Every year at this time, the Classic Yachts and Launches of the CYA race down and anchor at Patio Bay and enjoy a great knees up for Christmas.

The old girls (Wooden boats !) and their owners enjoy a few cold ones on their boats together before heading to shore to Bert and Margaret Woollicotts family Bach.  Several Barbeques are setup(with wood) and everyone does their own thing.

Click on the images for hi res or a slideshow

Alan and I are both ex Launch Captains of the CYA and have been on the committee and helped organise different parts of this great annual event.  My old boat Rorqual was still in bits in mid restoration by my son Andrew, so I was really pleased to be able to go down with Alan on his 1928 Lanes launch, Raindance.

After getting things ready at Bayswater marina, we headed off to the start line of the yacht race at Orakei Wharf. It was going to be a long day as there was absolutely no wind. The sea was flat calm.

Alan at Bayswater getting ready to go.

Alan preparing his #1 tender “Peg”

Peg behind with the Auckland Harbour bridge behind.

The start boat Wild Duck with Tony on the bow

We hung around for 20 minutes or so to get some pictures and then handed down towards Waiheke. After a couple of hours or so so later, we arrived at the bottom end of Waiheke with quite a few boats already there, mostly from the day before making a weekend of it. The weather was just stunning even a little too hot.. Everyone was looking for shade and there was no wind at all.

We visited Roseanne and Brian on their boat Silens which as anchored just behind us and later were visited by our friend Richard from the Devonport Yacht Club.

Around 5, the yachts had finally arrived and we headed into shore to enjoy a meal from heaven that Alan had already prepared. …Alan’s a great cook and is legendary for his skills in the galley 😀

A great night of catching up with old friends and we later headed back to Raindance.

In the morning, we were visited by Steve who had sailed down from Mahurangi for the event.  Alan cooked up a great feed of Baked Beans on toast and several cups of tea to blow the cobwebs out for all three of us.

By 9ish, we were under way for the 3hr trip back to Bayswater.  A great couple of days and nice to see everyone.

See Alan’s blog Waitematawoodys.com for more.