General Lee Racing

Another Two Handed race for the General Lee last Friday... the SSANZ Anzac Enduro! Holgate was kicked off the boat to give our young bowman entraining a crack (plus we needed Holgate to bring the mothership to the finish).

Luke Tucker finally got his call up!

It was a great race. On the wind, just laying out to North Head then a gennaker ride to Navy Buoy before back on the wind just laying the Cow and Calf before a reach with the FRO to Pakatoa finished with a short beat to the finish.

Nice flat water all race and a lovely night sail. The General Lee took line honours and second on handicap, however we lost a fair chunk of time with a M.O.B drill in the middle of the night a few miles before the Cow.

During the RNI we had a few issues with our Liferings which were mounted on the sides of the pushpits on the outside. So before this race I replaced a damaged mount and moved them to the rear of the pushpit, but still on the outside. This obviously didn't work as a Lifering managed to unclip the securing bunny and try to escape! I saw the light activated and told Lukey to grab it... but we were seconds too late! Hence the MOB drill.

It took us at least 4 goes to pick it up... not the easiest job under sail in the middle of the night in 15 knots. But we did mange to retrieve and get back on our way. The nearest competition had been out of sight but we could now just see the faint glow of their nav lights. As the lifelong had a pretty bright light attached we figured we really did need to get it back as it could ruin other competitors race trying to collect and then wondering if there was also a person in the water!

The FRO ride back from the Calf was awesome, constant 12-14knots in 14-17knots of breeze.

Lukey passed his first test with flying colours with a top class effort all weekend.... and Holgate did pretty well with the support crew (Caroline) and mothership providing great meals, comfy beds and pirate strength rums!

Can’t beat a good mothership to raft up to post race!

Another great rum race for the General Lee… got the double this time!

First RNZYS rum race for the General Lee and first across both the start and finish lines to take the gun! Quite impressive for the 2nd shortest boat in the fleet. Such a sweet 37 footer by Brett Bakewell-White.

It’s about time I wrote the summary of Leg 4, the final leg of a brutal 2026 RNI.

After a fantastic stopover in Napier it was all upwind! With smoother water we had General going better and had the Motorboat III concerned. They were a fraction quicker but we had height and managed to pass them. They got back in front with a close cross and a terrifying sight as Josh aka Booboo had his shorts around his ankles pulling the world’s biggest brown eye! This clearly motivated the General to get back in front and lead until after rounding East Cape. We were looking like hero’s and were starting to think we were getting a handle on the boat.
The first night was a strange one with torrential rain, fog with stuff all visibility and lots of shifts.
After rounding East Cape MB3 did well sailing low with a gennaker to take the lead. It was a tough second night with regular gybes and sail changes as wind strength and angle kept changing. We tried to push hard but better conditions behind made it hard to get away.
The next day was tough for us. We found the centre of the Curvier hole! Vixen only a couple of miles away just snuck through before the shutdown. Our Achilles heel currently is very light airs with a big sea state. It seems impossible to stop the boat slamming and washing off speed which is very hard to rebuild. Boats closer to the Merc’s seemed to keep moving and we hemorrhaged positions.
Once we finally got going and into the new breeze the challenge was on to claw back some spots. After a debate it was decided to put it all on red and hit the right hand corner hard! The logic was getting right hand shifts up the East Coast bays and incoming tide once we got to Rangi channel.
It didn’t feel like we were catching anyone that fast until we hit the lay line for Tiri channel and the wind softened. With the J2 and full main in super flat water the General was on 🔥. Easily exceeding windspeed, outpointing boats around us while getting lifts and pressure increases first. I think we passed 4-5 boats between Tiri and the finish including Perfect Storm who at Colville we thought was uncatchable! Although a disappointing leg for us finishing further down the order than we would like it was good to have a strong finish!
Unlike previous RNI’s RNZ’s where we have been disappointed to end the adventure wishing there were more legs… this time Tim and I agreed we were happy to end the race!
So why was this race so brutal?
1. The weather! There were no easy legs and the wind was continuously changing which creates a lot of work changing sails. Although there wasn’t anything super extreme there was a lot of time that was upper end running extras… this takes a lot of energy!
2. The boat! Although we love the boat it’s a hard ride. The stiff carbon structure transmits everything through. Although only 1m longer than the Farr 1020 it is much higher performance and the motion is not far off a mechanical bull at times! Also compared to a 1020 where you use 4-5 sails we had 12 sails (excluding storm sails) that were all used! Over 1/2 we hadn’t even seen in the air prior to the start! Learning what sails to use and when takes a bit of time… especially when getting it wrong and having to change again!
3. Preparation. Although we did pretty well considering the rebuild the boat had as evidenced by the fact we made it around though some tough conditions and have a very small job list of things we need to do to the boat… we paid the price with a lack of sailing time and also very little effort put into studying the weather. Looking back I wouldn’t change what we did with the boat… but if only we could have started the whole project 6-12 months earlier!
Photo credit Phil Hart

Leg 3. Finally started a leg without a mad panic rushing just to get to the start line!

