Wednesday was a challenge both for the officials and the contestants. The breeze had been above the forecast all day but was due to subside around start time. As it had backed off a little the race started on longish courses as befits a windy night and we all finished in the light.
With our tiny crew of four with two on light duties it was a challenge but we managed well due to the heroic efforts of Kevin who was treating it as a Laser race.
Elaine and Frank did great jobs grinding in the No 3 jib despite the windy conditions. I did promise Frank that I would but larger winches on the next boat and we will definately go up a size to 50’s.
For the night we swapped the mainsheet to the port side so that the No1 reef line could be kept on the starboard winch and that worked well in keeping the foot flat.
Most of the fleet sailed with a reef although Utopia did not and Joli took her reef out in the pre start. This I had not noticed but once in Humbug Joli took off. This was a good thing and a bad thing as leading the fleet Joli sailed the White board course and left the rest of us to sail all the way to Spectacle Island.
It was a quick trip to Spectacle, Snapper and back to Goat where we passed the Blue Fleet which means we did the extra miles in 5 minutes.
Out in front of the Blue Fleet was Hula pretending to be a Farr 40 or something. To be fair we did pass her around Goat but once on the work home she took off showing her Black Fleet capabilities. I do like to tease DJ about that.
We went wide around Goat Island and were still in the hunt with Jackpot and Meridian at the red bouy but on the way home we were not as nimble with the tacking on the shifts.
Irukandji was more nimble and passed us up the work to Cockatoo but we almost caught her once on the free leg back to Humbug.
Unlike last weeks purgatory, Humbug was more foregiving and apart from letting the big Hanse 400 run over us no damage was done and there was no last minute recovery for Sweet Chariot.
At the finish we managed a second on handicap which was very pleasing for such a small crew.
Back at the building site progress has been very measured as I have been battling a persistent ear infection and the antibiotics are knocking me about. While working at a more measured pace I have made a lot of progress but no torture boarding. Notable jobs have been finishing the king plank doubers inside the hull and making the keel shoe out of spotted gum to go between the plywood skin and the steel fin. I have yet to shape the side of the keel shoe that goes against the hull as the shape forms a curve in profile as it intersects the V of the bottom. It is ready to be shaped in profile and there are new sharp blades in the Makita. They will be needed as the timber is very hard indeed.
Today I shaped the last of four layers of 32 mm meranti that form the bow. From by stockpile I selected some medium density for the first two layers up agains the 36 mm of plywood at station 0 and some very dense merati for the front two layers which will take the bolts for the forestay fitting. The hard timber was hard going and as I glued and faired each of the four layers individually it was a four day job.
The glue in the last layer cured overnight so today I changed the blades in the Makita and spent four hours planing by machine and by hand and sanding by machine and by hand until I could do no more.
As an escape from the hard work of hand planing I have been working on the companionway steps. This all started because as I was selecting timber for the bow I spotted a length that was pretty tough but straight grained and thought that would make a good set of steps. And so it is that they are made in plenty of time for epoxy coating and varnishing before they are put into use when the hull is turned.