Passion X

Passion X being weighed at Woolwich Dock

Passion X weighed in a little over 5,000 kg which was quite a bit more than the 4,600 kg I was expecting. Our ORCi Club certificate currently has a weight of 4,306 kg which means we will get the rating benefit of the extra 700 kg of weight and it will be interesting to see what that figure will be. So the good news is that the rating will improve quite a bit and the extra weight that has gone into the hull will ensure a long life for Passion X.
The bad new is that the speed targets on our ORCi Club certificate will be superseded with lower targets and the exciting 12.25 knots in 20 knots of breeze will not be realized.
I have a copy of a trial certificate for Black Cat, the 38 ft prototype of our Didi 40 Cr which shows a weight of 5,285 kg and a rating of 1.03. it is only a trial certificate and while the true weight of Black Cat may be 4,500 kg the trial certificate is based on the stated weight. If we plug in our 5,000 kg, increased hull overhang, more sail area and deeper keel we are going to get a figure higher than 1.03 but less than the 1.11 we have at present.
On the other hand we have to declare the larger spinnaker which may off set some of the improved handicap from the higher confirmed weight.

Of course we know that it is very hard to get all things equal especially when it comes to rating systems for yachts. Today with very helpful crew I was preparing Passion X for weighing for IRC and ORCi. To do this we needed to remove all the sails and loose items from the yacht. After two and a half hours we had removed most of the required equipment except for regulation safety gear that will be unloaded at dock side tomorrow.
The gear unloaded can be seen in the photo stacked up in the Greenwich Flying Squadron overnight. While the photo of the removed gear is impressive even more impressive is the photo showing the water line with the ship in light mode. Based on the water line I am guessing that we have removed 400 kg of sails and equipment and water. The water tanks were reading empty long before the pump stopped pumping so I guess there could have been 100 kg of water so that still leaves 300 kg for the equipment.
Again I am guessing that the sails and battens are 140 kg as we have three jibs, three spinnakers and a heavy main but that still leaves 160 kg of gear. At this stage we still have the Cat 7 anchor and rode on board and some mooring ropes.
Perhaps for the winter we should remove all the category 4 gear which included a separate set of life jackets, harnesses, tethers, man over board gear etc, etc, etc.
Now this gets back to all things being equal as the rating system only accounts for the unladen weight of the yacht so every item of comfort or safety on board is dead weight. As light as the melamine kitchen ware may be perhaps it is too heavy. Do we need so many knives and forks before the next offshore cruise? Should the spare blanket, and wet weather gear be removed for the winter?
None of this matters if we race a performance handicap system and have the same gear on the yacht from week to week. It only matters if we want to race IRC or ORCi and we get no allowance for cruising comfort or more durable (read heavier) sails.
Tomorrow is weighting day and we will see how our handicap improves.

Some of the gear removed from Passion X prior to weighing.

The water marks on the waterline show how much higher Passion X floats with the gear removed. There is probably another 40 kg to go before weighting.

A real close look at Passion X’s waterline

Last Wednesday the RANSA race was cancelled for lack of breeze. on the plus side we did get the mainsail back on Passion X and had a little beat to windward before the race was cancelled. Our three knots to windward in the light winds was not enough to convince the starters and it was a good call to send the fleet home. Our race around the islands on Friday with the Balmain Club was a slow event but we managed a lap of the course for a third place finish and managed to keep our nose in front of the Sydney 36 despite the best efforts of the Sydney Ferry to block our path to the finish line.

Saturday was a bonus sailing day with Kevin and Sue and Ian on Brisbane Waters. The light winds were enough to get us around the course but made for tricky conditions with many big gains and losses to be enjoyed or bemoaned as the case may be. Kevin’s Ross 780 beat the Adams X around the course while on Sunday in Passion X we could only beat two out of three of the Adams X’s.

Glassy water behind the crew of Kevin’s Ross 780

Sunday was a windy West Harbour Winter Series race and despite a losing a minute at the start we performed well. The 22 knots we saw before the start encouraged us to keep one reef in the main for the whole race while some of our smaller competitors braved the course with full mains. To our delight we held our ground downwind with the reef and pointed well in the flat water. A few hardy souls tried spinnakers but there were less and less on display as the race progressed.
I was pleased with the result on handicap as we had not performed so well in breeze on previous occasions. This time we finished mid fleet on PHS and were not last on ORCi. Allowing for the minute we lost at the start we would have been mid fleet on ORCi and I still expect this rating to reduce when Passion X is weighed.
I think the flat water assisted in managing the stronger breeze as I was able to feather into the gusts and still keep speed with great height. I have not been able to do this on the Wednesday races with a lot of the tacking in waves coming through the Sydney Heads.
We are on schedule to have Passion X weighed next Tuesday and will soon see what happens to our ORCi rating.
In other news Passion has been sold and while it was sad to see such a good yacht go we cannot be fleet owners. I hope the new owner gets as much pleasure as we have had from her.

