Hi folks,

As yachtyakka develops into a record of yachting stories from around the world. I have discovered just how many Kiwis have been involved in all sorts of yachting adventurers. The most well known off course was Sir Peter Blake.

I have been involved in yachting all my life and yachties like Sir Peter have been an inspiration of what we can do if we really want the adventure. During the round North Island race in February,  I decided to look a little closer to home to see who else I could discover and without going too far from G Pier Westhaven, I found Robbs Hielkema, a young man determined to do as much yachting as possible, my first yachtyakka sailor profile, Bill Miller the Stewart 34 Godfather, still at the age of 82 sailing as much as possible and in this issue another young yachtie with a sailing pedigree typical of many but the envy of most, BooBoo is already a legend.

Happy sailing,

Enjoy.

Yachtyakka Sailor Profile

65,000 sea miles, he knows how to travel in style!

Seen here on the mighty Hot Rod Waka on their way to a leg victory.

Hot Rod Stickers are now available

We all know him by his pen name BooBoo.

Josh Tucker has been on yachts all his life.

He has sailed on Maximus across the Atlantic, HugoBoss open 60 around Cape Horn & Volvo 60 in the Sydney Hobart

and

Round North Island 2 handed on Waka, Seen here collecting prizes.

Winning the Intergalactic 2008 SR26 Nationals on his SR26 yacht he shares ownership with 88proof – Chris Maddock the mighty Jagged Edge,

Has had numerous races on Higher Ground, arguably the fastest 35ft Hot Rod in New Zealand and too many others to name.

But here are a few trips he can remember:

Hamilton Islands, (can’t remember how many)

3 Sydney Hobarts,

3 Auckland Fiji/Noumea,

1 Transpac,

Antigua race week,

Cowes race week,

Cape Town to Rio,

Rolex Transatlantic,

Fastnet,

Middle Sea race,

Mega Yacht Cup Palma,

St Barts Bucket,

2 Kings Cup,

2 Koh Samui Regatta,

2 China Coast Regatta,

HK to Vietnam,

HK to Hainan (record holder),

Singapore Straits Regatta,

Cape Horn and Southern Ocean,

About 45,000nm in Deliverys,

65,000+nm in total offshore,

Ficker Cup (USA) Matchracing,

Harken Cup (aust) Matchracing,

2 Stienlager Line 7

6 NZ Matchracing Nationals,

Won the Y88,

Won SR26,

Won Ross 930,

Won Sportboat,

Won Magic 25 Nationals.

Below is a pictorial snap shot of this talented kiwi yachtie, sailmaker and soon to be dad.

Enjoy

 RNI prize giving for Waka

Where did all this start?

My parents built the boat in Christchurch and just after I was born the boat was launched and sailed up to Napier where myself and 4 brothers grew living on a farm just outside of Hastings.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VvYFV7C9g5A&feature=user

As both my parents were teachers, we used to take the boat away EVEY school holidays. Either up to the Hauraki Gulf or down to the Marlbrough Sounds. Amongst that and racing our P-classes and opti’s we spent every bit of spare time on boats.

My first trip down the Wairapa Coast was at the age of 2 (from what I have been told). These trips were so much fun and a lot of my first memories were in the Marlbrough Sounds. The boat underwent a major refit so we could live aboard it. During that time we used to take our fleet of dinghies to Lake Waikaremoana and camp for a few weeks at a time. Making little harbors for our boats and exploring every little inlet and river mouth, was what we looked forward to every year.

We moved on board the boat full time and headed down to the Marlbrough sounds (Via the Chatam Islands) and started our correspondence school program.

For the next 4-5 years we just cruised around on the boat between Golden Bay, Able Tasman, Queen Charlotte Sound Pelorus Sound, Mana and Wellington.

Dad built us a 12ft dingy which we set up with sails and 3 sets of oars. This broadened our horizons dramatically and we did many long adventures in that boat with the thoughts of swallows and amazons as our mentors as we investigated potential campsites and harbours. We even did a 40nm mission once in the dingy to get grocery’s, by the time we got back the bread was stale and milk rotten so the next Christmas we got a 5hp outboard! Man that made us invincible, we could go anywhere, anytime! Those were the days.

