A lot has happened in the two weeks since my last post. We have had some of the family home for Christmas and then on the 27th headed up to Lake Macquarie to help out with the Australian Laser National championships. The regatta was mostly fine with light winds but the rain arrived for the last two days and the weather system developed into an east coast low after the regatta.
Waiting for wind on the finish boat at the Australian Laser National titles on Lake Macquarie
We brought Passion out of Lake Macquarie at the first high tide on the morning after the regatta and made a dash for the safety of our swing mooring at Woolwich in the west harbour. The trip out through the Swansea bar was fairly lumpy but the wind and wave was from straight ahead and the sea state had not yet built up to unmanageable proportions. Once through the heads we turned south, let out two thirds of the furling genoa and headed south. The winds were at the top end of the forecast range and hit 30 knots regularly at which times we made 8.1 knots over the ground. As forecast the breeze abated in the afternoon as we approached Sydney harbour and we made less speed with the full genoa and fifteen to twenty knots of wind.
Much of the trip was in rain so we left the wet genoa on the furler until today when the sun returned and the wind died allowing for a pleasant conversion of Passion back to racing mode.
Wednesday was a sad day for sailors with the loss of a crew member from Amante which was returning from the race to Coffs Harbour. Four of the yachts from Greenwich Flying Squadron sail against Amante in the RANSA winter Wednesday series so the loss of a fellow sailor hits home.
Wednesday was wet and windy even on land and at West Pennant Hills our high rainfall made the evening news. The back yard was flooded and water was flowing under the upturned hull so physical work was impossible. I took the time to order up timber for the deck of the yacht and to play around with the water system. Thursday was still too wet and humid for epoxy painting so I spend a few hours sanding and installing the water inlet pipes for the two fresh water tanks. Much of today was spent on Passion but I managed to install the two settee berth backs. These are specified as 6mm plywood but I increased it to 9mm as the box sections formed with the 6 mm shelves, the 12 mm skin and the 9 mm settee backs forms very strong anchoring for the chainplates.
The 9 mm ply settee backs are now glued to the frames and shelves forming a strong box section to anchor the chainplates.
Another view of the 9 mm ply settee backs that form the box section around the chainplates on our Didi 40 Cr