It has been busy days since my last post. Saturday was Club Championships in the Lasers at Gosford Sailing club. Sunday Elaine and I rafted up Passion alongside Passion X and transferred a lot of personal gear across. Monday the riggers finished the lifelines and the electrician connected up the masthead gear. We finished that on Tuesday, commissioned the autopilot and then welcomed on board the auditor for our Category 7 safety check. After the audit I finished the plumbing in the head and gave it a trial test. Wednesday was finishing some hose clips and tidying up some piping runs before a last test sail at 1:00 pm. The test sail went well and we made a note of a few minor adjustments to make before the race proper at 6:05 pm.
We made a good start but there was no wind in Humbug so the fleet drifted trough. At the exit to Humbug we managed to get first use of the breeze and took off with the J35 Soundtrack close behind. It was like that all the way to Goat Island where we opened up a lead on Soundtrack but surrendered some distance to the Dehler 44, Meridian. On the run back to Humbug we were running away from a dying breeze which meant the whole fleet was catching. By the entrance to Humbug Meridian drifted past and we were becalmed waiting for wind which never arrived. What wind there was brought Soundtrack up to our stern and it was all we could do to hold them out for second fastest.
Soundtrack sailed very well in the conditions. Her big overlapping genoa worked well in the light air running while our No 1 carbon sail is more of a bullet proof job.
All the crew seemed happy with the way the boat performed and it was extremely well behaved.
Crew with new crew shirts posing on the back of Passion X