SSANZ Two Handed Triple Race 1... the quick debrief.... what an awesome day on the water! 15 boats on start line, start delayed by an hour to wait for some sort of breeze. 

Sailor Moon first into Motuihe and first out of Rakino channel. Two boats "sail by braille" and find the bottom on a reef to East of Motutapu. One escapes to race on and one has a bit of a Dilemma, motors off and returns to base to lick its wounds.

The fun really began on beat to Tiri with lots of shifts and lumpy chop to deal with. War Machine first to Navy Buoy with Flash Gordon, Voodoo, Mindbender and Dangerzone all in hot pursuit.

Breeze crumped and then filled on the run/reach with a major gain to those North of the rhumb line. War Machine first around Gannet with DangerZone about 30 metres behind. Hopes were up on board for a "Mixed Doubles" one/two but with the front gaggle all within striking distance and the race anyone's.

It was getting dark, the breeze was in and the reach was tight. Slowly but surely the blokes on Flash and Mindbender closed the gap passing the mixed doubles on  Dangerzone somewhere to the South of Rangi and War Machine just after Bean Rock.

In true 88 style the first three boats finished after 10 hours within 40 seconds of each other.

Congrats to James on Flash Gordon for the win, Swanny on Mindbender for 2nd and 1st corrected, Zib/Mike on War Machine, 3rd line and first mixed double crew and Brad and Robin Marsh 4th line and 2nd mixed crew in first SSANZ outing on Dangerzone.

More photos: https://www.facebook.com/YoungEightyEight/photos/…

Results here: https://ssanz.co.nz/Results/2020LewmarTripleSeriesR11.htm

Very busy PredictWind Tracker here (click PIC 60) https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/race/ssanz

Very clever but slightly dysfunctional Race Qs tracker here https://raceqs.com/regattas/75979

Excellent SSANZ / LiveSailDie race video go here https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=565691284318659

Thanks Shorthanded Sailing Association of New Zealand  volunteers and Live Sail Die for the photos and videos.

For more info and to get your entry in go here https://www.young88.org.nz/events/58195/ and here https://www.ssanz.co.nz/triple-series/.....

See you all in 4 weeks for Race 2.

Photo credits Live Sail Die and SSANZ