Richmond Yacht Club Summer Series

Winter must be passing - the Richmond Yacht Club, who sail on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour certainly think so. The winter series is behind us and the summer begins real soon - officially on Wednesday 29th September.



We will be out again - see the post at Kerkira-Racing.

Looking forward to some new quotes too - but to refresh your minds, here is a sampling:

• Ian "Creamy Havarti or Gruyere?"
• Dave: "We're all over them, like hair on soap"
• Someone else "We are trying to start, you know..." and "Starboard!"
• John "Where's the pole?"

Metzeler M5 at Hampton Downs

What a glorious winters day! I took photos in the afternoon - I was kinda busy in the morning ;-)


I headed over to Dave's early arriving around 7:00AM - my fingers were absolutely frozen - my soft riding gloves are not for winter mornings. We loaded the bikes on the hire trailer, broke the ice away from the car windscreen (I kid you, not), and swooshed in luxury (and warmth) down to Hampton Downs (where the California Superbike School operates) to a day put on by the Hampton Downs Rideday crew.


Hampton Downs puts on a spectacular day in the Waikato.

Chicken Strips Gone

Some posts ago I was talking about the new Metzeler M5 Interact tyres that I had won at the Taupo Motott weekend in April - well they got their first outing at the track, just to round out the experience, and of course, the review.

I had said before that the tyres gave me great confidence with their grip, and on the excellent Hampton Downs track surface they did not let me down. What a fantastic day - great for the soul! The tyres: The morning was cold and the day was clear, so the track would be heating up later, but for the first outing (6x 20mins throughout the day) I dropped the pressures to 30psi and completed 2 full rounds before getting brave. The tyres never let me down - you could feel them heat up and by the third pass the Ducati was on rails.

I quickly dispatched the chicken strips on the right side of the tyre - Hampton Downs is flush with right hand turns - and I had to work hard to get the left side. Whatever... that wasn't the point of the rideday - I felt comfortable and confident with traction always available.



Funnily enough I have Metzeler Marathon 880's on the cruiser - and they also gave excellent service at Hampton Downs back in November last year when I did my first California Superbike School level.

Floating Dock Westhaven

Time to do the maintenance before the summer comes - so Queen's Birthday this year was mostly spent on the floating dock at Westhaven, Auckland. Kerkira is a Lotus 9.2 (30ft) - a cruising design with a Bukh 20hp diesel powering a saildrive unit.


An excellent service at Floating Dock Services 09) 379 0934

This year the sacrificial anode on the sail-drive needed to be changed - I note that the rate of corrosion of the zinc anode doesn't seem as high as a couple of years ago when I was on the pile moorings. Of course the anti-fouling and touch-ups around the hull were the other out-of-the-water jobs. The weather was not good for the long weekend, which curtailed some of the tasks I could do outside, but managed a couple of good layers of No. 5 Seaport Blue where it counts.

On a boat / on a boat... the floating dock was certainly exposed to the rolling waves coming into the Westhaven Marina precinct from the North, however everything was fine and the floating dock provided a stable working platform.

Mike, who is looking after the dock while Ken is recuperating was very accommodating and we left the floating dock on the Monday morning.

Heat Pumps and Family Energy Usage

We are with Mercury Energy, and you can download your power bills and get your energy usage. I have graphed ours over the past 3 and a half years. This is 2 adults and 2 adult children, living in Auckland.



Its obvious that the heat pumps made a direct impact on the electricity usage when we put them in at the end of June last year. Since November 2009 we have dropped to 2 adults and no kids, so we hope to keep the power consumption down to under 20 KW Hrs per day.

I have linked to a copy of my Energy Usage Spreadsheet [MyEnergyUsage.xls EXCEL 43KB]

The Mercury Energy price plans can be checked using this wizard.

Metzeler M5 Interact

I have the tyres on the bike! I decided to wait a couple of weeks until the Metzeler M5's came into the country, and they duly arrived and were fitted by Haldanes to my black Ducati 916 on Friday.

Thanks again to Chris Mitchell Motott and Malcolm Gray at Forbes and Davies for having this great prize available. That's great support from the industry back to us riders.

The weekend was meant to be wet, but turned out to be just grey and overcast, but no rain - apart from a sprinkle overnight Saturday.

Mother's Day

And Sunday was Mother's Day after all... I had to go and see my Mum - it was just a matter of deciding the route ;-)


View Larger Map

I stopped at Manurewa to check the warmth of the tyre - they were evenly warm across the tyre running 32psi F 36psi R, a little bit of motorway, but basically town running - so no hard braking or cornering. I was breaking them in after all, so I was taking things carefully. Once on the road through Clevedon to Kawakawa Bay I started to lean on them a bit more. The road over the hill to Kaiaua was wet (I guess from the night before) so I was very careful not to push the fresh tyres in the damp conditions. Once over and running along the Kaiaua coast I found that the grip was growing and after a couple of 'push' feelings through the front, the bike was feeling very solid under me.

A stop in Ngatea and the tyres had definitely warmed up - they were quite hot to hold on to, and that heat was evenly distributed across the tyre - even accounting for the straight roads leading into Ngatea.


This is the before shot - delivery km's only.

The road back was up to Kaiaua, through Mangatawhiri and Hunua and home. The tyres really came in and I was comfortable and in control. That being the case, I was also relaxed and the bike, suspension and ride seemed smoother and easier than ever. I put that down to the tyres. I am looking forward to pushing them a bit more at a trackday.

Ferrari Scuderia

A cunning likeness to a Ferrari Scuderia I met at Mangatangi.

Leaving Kaiaua there was a car in the distance, and usually they get closer - but this time it stayed in the distance - this had to be investigated, so picking up the pace a little I caught my quarry and then went ah hah! - it was a Ferrari... all 500bhp of it.

To you Mother's everywhere - have a nice day!

I was a bit cheeky turning up at lunchtime - thanks Mum.

Supercity Logo vs Villian

The Auckland Supercity logo has been chosen, so we are going to play a little game of "One of these things is not like the other".

Supercity Competition

Can you guess which one of the above is the odd one out?

Here are some hints to get you going...

• Governance
• Cost Savings
• Unity
• Economic Growth
• Future Domination
• Lovely Trees
• Executive Power
• Competing on World Stage
• Size Matters

Tricky eh!

Taupo Motott Track Day

As noted in an earlier post, we had a fantastic day at Taupo, with great weather and fine company! There were those who may have wished they had stayed at home...

Out but Not Down

As noted regarding the knee-sliders which remain in pristine condition, I was trying to get the knee down and have yet to master the technique, although I am sure that it is just a matter of coordinating a few muscles with a few brain-cells... I'd better hurry then...

Down but Not Out

It is critical to warm up the tyres to ensure that they can provide the traction performance that we require, so the first couple of rounds when the tyres are cool, we don't want to ask too much. Regarding traction and cornering, there is, from a physics point of view, a certain amount of dynamic traction available to us as we charge into a turn - potentials available to us tyres, surface, suspension, our COG and then steering, braking (speed) and body position inputs that we make as riders.

OK so 'charging in' probably wasn't the right term... but from time to time the environment we ride in can be challenging - an unexpected reducing radius, some dodgy road surface or even a race track where we are able to go as fast as physics allows... It was only later in reviewing the photos that I saw that someone quite close behind me was doing his own experiment with physics and losing.

Eyes Front

Interestingly you may note the rear view mirrors are on the Ducati in this shot. Later in the day (see first photo and below) I removed the mirrors and thereby the temptation to look behind, when all in front is where my attention should be.