocery store they were queuing up the wakas for the crane, and on my way back to the boat they had some loaded on the semi trucks.

I'm sorry that we didn't get to see them racing but was happy to be able to get a few pictures of these beautiful war canoes. Click here to see the pictures.