I really started to take an interest in yacht racing after seeing the Y11s racing in Wellington. I just had to do it. Doing bow on a mana based Y11 Slippery When Wet at the age of 14 was where it all really started. Then the Flying Circus, then onto the legendary  Whispers II where I eventually did the Tasman triangle, Southern Cross Cup and Sydney Hobart on at the age of 17 (just turned 17!).

After that I moved to Auckland to do the RNZYS youth training program and began a Sailmaking apprenticeship at Halsey Lidgard sailmakers. Another Sydney Hobart in 97 on Andiamo.

At the age of 21 I moved to South Africa to be a loft supervisor for Doyles Capetown and then Quantum Capetown. During that time I did the Cape Town to Rio race and return delivery which was a total of almost 8,000nm in 6 weeks.

2001 I got the opportunity to become the first mate on the Tripp 88 ‘Shaman’ for a cruise around the gulf of Alaska and down the west coast of the states. Truly amazing trip. Got as far as 65 degrees north and right into the ice.

After that I moved back to Auckland and started working at North Sails NZ running the repair department. Back to North sails where I was the manager for the second loft for 3 years from 02-05.

Then Maximus, and since then lots of other stuff.

His Jagged Edge he owns with 88proof (Chris Maddock)

A Little party he arranged on G Pier to celebrate the end of Summer 08

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FYlrtW2Xv6M

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/multimedia/image.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10494266

1st stop, With Waka owners Jonathan and Victoria

Winning the 2 leg to Wellington on the 2008 RNI

Hi Honey, are you OK?

Now engaged to Sara Robert from the RNZYS and they have baby due in August.

You don’t often find him without his Norths T shirt.

The next day, leaving Wellington in the 2008 RNI

He is also a regular writer of racing stories, here is his RNI leg 4 account.

After the disappointing result in Leg 3 of the Round the North Island race we were determined to give the last leg our best shot.

We got the boat sorted, dried out all the sails, fixed any little issues, then relaxed and hit the yacht club Bar.

Napier is my home town and where I was brought up sailing dinghies and cruising our family keelboat, up and down the coast, so this stopover was especially important to me. Some of my first memories are fishing off the wharf and catching crabs on the launching ramp while waiting for Mum and Dad to finish their 'few quiet ones' at the Yacht Club.

Napier had put on an awesome stopover with the best yacht club food I have ever eaten and jugs of rum and coke going around by the dozen. It was sad to say good bye but also a relief to be on the water again and into it.

View photos of the race

There was ZERO wind for the start but we managed to get away cleanly at the pin end and flopped our way into the lead with Ran tan along side. It took some of the boats over 30 minutes to cross the start line!

Waka and Ran Tan managed to get into the new NE wind first and took off to a handy lead.

Accompanied by a huge school of dolphins we sailed towards Portland Island hard on the wind in 8-10kts. Slowly but surely the 50fters cruised past us, then the 40fters. We managed to hold off all the other div 3 boats to lead our division around the island. A quick peel to the #2 headsail was followed by another peel to the #4 and shortly a reef as the wind rose to 20 then 25kts from the exact direction we wanted to go...

We had got quite used to this sail combination and knew that we would be fast but really uncomfortable.

We headed offshore as we knew there would be more breeze and the possible chance of a park-up inshore, slowly the breeze lifted and we ended up trapped offshore with a dreadful heading back in. So we just chugged away up the coast on port lifting the whole way. The conditions were actually quite horrendous, with a solid 20-25kts all night and the following day with a lumpy sea to go with it.

We really discovered how much the boat leaked as we bailed with buckets every hour. At one stage we left it for about two hours and ended up with a huge mission to get it dry again (the word 'dry' became a relative term) and a solid hour on the buckets, sails were floating around along with the bean bag, all full of water. The bailing was a low point of the race and bloody unpleasant. The water was sloshing right around the sides of the hull and actually landing on you from above! It was far too hot to wear the wet weather gear so you ended up getting soaked by either spilling half a bucket on yourself or getting caught out by a 'rouge wave' sloshing around inside the boat. No matter how you looked at it, it was just plain miserable.

