Archive for September 2023
The glimmer of hope for the RANSA Winter Wednesday series grew a bit brighter with the forecast of a brisk North West wind. For several days before the last race the forecast showed the North West wind direction ahead of a strong southerly change for the Thursday. The RANSA course for the prevailing wind is a broard reach to the heads and a tight reach back to Steele Point with works to Point Piper and from Shark Island home. Reaching in a strong breeze is one of the strong points of the Dudley Dix designed Passion X so my mood for the series was growing brighter.
On the day the breeze was gusting to 25 knots so we set the No 3 jib and full hoist main. We were further encouraged when our main rival, Alibi, also set a small jib so that if the breeze did die we would be in different boats but in the same situation.
With the gusty winds we were late at the start with only Amante and Britannia up on the line. Britannia was up and planing away from the fleet while we tailed Amante all the way to the heads.
The tight reach back to Steele Point was good for us as we caught Amante but could not get clear ahead and so rounded the Rose Bay mark in their dirty air. The work to Point Piper looked to be a single board but a late header sent Amante and us into the shore where we had to tack away.
The reefed Joli was lurking close behind with the reefed Allegro further back. Our rival Alibi was not to be seen and Agrovation was unusually back in the fleet.
From Point Piper we chased Britannia who was chasing Amante.
Amante had the jib nicley poled out to starboard while we stayed on port with the jib flying to windward and delayed out gybe until we were clear of the wind shadow. We just failed to clear Britannia but after the rounding went low and through their lee.
Out in front Amante was extending her lead while we were inching away from Britannia and watching Joli creep up on both of us. Allegro was a few minutes further back but Alibi and Agrovation had disappeared from view.
Over the radio we heard that Alibi had retired but with such a small fleet were unsure if we had enough points in the bag.
After the race we celebrated our second fastest with two bottles of sparkling wine and motored around looking for our divison finishers of whom there were few.
Back at Greenwich we heard the sad tale of the collision between Alibi and Agrovation and saw first hand the damage and then the results came out.
We had managed to get enough seconds in front of Britannia to beat them on handicap for second place which sealed the series for us.
It was a relief after many weeks of long beating courses to have a reaching one that suited Passion X.
A big thanks to the crew who have kept us in the race all season.
Back on the new Passion XI project, the Dudley Dix designed Didi 120, it has been a bit of an anticlimax after the excitement of getting the engine installed on the day it arrived. There is a lot to do and so much that I had stopped doing lists.
I had left the cabin front off until the engine was installed so that we had the extra exit if needed. Now that the engine was sitting on the bearers I was able to do the two layers of 6 mm ply in a single session and leave the laminated ply for a few days to cure well.
A heatwave had hit Sydney but the transom was under a tarpaulin and so it was a pleasant area work and a lot of work was needed. I like the big picture projects where acres of plywood can be glued down in a day but the transom is the opposite of that. Small infill pieces need to be glued between the stringers and then the inner 6 mm layer of ply glued in place. Next a 12 mm capping piece goes over all the fiddly bits to seal the stringer end grain and all the infill glue joins. To ensure a neat fit I made up some dummy capping pieces and covered them with masking tape and then used these to ensure that all the small infill pieces were in perfect alignment.
In the process all the bare timber had to be epoxy sealed including the inside of the 6 mm ply inner skin.
As an extra insurance policy I added a second layer of 6 mm ply to the inside curve. The transom step on Passion XI is so narrow that the inside curve at the transom is a small triangle of plywood and an extra 6 mm layer a tiny addition of weight for long term peace of mind.
In the hot weather and looking for small tasks I tackled the third stub floor under the kingplank forward of the mast. The first two went well but this third one was at the narrow end and had very restricted access. After removing a slot for the stub floor to pass through the web I thought I might have missed my calling in life as it seemed much like dentistry including the sound of the multipurpose tool. All three are done and done so well.
Tomorrow is another day and I might start work on the cabin top joinery where there are fore and aft stringers to be added. These will capture the cabin top hatch and provide good handholds for the crew climbing across the cabin top. That leads back to the companionway hatch and as the engine is in I can complete that. So many jobs to choose from.
Our race on the 6th September was a forgettable one. Out problems started when Alibi on port refused to tack until dead in our tracks. It was Gold medal racing at its finest and my only regret is that we did not have an international judge waving flags for penalty infringements. Maybe they did get around in time and maybe they did go to a close hauled course before pinching up but for our amateur crew the action was too fast to get a crew down to release the genoa so we went to a hove to position on port in the line of oncoming starboard tackers.
