By SUZANNE McFADDEN
It was a slow start but with three days of relaxation ahead, who cared?
As hundreds of yachts slipped onto the Waitemata to shake off the winter yesterday, the wind took a holiday too
Some of the 226 entrants in the Lindauer Coastal Classic race to Russell took 40 minutes
to reach the startline.
Olympic bronze-medallist boardsailor Barbara Kendall fired the start gun from Devonport Wharf, but the smoke had gone by the time some of the smaller boats crept across the line.
Fellow bronze-medallist Aaron McIntosh, hoping to break the Auckland-Russell record on a windsurfer, gave it away after five hours. In that time he had gone only a fifth of the distance.
Last night, after McIntosh had reluctantly given up, a 15-knot wind appeared from nowhere and pushed the bigger boats on their way.
But the 7h 20m race record was safe as the race leader, round-the-world yacht News Corporation, was still off Cape Brett.
McIntosh said he was "really gutted" when it took him 5h 20m to get as far as Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
It was just like Sydney Harbour less than a month ago, when light winds made his Olympic campaign that much harder.
"The weather just isn't doing it my way lately. It's not fair," he said.
"When you're on a board you can't go below deck and have a nap, waiting for the wind to come.
"At least it was a beautiful day."
And that was enough for most people yesterday at the arrival of the holiday weekend. After a winter of a falling dollar, struggling business confidence and a disappointing Olympics for Kiwis, it felt like summer was just around the corner.
