Wednesday was a dreadful day with heavy rain for most of the daylight hours. We went to the club rather hoping that racing would be abandoned and the majority of the skippers voted with their feet and did not show.
On the wet pontoon we were endeavouring to negotiate a no show for all of our black fleet but our attempts were thwarted by the arrival of Joli. No wanting to give Joli a six point head start to the season Utopia and Passion X made a mad scramble to the moored yachts and made it to the start.
Joli because she was better prepared no doubt, took the lead and held it to the finish for a first and fastest. Well done Joli.
At the back of the three boat fleet we had abandoned hope but a good shift on the second windward work gained us some ground and rekindled our spirits.
Now it was cold and damp. The heavy rain had moderated and sailing was only mildly uncomfortable as we headed into Humbug for the work home.
As much as we tried we could not get in phase with the shifts in Humug as they were severe and often but midway through our luck changed and we worked the last half in one beat.
At the finish we were certain that all hope had been lost but that last shift got us over the line for second place on handicap just one second in front of Utopia. While a more generous result would have been a dead heat for second we will take the extra point.
My last significat progress on the hull of Passion XI was on Tuesday when I made full use of the available daylight hours and a couple of hours under lights. In that session I planked 2.7 metres of the second layer and in the process completed all the 6 mm planks. The remaining section needs two layers of 3 mm to bend around the tighter radius.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday provides some limited opportunity for external work during which time the temporary fasteners were removed and some limited cleaning and torture boarding started.
The torture boarding is more of a luxury at this stage but I am a little like small child unwrapping the presents as I cannot wait to get the glue off the joins and run the fairing battern over the surface.
Before the deluge on Friday I sent a morning fairing the first two layers of 3mm on the radius chine ready to take the next two layers. There is possibly a mornings work removing the remaining glue off the first two layers to expose clean timber ready for the next application of thickened epoxy..
When it rained I retreated under the tarpaulins and started tidying up the completed radius chine ready for filling holes and filleting the bulkheads to the new skin.
Tomorrow, Monday, a new work week starts and with the forecast promising sunshine I hope to be back on planking the hull.