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