General Lee Racing

The RNZYS Winter Series finished up on Saturday on a miserable grey day with continuous rain. Despite a few crew (and co-owner) threatening to mutiny and stay dry at home in bed... we did get the whole team to the boat!
As is often the case when yachting, the days you find hardest to get motivated to get out there are often the most rewarding. Despite the continual rain we got reasonable breeze, numerous shifts, puffs and lulls and a good tactical course.
For the General Lee crew, this is our first fully crewed series. The overall series result was never the focus... more about learning the boat and continual improvement. To that end it has been a success and we have seen continuous improvement in performance.
They say "you're only as good as your last race" and to that end we are pretty happy! Finishing the series with a win on handicap for the final race and sailing what we felt was our best race of the series! Although we did score a 2nd on line earlier in the series, that was a super light and changeable day but this time was a much more consistent breeze and we had to work for it.
We have had quite a few youngsters (under 20) on the boat for the series and it's been great to see them learn and improve. The biggest gains and learnings made have been reducing the crew number down to 9, this gives everyone a job, stops us tripping over each other, improves downwind performance yet doesn't seem to hurt upwind. Improving the inhauler system and adding a small strop to the jib tack to lift the clew. Initially the inhaler pulled to a fix point which was too far aft and effectively made the jib car position irrelevant. This combined with a clew too low (which also kept damaging the cabin top) meant we couldn't deepen the sail to add power in the light. The new and improved system allows the inhauler fairlead to slide and self align. The other key learning is downwind angles... we still have a way to go here... coming from spinnaker boats where you can pole back and run deep, it takes a bit of getting used to gybe angles that are greater than tacking angles! Also key is when to switch from trying for as much depth as possible to heating it back up and sailing hot with pressure and sending it!
Thanks to RNZYS and LiveSailDie for the photos from the last race...

I'm about to do a merch order for the General Lee. If anyone wants to get some General Lee Merch here is your chance! Will need to pick up from Auckland as I'm not interested in posting items everywhere...

T Shirts - AS Colour Staple 5001 or Women's Maple
In Black or Orange

$38.90 ea

Hoodies - AS Colour Stencil 5102 Heavyweight
In Black

$75.70

Hoodie - AS Colour Supply 5101 Midweight
In Black

$63.05

Hoodie - AS Colour Supply 5109 Zipped Hoodie
In Black

$66.50

I'm not a psychic so I need size and for T Shirts what colour is required!

The Daisy Duke's have hijacked the General Lee this weekend! Starting with the RNZYS Rum Race tonight, then the RNZYS Women's Day Out tomorrow and followed by a training session for New York on Sunday! Go Daisy's Go!

From Saturday’s Winter Series race. Thanks to Hummingbird Video and Photography

General Lee RNZYS Winter Series 15 Aug 26 Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

The General Lee has had a busy and successful 4 days with a real mixture of racing...

Serena and Ryan (Porky) Parkin were the guests of honour as it was Serena's last chance for a rum race before flying home to France. Porky got to helm. After stuffing up the start, the crew (Josh Tucker and Myself) had to dig Porky out of the hole he dug and make him look good in his daughter's eyes... Taking a Gun to a knife fight certainly helped and the General carved through the fleet to hit the lead and extend. With a strong incoming tide it was hard work to get around the shipping wharfs and onto Resolution. The rest of the fleet got stuck and even went backwards. After rounding Resolution we were going with the tide so it was very much a case of the rich getting richer and for a long time we were the only boat likely to finish. Although a light breeze kicked in the damage had been done with the General taking Line honours by over 30 min and Handicap by over 10min. Very lucky for Porky!

Friday was the RNZYS Rum Race, and to make a long story short, was a similar very light airs race with a few parking lots. The key once again was being first through a tidal gate, rounding Bayswater for the final time as the breeze had a little shutdown. Boats behind had to make numerous extra tacks and fight to get to the mark while we drifted with the tide to the finish to score our second double of Line and handicap in two days.

Saturday, saw us out again for the RNZYS Winter Series. A decent breeze and a couple of great blasts with the gennaker made for a fun race. Definitely one of our better performances in the Winter Series.The feeling is that we have made a jump in the process of learning how to make the boat go, as well as our changes to inhauler and jib setup making it easier to change gears.

Finally, today the General Lee went to BBYC for 2 W/L races with the girls team that is going to represent NZ in the 2026 NYYC Women's International Regatta in IC37's (link below)

The General Lee is probably as close a boat to an IC37 as you will find in NZ so perfect for training. 2 Gun's and lots of learning while having a fun day!

4 Guns over 5 Races in 4 Days certainly keeps the crew smiling... even if we do at times have a gun in a knife fight!

Home On July 30, 1844, John Cox Stevens (1785-1857) and eight of his friends met aboard Stevens’ yacht Gimcrack, anchored off the Battery in New York Harbor. That afternoon, they established the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) and made three critical decisions that day: first, they elected Stevens as Commod...

Some cool drone photos from SSANZ and LiveSailDie during the first race of the Triple Series yesterday. Change of skipper from Tim Holgate to the "Mother Tucker" Sara who had a great day for an introduction to racing the Triple Series. The crew didn't fare as well but came right with a few medicinal rums!

It was a tough day on the water with a very light and changeable breeze today... but the mighty General Lee punched well above her weight. Despite being the 3rd smallest boat in RNZYS A Division we were second on line behind Mayhem a TP52. The MHO was sail of the day!

Sometimes it’s the little details that set a boat apart… and beautifully spliced ropes and soft connections are one of those things. If you need any thing clever with rope then you just can’t go past Robin at Caniwi Rigging!

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!