This routine continued for the whole night and most of the next day.

Eventually after a few tacks we had East Cape in sight and could see 2 boats just ahead. These 2 ended up being Mrs Jones and Second Nature so we were pretty happy to have stayed with them for a 150nm dead beat in 20-25kts of wind. 40 hrs of hiking hard with very little sleep had paid off.

As the sun went down we were crossing tacks with the 2 boats in Hicks Bay before heading out into the middle of the bay of plenty. That night was uneventful and we just plodded upwind in 10-15kts of wind.

By morning the wind was very light and was shifting wildly around from the NE to the NW and back.

We tried to just stay on the making board at all times and just make as many miles towards Colville as possible.

As night fell the wind became really shifty and we ended up getting a huge 25kt puff out of the SW and laid thru to Colville, passing in between the Mercury Islands, with the good old sail combo of #4 and 1 reef.

We went around Colville just before sunrise with Danaide right behind us. We knew this because they relayed our VHF call to SSANZ sports radio.

Once again hard on the wind to Motuihe Passage with Danaide gaining rapidly in the fresh breeze, as the breeze died we went to the #2 and full main and managed to pull away just getting through before the tide changed giving us a gain on Danaide.

When we heard White bait call up at Colville we were ecstatic to hear that we were still ahead of them.

The wind got lighter and lighter and we hoisted a gennaker (for the first time since Wellington!) at the first container wharf fighting a 2 kt tide and a dead flat run in 0-5kts. It took us about an hour and a half to cover the last few hundred meters and we could see Danaide behind with a kite set making gains.

After crawling along the break wall to get out of the tide we crossed the finish line just after midday to a round of applause from the shore and some loud cheers for some of the crews of the bigger boats that had already finished and had been on the piss for a few hours.

The kite had only been up for a total of about 1 hr the whole 680nm from Wellington to Auckland and being the smallest lightest boat in the fleet we had struggled to keep up with the bigger boats upwind and just cracked.

It was awesome to finish but also very sad that that the whole event was over. It had been an epic 2 weeks with some awesome highs and some rock bottom lows.

We both had a real sense of achievement from this race and it was nice to not only finish but to do it with a good result in conditions that were far from suitable for a down wind boat.

Many people had told me that this was a madman's voyage in Waka, and all the comments like "I hope you have an up to date will" and "its ok you both have good looking woman so they will be able to find another bloke when you don't return....." had actually now became funny with no chance of becoming a reality! (well- we still had to survive the party on Cookie's launch....)

Although the conditions had made it as hard as possible for us, we were still 5th overall in a very competitive fleet, and took overall honours in the longest Leg from Mangonui to Wellington.

Huge Thanks have to go to Cookie and Steve Ashley for the efforts both on the water and in the 'shore based activities' at the bar. Also Cameron Thorpe for his time with the website.

All the organizers and supporters in each port made this event an absolute dream to compete in. There was nothing better than having a fresh person on board in each port to help you drop the sails and pack the boat up. There are too many to name so I won't start in far that I may leave someone out!

Will I be back? HELL YEAH!!!

Waka at the finish 2008 RNI

The winning SR26 crew of Jagged Edge

Most of the boats headed back to Bucklands Beach for the Dock party. We had 6 boats tied up on the loading dock ready to get on the rums and catch up with all the other SR owners and crews.
The Jagged Edge team took the Dock Party to a whole new level with a ludicrously loud sound system in a custom Box on the cabintop, pumping out enough noise that you could still hear it from the Fish and chip shop down the road and dance to it in the car park!

More here

http://www.crew.org.nz/NEWS/Local+sailing+keelers++multihulls/North+Sails+SR26+Nationals.html

Kiwi: Josh Tucker, upcoming dad, yachtie, sailmaker, enjoys life.

Sara you got yourself a good one here. Look after him!

He is the perfect ambassador and all around good guy.