Wednesday provided some excitement when the breeze came in just on start time when everyone had their big rigs on for the light winds forecast. We hung in well with the big boys for the work to Cockatoo and did well on the run back to Goat by going wide around Cockatoo Island and doing the same around Goat Island. We were looking good at Long Nose on the way home with Utopia and Joli just ahead and Meridian a little way back. Jackpot and Agrovation were battling it out for the lead some way ahead but both of these have to give us a lot of time.
Somehow from just a little behind we missed the cut off for entry to Humbug. Perhaps our tickets to ride had expired but there we were with no wind and only an incoming tide bringing us in with similarly disappointed crews. We did manage a mini break over Meridian on the way through and pulled ahead of the Blue Fleet boats Worlds Apart and French Connection. Somehow these yachts had better connections and came at us at the finish line with wind from behind. If that was not bad enough the wind increased and Sweet Chariot came through Humbug like a rocket.
Oh well! There is always next week.
Back home progress on building the new Passion XI had to be fitted in with the rain. On Friday I had help from the crew with torture boarding the port side. We started in the middle as that was under cover and after lunch I called it a day. The call was premature however as the sun came out and as the covers were already almost off the stern I attacked the aft quarter with a vengance and so much so that I needed the weekend off to recover.
Monday had rain forecast and in anticipation we had scheduled a visit the the keel fabricator to discuss a plan of attack. The visit went well but it was still raining back at the construction site so not much to show for the day.
During the rainy patches I have completed an initial clean of the radius chine on the inside and patched all the temporary holes ready for filling from the topside. Along the way I have been cleaning up sections of the interior, sanding stringers and generally fiddling. To be fair it all has to be done sometime and better to be done when it is wet outside.
Keeping with the theme of inside jobs I have installed the doublers on both sides of the king plank. These are 55 mm by 19 mm spotted gum and are have a high crushing strength so ideal for supporting the keel bolts.
The final job for Friday was to mark out the keel shoe ready to fit it to the hull. I have to take the “V” off the bottom of the hull to prepare a flat section for the keel shoe and then glass over the strongback and bed the keel shoe in place. This is all under cover so an ideal job to fit in with the showers and one I hope to have well finished by next week.