The inaugural Tairua Cascade was held on January 4 from Mary Beach Reserve, Tairua. The race start was at 10 am, because the high tide was at 11:15 with a 1.96 m tide. Note that tides on the Coromandel are not big!

Bruce had often observed water skiers in this waterway on his way driving to Hot Water Beach and often wondered about what it would be like to sail on this reasonably narrow long straight stretch of water that appeared to have good wind on it in the local prevailing south west breeze. Bruce was stoked to share that adventure with friends in this event.

The start was a staggered beach start, with the slowest sailor starting first and the fastest last. They sailed in approximately 6 to 15 knots of wind, downwind to near the entrance to the harbour – as seen on the map below. After rounding the mark the fleet raced upwind in an increasing breeze. The water was super-clear and shallow so everyone could see fish and the sandy bottom which looked too shallow at times. The retractable centreboard was the ideal set up in this location and in fact sailors seldom had issues of hitting the bottom as it was mostly deep enough in the incoming tide.

In the open harbour Lloyd Perratt comfortably lead Bruce, both well out in front of the fleet with Gusts got up to 30 knots – it has to be that much for Lloyd, who was close to 90 kilos, to get back slammed and lose the lead to Bruce! The race rule for the top rounding mark, as suggested by David Tangye, was – whoever was the clear leader on the upwind leg can just decide when to turn around and sail back downwind. This triggers the cascade restart. Once anyone can see another sailor sailing down wind, they can too. This works well when the course has visual obstructions such as narrow water ways with bends.

Bruce was lead the race up the narrow part of the river while encountering jet skis, water skiers, wake boarders, and kayak flotillas. Bruce ended up out of sight of the other sailors who were down river and down wind and around a bend in the river. (See the yellow track on the map).

The cascade “turning point”.

The race had started in incoming tide and at this time had turned to be flowing out and down wind. Bruce got to the point where he was tacking up wind in very gusty, swirling wind, river bank to river bank, each boarded by trees reaching into the river and he was not making it further up the river, so he decided this was the moment to turn around and sail down wind. At that point, Bruce was out of sight of Lloyd, the next sailor, so when Lloyd saw Bruce appear from around the bend in the river sailing down wind, Lloyd also turned to sail down wind as well, with a comfortable lead on Bruce. Doug Ferguson the sailor in third position saw Lloyd and turned to sail down wind and the cascade continued through the fleet. With the winds between 10 to 25 knots filling from behind, those behind brought the wind with them to the sailors in front creating some interesting tactical decisions of how to stay in the strongest gusts sailing at the best angles and picking where that next good gust would be based on the experience of the up wind leg.

The fleet had an exciting fast ride and fun gybes in very flat, shallow clear water where the small dolphin shape plastic WLT fin came into its own. The finish was very close between Ryan Pausina and Bruce with Audrey Perratt, Claudio Barbuzza, Doug Ferguson, Lloyd Perratt and Allan MacIntosh not far behind.

It was a fantastic adventure race to reflect on sitting in the sun having a bite to eat and a beer. Ryan Pausina generously hosted a barbecue at his place afterwards. A fantastic day and a great event to kick off for the new year of Windsurfer LT events.

Huge thanks to David Tangye for the pictures and video, and who drove the support boat provided by Bruce.