Louis Vuitton mania!

Saturday 12th May 2007. Ben and Sam, overcome with Louis Vuitton Cup fever after Emirates Team New Zealand secured the top spot for the LV Cup semis, just had to have a sail. We set off at 9.00am towards the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It started to rain, so we did a tight tack and headed toward Rangitoto. But then the weather cleared up and we headed back towards Auckland.

Simple Image, handled much better with her clean hull and we cranked some really good speed close hauled. With just two crew, we managed what China Team take 17 crew to do: sail not particularly fast in a reasonably straight line. We saw a big shipping boat, some super-fly etchells and a whole bunch of 18-foot somethings. We also saw a twin V8 1300bhp powerboat warming up for the Auckland Harbour Bridge Offshore Powerboat Race and NZL-40 zipping around.



We turned for home 100m off the Harbour Bridge and rigged the spinnaker. With just two, we managed to do an alright job, but the wind shifted 90 degrees during our hoist and then died so it was a short lived affair. We’re not far off from mastering the hoist though. More good news is that the front furler seems to be working perfectly again. It furls and unfurls with a small tug in either direction!

The mainsheet track needs new cleats. We had a few incidents of the cleats giving way after a tack. This should be an easy job however.

We moored at midday after a brief, but very good day of sailing.