On a wet and windy Wednesday there were only three starters in the Division 1s and five in the Division 1 who braved the conditions. We were not alone on the harbour as Prince Harry and assorted local dignitaries braved the awful conditions to promote the Invictus games and full credit to every one of them.
I had hoped that the 20 knot forecast breeze would swing to the east and give us a tight reach home but it was not to be so for another week we had a broad reach to the mark off Cannai Point and a solid slog home in wind and waves. With only a J133 and a TP 52 for competition it could have been a lonely trip but we held close to the J133 on the downwind leg and then let them get away another seven minutes on the windward leg home. We had some very nice tacking angles on the way home due in part to feathering the rig with the No 3 genoa and a reefed main into the breeze and in part to tacking on the knocks. We were hemmed in on the north side of the Sow and Pigs for a while but had a reasonable leg back to the southern shore.
While we always expected to be last on handicap the surprise was how close were the results. Passion X was only 45 seconds behind the second placed Duende. I had thought out on the water that we did well relative to them on the downwind leg and perhaps leaving the full main up until the turn was a good move so our 1.04 handicap is not too far off the mark and will be better next week at 1.035.
We are also closer to getting our ORCi Club rating adjusted and an IRC ratings as a weigh in is scheduled for the next fortnight. This might be a bitter sweet experience as a confirmation of the 1.11 rating will tell us we need to lift our game a lot and a much lower rating will tell us that our speed potential is not so stellar. During the construction of Passion X and tweaking of the design parameters with Dudley Dix I was aiming for a performance close to J122 yacht of 1.05 which is what the then fastest 40 ft yacht at Greenwich Flying Squadron was rated at. Since then Dump Truck came along with a 1.08 rating.
the best of both worlds would be a 1.08 rating and we crew on Passion X learning to sail at that level. It is also the rating of the Sydney 38 Blue Chip and its ilk and we have not beaten then yet.

Nice tacking angles in circa 20 knots kept us close to the fleet on handicap

What a beautiful day to go sailing! Sunny skies and a light breeze made for a most enjoyable afternoon for the West Harbour Winter Series. After the last scheduled race two weeks ago was abandoned for lack of wind the starter took the precaution to set the short courses so we had just over 100 minutes on the course.
We lined up for a start at the boat end and a long way back so when a big header came we had to tack back to preserve our position. Then the breeze died and left us a minute short of the line. At least we were free to tack at the line and make up half of our deficit by the first mark. Most of the legs of the course were tight reaches or hard on the wind but we set the big yellow spinnaker on the two short square legs and held out the genoa on another short square leg.
On the first tight reach we caught lot of yachts whose skippers were trying to fly spinnakers while we chose to two sail reach. This was the pattern for the rest of the race so that by the finish we had moved up to second fastest but a long way behind the MD 35. Our eighth place on handicap out of a fleet or 15 finishers was encouraging and we were not last on ORC scoring.
There is room for improvement. The one minute lost at the start could be avoided and we can be faster with the spinnaker hoists. One drop we left until we had gybed and that made it harder to control and pull down the sock. A Quick drop on the square run would have saved a few more seconds. Potentially there was one place we could have saved on ORC and two places on PHS.

There was a few short windward works and the angles on two of these were something spectacular so perhaps there is also ground to lose a few places.

Some very good tacking angles on two of the short windward works

We scored a fourth place in the windy RANSA Winter Wednesday race this week due to the non appearance of the larger yachts in the fleet and gear trouble on Blue Chip. I would like to say that we went faster for this result and to some extent that is true. With a reef in the main and the No3 genoa set we were first of the small trio in the fleet to the bottom mark. We don’t expect to keep pace with a TP52 in any conditions and we did not but we did beat Blue Chip and Sorcerer on the windy running leg. At the turn for the beat home we put a second reef in the main and settled down for the long slog. Even with two reefs we were overpowered and the X-Yachts 442 Sorcerer which is twice our weight and had twice as much ballast was just too powerful into the wind and waves. Blue Chip looked to draw away well but had trouble with a genoa and changed down to a nice No 4 jib. After the change they were quick and so quick that we failed to catch them. Their delay did however put a big enough dent in their elapsed time for us to beat them on handicap.
I thought we sailed well for our weight and would be happy if it was not for the ORCi velocity predictions which say we should match Sorcerer and Blue Chip to windward. Perhaps we are still too overpowered with the No 3 genoa and as a result have the main flogging too much and creating too much drag but if anything Blue Chip with one reef and Sorcerer with none did better in the light area around Shark Island.
Looking at our performance against Blue Chip over five races and Sorcerer over four races we appear to be averaging about 1.03 rating compared to our ORCi of 1.11.
We did well in the one light air race and could easily add a light air No 1 Genoa to the wardrobe to improve that performance and a heavy air No 4 jib might give us a couple of minutes in the stronger breeze but I struggle to see where we can make up 8 minutes to sail to our rating.