2018 Solo Tasman Challenge - The delivery

Getting to the start line is a significant achievement and preparation is critical. As the race is only held every four years, the window of opportunity can slam shut at any moment through a change in circumstance.  In my case I had a lot more additional challenges than normal.....foremost was a posting to the US that had me returning home in Jan 2018. Arriving back in Australia after three years in the US involved finding a house, a car, catching up with the kids, parents and friends whilst recommissioning Rogue Wave in preparation for the delivery and race and post race delivery.

I had purchased a bowsprit and furler for my awesome APS assy to reduce my workload and increase performance, but unfortunately I needed to make some custom brackets and I simply ran out of time.

Fortunately, I know every inch of the old Rogue and that is very important aspect of race preparation. Following relaunch at Cove Marine on the Tomaree Peninsula in Port Stephens, I sailed her down to Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC) for final prep and country clearance.

Lessons Learned 2014:

• In 2014 I took an extra 4 x 20L plastic Jerry Cans of diesel which was overkill and added unwanted weight and storage challenges. The fuel took up space in my life raft locker. 
• In 2018, I only added 2 x 10L jerries in addition to my 110 litre main tank.
• In 2014 I hired a 4 man Great Circle Cannister liferaft and stainless cradle that I attached to the aft teak deck. Again unwanted weight in the ends of RW.
• In 2018 I hired a Great Circle 4 man liferaft but this time in a soft Valise that would fit my locker plus the 2 x 10L jerries.

Since she had been on the hard and systems had not been used I expected some issues. Murphy raised his ugly head and took out the fresh water pump and gas detector linked to the gas safety cutoff system. A couple of days delay doing repairs was compounded by the weather window that was rapidly closing as 50 knot winds off Sydney were making their way north, so I held in port for a few days until I could ride the coat tails of the LOW. The upside is a favorable breeze.....the downside is a few days of ugly weather and maybe a confused sea depending on where you are offshore.

I was in contact with Kerli, another competitor from Sydney in his Young 11 with a delivery crew leaving around the same time as me. As the LOW passed Sydney he hopped on its tail and commenced his delivery to NZ....a tad too early as it turned out.

After waiting a couple of days for the LOW to pass, I set off on 07 Mar at 1700h in rough conditions. About a day out I received a text on my satphone from Kerli saying he was headed back to Sydney after a severe beating and some breakages. A few days later Kerli sent a text saying...."you have got bigger kahunas than me Kev, good luck I'm withdrawing from the race".

The SSE breeze continued for about 5 days making passage on the rhumb line impossible.