We had a lovely time sailing to Newcastle and Port Stephens for Sail Port Stephens, a good regatta and a pleasant transit back home via an overnight stop in Pittwater. Along with preparing Passion X for the trip with an engine service and provisioning the event took up two weeks.
This year’s Newcastle to Port Stephens race was our best result on ORCi club since launch. I have removed the Code Zero from the rating and that helped a little and we were pleased to finish mid fleet. On Scratch we were tenth and just a few seconds behind the J111 Black Sheep and a couple of minutes in front of the Farr 30 Nocleks. The reaching leg suited Passion X and we were unable to repeat the performance in the regatta at Port Stephens. We were however mightly pleased with our fifth place.
One day back and the RANSA Winter Wednesday started. With a strong north westely breeze the course had two long reaching legs which again suited Passion X. Initally the two sports boats blasted away for a sizeable lead at the top mark while we rounded with Amante. The positions held up to the turn in Rose Bay when we started beating to windward. Amante leapt ahead but we performed well in the conditons with the No3 jib and a reef in the mainsail. Before long we had overtaken the over powered sports boats and maintained our break on the fleet. The second fastest to Amante and first on handicap was a pleasing result but the handicapper penalised us a full percentage which came into play this week.
This week the breeze was a more traditional West South West with a broader reach up and a work all the way back. After a good start we lost the wind out wide and never fully recovered . We did manage to round the top mark with Allegro, Crosshaven and Amante. Love Byte and Alibi were also in the mix making the rounding very tricky.
We worked back doggerdly picking up yachts as we could and were pleased to pass the Sydney 38 and the First 40 and make up ground on Monkey Magic but at the finish we were seventh fastest and last of a group of four who finished within one minute. Indeed we were on corrected time only a minute and two seconds off of third place.
Well done Foreign Affairs and Meridian for leading the fleet home.
Including today I have had only 8 working days in three weeks so it is no wonder progress seems slow sdo what have we done.
The transom boarding platform was closed off on 14th April. Then I started on the galley furniture completing the panels for the fridge and oven compartments and then started on the chart table. We then left the chart table skeleton while we enjoyed Sail Port Stephens.
On return I reworked the supports for the hull after the turnover. To accommodate the wider hull the supports had to be reshaped and the reworked support surface reglassed to the plywood frame. That is mostly done and sitting next to the building jig.
The skeleton of the chart table was causing me some headaches and I mean that literally as I hit my head on the sharp edges so I was highly motivated to complete the structure and round all the appropriate surfaces. That I did but not before destroying a router bit and taking a small nick out of the plywood. It is all repaired and complete except for the lid on the table and the top of the navigator’s seat.
A lot of painting later the components of the galley and quarter berth lockers are double coated and ready to install. That I am hoping to do tomorrow so that I will have something to show for my efforts.
Coating both sides of the locker fronts takes a minimum of three days as while I can do both sides in a day the coating is not hard enough to sand the following day so they have to be left the extra day to harden. Mix that up with wet weather and other obligations and it seems like time is standing still.
Not wanting to waste any mixed epoxy I have a large area of the V berth primed and sanded ready to take a second coat in the event any paint is unused but sadly the paint is running out on the jobs at hand and the V beths are still in their first coat state.
There are miriad tasks to complete before the hull can be turned. All the joins in the hull have been inspected and any gaps filled with thickened epoxy. All the ply joins have been double glassed and most of the hull to bulkhead joins have been filleted. Just the deck locker and transom area have to have the filleting completed. Once this is done I will finish priming the interior so that after turning it will be protected from any adverse weather events.