From there it got worse as we were now deep in the starboard tacking fleet and the only option was to take a few sterns and get away from the chaos. From here we were not going to win any prizes and to make matters worse a Div 2 boat who was left lots of room to tack for the mark insisted on putting us about before they reached down to the mark. This was pretty senseless as we reached over them on the next leg anyway.
Boat wise we were satisfied with boat speed and put our misfortune down to choosing a start position with too much traffic to cross.
Our result was another drop and a third drop in four races where the only result we carried was a seventh.
Our race result on the 13th was entirely our own doing as we were amongs the leaders half way up the first work. We tacked away from Allegro as we entered a light patch while they carried on for another 100 metres into a nice shift lifting all the way to the top mark. Joli very astutely tacked to the Steel Point shore even further into the progressive shift and came away with a good result.
We were in good breeze and on a progressive lift and based on the forecast were confident that the breeze would oscillate. Poor deluded fools that we were, we gave up hope as we approached the lay line and tacked away into a header when if we had gone well past the lay line we would have reached in with good breeze.
In the small fleet and with the tail becoming becalmed we managed to salvage a sixth place and only drop a further two places behind Alibi who were on duty.
That leaves us three places adrift of first place but with a big handicap disadvantage to overcome. Still miracles do happen and we hope for one in the last race this coming Wednesday.
Away from the race track progress has been more rewarding with the cabin top two layers of 6 mm ply laminated in place and the hatch and window openings cut out. Inside the engine bed area has been epoxy primed with three coats of high build and the seacocks for the engine intake and galley outlet installed.
To make installing the engine more comfortable I added an additional support under the transom area, which I did before going under the hull to install the seacocks, and cut, epoxy primed and installed additional flooring.
While epoxy priming the engine bed area I mixed up extra paint to touch up the V berth area, the chart table and the deck underside in a couple of lockers. It does make quite a difference having the extra white areas and less bare plywood.
At 10:30 am today the engine arrived and as I had a couple of crew primed to help I made the calls and it was all go go.
While waiting for help to arrive I drove the engine which had been delivered onto the top of my trailer, around to the back of the house and backed the trailer up to the transom of the hull. I then prepared the lifting gear and took a deep breath waiting for help to arrive.
With great care we lifted the engine on two chain blocks and by repositioning the chain blocks we manouvered the engine into the hull. The last step was to install cross beams through the window openings and to relift the engine with one chain block and then swing it onto the engine mountings.
All went to plan and the engine is bolted down to the engine beds waiting for the galley furniture to be built around it.
With that out of the way I could remove the flat top from my Laser trailer and put the Laser back on ready for the weekend sailing.
The last three weeks results at RANSA have all been discards so our position at the top of the leader board is under threat. It does not help our prospects having to give time to the three closest yachts in the contest.
We have a reason for the week before last when we won the run to the heads by a good margin but gave it away with a tear in the leech of the genoa which caught on every tack and got progressively longer and more difficult all the way home. It should have been a good result but for the rip.
Last week was more routine but we did get the geno sheets jammed in the windward block and could not get it sheeted in consistently. That was a minor issue and our tacking angles from the chartplotter were pretty special so the rest of the fleet must have been more special.
On the boat project I laminated up two layers of 6 mm ply to the shape of the cabin top and cut the doublers from these laminated and curves sections. By careful trimming I was able to get the doublers to a friction fit in the spaces and glue them to the first layer of 6 mm ply when that was installed. As of 1st Sept all the first layer of 6 mm ply is glued to the cabin top and all the 12 mm doublers are installed. At this stage I need to install the first layer of the sloping front of the cabin and then do the second 6 mm layer.
The other big job for the week was to glass in the engine beds to the hull. This calls for four layers of 420 gsm double bias on the corners and intersection with frame G where the engine beds join. Aft of frame G the beds run parallel and close to the cabin walls for the head and the quarter berth. That called for some very patient fibreglassing.
After glassing in the engine beds I decided to reinforce the strongback with three layers of 425 gsm double bias to give some cross grain reinforcement. the stern tube was already covered with three layers so it was a straightforward process to extend the laminates fore and aft for extra durability in these hard to access areas.
Shaping the front of the cabin is quite time consuming as clamps have to be built up from layers of plywood and then shaped to the cabin front slope after the glue is well cured. The timber stingers that tie the sloping cabin front to the 12 mm ply sided require careful fitting for an exposed timber finish and I counted five different surfaces that had to be fitted to the cabin top and all with fine glue lines.
While waiting for the glue on the cabin front stringers to cure I have cleaned up the glass around the engine beds ready for the epoxy paint and marked out the cabin side portlights so I can get better ventilation while applying the epoxy.