After the rush to get Passion X ready for the first twilight race last night I thought I would be ready for a rest today. I was wrong. I was up early registering my EPIRB with AMSA and following up suppliers who have been tardy with their bills. A stop at the local shopping centre for the Financial Review and a sit down coffee did not keep me quiet for long and I was soon home packing tools for a visit to Passion X on the mooring near Bay Street Greenwich. I rafted up at the club alongside friends who were also preparing for the Port Stephens Regatta and we were both having spinnaker gear fitted. Even with all the social activity and with people coming aboard for a look I managed a long list of small jobs.
It was a perfect day for on water work with little breeze which made rowing to and from the mooring a pleasant task. It was hot enough for the slow epoxy to set in four hours and many small supports were finally glued in place having been temporarily held on just the screws for the first race.
The final positioning of plumbing was completed in the head vanity unit with the end result much more pleasing that the first attempt. I did waste a lot of hose at almost $50 a metre in the process but it is finished to my satisfaction. I will upgrade the bilge pump hosing in time when I can find a product that is more robust than the local suppliers stock.
After some discussion with club members I realised that I have not said a lot about the sailing performance.
The mast, boom, vang and rigging were supplied as a package by Allyacht Spars from Queensland. They supplied the new rig for Passion in 2010 and I could not have been happier with that one. For the longer Passion X with more righting moment and a narrower base we had to have a stiffer lower section and that was achieved with a spectacularly well fitted sleeve for the bottom 5 metres. Right from the first sail the mast bend looked well suited to the yacht. The crane effect at the head is a little more pronounced than on Passion as we have an extra 550 mm between the top of the forestay and the mast head. With the extra leverage we do not need as much backstay to bend the head so we can have a bit of forestay sag in the light airs to induce camber in the genoa. The No 1 Carbon genoa off Passion looks superb on Passion X with a bit more forestay sag. Even with the bigger Passion X we have the same boom section because the attachment for the boom blocks are much further aft than on Passion.
We have shamelessly copied the Jeanneau 349 mainsheet bridle for Passion X. I have tried so many traveller combinations on Passion that I joke that I have a doctorate in travellerology. The bridle is attached to the cabin top through 36 mm of plywood. In anticipation of the bridle I extended the plywood doubler under the cabin top forward to the second laminated beam. That means the whole of the head area and the quarter berth ante room roof is 24 mm laminated plywood and there is an extra 12 mm plywood backer for the bridle bringing it up to 36 mm. So far with just two practice sails and one race it has worked very well but I will upgrade the blocks on the bridle so I can fit a larger shackle.
The carbon No 1 genoa fitted on the new yacht very well. As the J measurement is 200 mm longer there is less overlap and tacking was easier. I am not sure that our converted No 2 will sheet outside the stays as the No 1 only just clears the turnbuckles. It might sheet between the V1 and D1 but we will give it a trial as soon as there is enough breeze. The No 2 started life as a multiaxial aramid laminate but within a few months I added a lot of carbon tapes to it to convert it to a string sail. As such it is very well behaved with the draft not moving aft. As my sister in law says, it would not dare.
Our No 3 off Passion is a very fast sail for the 20 knot wind range but I wanted a woven sail for the heavy air durability so we purchased a Dimension Polyant Hydranet Radial to complement the other sails from the same loft. I will be keen to get it up in 15 knots plus. I am curious to see how much use we get from our No 2. And we will see how long I can resist buying a big No 1 to us up that spare 2 metres of track behind the No 1 sheeting position.
Our first race was in very light conditions and we were lucky to get our nose into the breeze around the Greenwich point corner ahead of the fleet. On the long beat from Cockatoo Island to Goat Island we had plenty of time to assess the fleet behind and from our perspective we were slowly pulling away from the J 35. We lost a little to the Dehler 44 with a too early tack onto a header but otherwise seemed to be holding them as Black Cat’ polar plots would indicate. The did catch us on the long square run home both due to the breeze gradient across the course and the fact that their polar plot shows the square run to be their best performing angle compared to Black Cat. So all seems to be going according to the polar plots. Our tacking angles were quite remarkable and better than I expected. No doubt the 200 mm deeper keel helps a little both with area and keeping the boat more upright. It will be good to show the plots when there is not such a big outrunning tide.
I have Laser racing this weekend and it seems a waste as there are some pretty windy conditions forecast for Sunday. I would love to be out in Passion X in that with the No 3 and two reefs in the main.
Note the bridle arrangement for the mainsheet. This was before the solid vang was fitted and that comes further back than the soft vang in this photo.
Another angle on the fat head main. It is really quite modest at just 1.0 metres wide.
Nice slot between the No3 and the main