Boating New Zealand - July 2018

106 Boating New Zealand

crew member dressed as a cyclor pedalled it around the course. It’s

no wonder the Extreme team was given a special award for services

to rum racing, fun and dress-up parties at the annual Squadron

prizegiving.

Roberts doesn’t want to keep all the fun to himself, though;

he has been asked by the Squadron about setting up a rum race

committee, to get even more owners and sailors enthused, and

“enhance the fun and festivities out on the water.”

When something sounds like this much fun, of course we had

to try it out. I used to rum race quite often; working from home

on a Friday often meant I could get away for a short-handed amble

around the harbour on a friend’s Young 88. But the arrival of small

kids kind of put paid to that, so it’s getting on for eight years since I

had the pleasure of knocking of early for a Friday afternoon sail.

I couldn’t have picked a better afternoon for rum racing. Another

10 ° warmer would have been nice, but it is June. here’s bright

sunshine and just enough breeze to keep us on our toes, without

making us work too hard.

We’re not the only ones who thought today was the day. here’s

a great turnout – 33 boats across two divisions, plus one multihull,

ranging from a Piedy up to more serious race boats like Anarchy and

Systems hunder. It looks like a lot of people have pulled the get-out-

of-work-early card today.

Ten of us are aboard Extreme this afternoon – what Roberts calls

the ‘inner circle’ of regulars. He has a pool of about 40 casual crew

Roberts might

have said he was

in this for the fun,

but it’s clear he’s

pretty serious

about the racing.