After a few jobs on the boat we have solved the water leak issue.

With no water in the bow and sails stack further aft the boat performed better.

The leg started at the entrance to Queen Charolette Sound. We started with the J3 and double reefed main. The rounding of Cape Koamaru was exciting with tide rips making the waves stand up and bullets of wind randomly laying boats flat.

The Cook Strait crossing was pretty good and the next rough point was the Karori Rip. We snapped a jib sheet so dropped and rehoisted in J4 mode. We also passed a carbon pole which we later found was lost off Focus.

Cape Pallister was also pretty bumpy but after rounding we had a great sail up the coast. We progressively changed up sails to a FRO then A5 before finishing with the A2 (the final sail that we hadn’t ever seen in the air).

We got a bit shafted before the finish when a hole developed…. This probably cost us 40min and also the opportunity to enter the harbour before the tide dropped. Instead we had a few hours cruising around drinking rum.

Finally we felt we have made some steps learning the boat and getting a handle on things. Much better sail choices and an improved performance but still plenty more potential to extract. It’s a pretty sweet boat that Brett Bakewell-White has designed and a joy to drive.

A true story 🍹(01)🚗(01)🍹

That’s Leg 2 done and dusted! Not the result we wanted and probably Holgate and Cam’s worst result sailing together… so what happened? Probably a lot of little things but mainly not knowing the boat and still rushing to be ready and sorted.

Started bare headed still attaching the FRO but it was finally a right sail call. We had an awesome blast to North Cape to round the top in 3rd place behind Explore and Motorboat III.

While going across the top we set ourselves up for a big bash upwind. J5 and deep reef in the main. Rounded Reinga and didn’t get as much wind as expected. The boat felt crap t and unbalanced and we started bleeding positions. Eventually we accepted the wind wasn’t coming so shook out the deep reef and went to second reef. The boat suddenly got some feel and balanced and took off gradually clawing back some spots.
On the first night we were lucky not to lose the rig. Luckily we spotted the leeward D1 had completely unwound and disconnected. If we had tacked it would have been game over!
As we beat down the coast the wind progressively lighted and we changed up sails. The second night we also made a massive stuff up when changing down from the J2 to J3… but instead put up the J5! It took us far to long to work out why the boat wasn’t going and eventually went back to the J2
We were in reasonable position until splitting with the 5 or so boats around us and going searching for more wind…. But instead we found a massive hole. We find the boat goes really well in 6kts plus (or less in flat water) but she slammed badly in the large left over sea state when not powered up. We would be doing 6kts and lose 2 or more knots slamming off a wave and struggle to rebuild.
Anyway after exiting the hole the damage was done but we had a fantastic sail to the finish. A5 and FRO featuring! But the new speed record for the current owners was set under reefed main and J2 jib off Stephen’s island. Typical of our luck this leg we fought tide the entire way across the top of the South Island… but on the outside of Stephen’s the sea state stood up massively like I’d never seen before. Holgate reckoned it was like a rough Manukau bar crossing. Anyway the new record is 21 knots without an extra!
Anyway all things considered we are still smiling, the boat is in good shape and we have learnt a heap!

That’s Leg 1 done and dusted!
4th on line (and first conventionally ballasted yacht ie no canting keel or water ballast) and 9th overall on handicap out of 26.
We didn’t embarrass ourselves or have any slower boats finish ahead and didn’t have many issues with the boat… so it’s a win!
Definitely learning a lot about the boat and saw many of the sails for the first time! We used 9 sails in total over the leg.
Mainsail
J3
Genoa Staysail
BRO
A5
FRO
A4
Spinnaker staysail
J2
Although the race favourites Motorboat IIi won the leg and sailed exceptionally well… to me it was the crew on Ragnar that were the stars!
We will keep learning and improving as the race goes on!
Thanks L*D and SSANZ for the awesome photos.