Last year we took Passion X to Port Stephens just a month after launch and she was very much still a work in progress. We sailed well in the light airs but were no match for the fleet in heavier conditions. On the square runs our small spinnaker off Passion was undersized for the competition and the asymmetric off Passion could not be flown from the bowsprit.
Our trip home from Port Stephens in 35 knots was a bit difficult with the No 3 jib and triple reefed main so we dropped the jib and proceeded on triple reefed main alone.
This year we are better prepared for a wider variety of conditions. We have fitted the bowsprit which can now carry the asymmetric off Passion and a new headsail set flying which is a generous 60 m2. We have a larger mast head symmetric spinnaker of 130 m2 which is the largest we can fit on the rig and may even be too big if the air is really light.
For heavy air beating and cruising we have a No 4 jib which we used quite often over the winter in the RANSA Winter Wednesdays and in the Balmain Friday afternoon pursuit races. For light air we have a 149% No 1 genoa and the 140% No 1 off Passion is now officially our No 2.
All the sails are measured and the updated measurements are with the rating office waiting for the shock result to come out. I am over rating shocks as both the IRC and ORCi Club ratings seem unreasonably harsh and we have been unable to sail to the polars output from the ORCi VPP program except for light conditions beating and heavy air conditions off the breeze.
Our non spinnaker OSN rating is in between the rating of the Ker 11.3 twins, Dump Truck and Much Ado V, and while we have had a few rare wins against them it has generally been because of a lucky wind shift or a drift through the fleet. In a fresh breeze when they are well sailed they are significantly faster. A few data points from the ORCi certificates show why I have been perplexed at the rating. Dump Truck is 500 kg lighter and because it has no cabin and a lower centre of gravity bulb it has an overall centre of gravity half a metre deeper than Passion X. She has less wetted surface area, a carbon mast and laminate mainsail. Passion X only positive factor is 9 cm longer water line length I doubt that is much of a contributing factor since when the rating office by mistake used a longer water line length for Passion X by 70 cm the rating hardly changed. The sail areas are almost identical although Dump Truck gets their genoa area with a longer J and I measurement while Passion X gets hers with more overlap.
But back to Port Stephens where I hope the wider range of sail options will be a plus and let us perform over a wider range of wind conditions and wind angles than last year. If we are lucky there will be a lot of very tight reaching in light airs for our furling jib set flying to do its magic.
The new 130 m2 symmetric spinnaker is ready for the light air runs at Port Stephens
The No 2 genoa and Passion X with the bowsprit fitted
Tight reaching to the heads with the Code 0 set on the bowsprit
The new 149% LP genoa poled out for the run to Cockatoo Island
Last year our small symmetric spinnaker could not match it with the regatta competition