We have been defending our first place on the progress score table at RANSA for the past two weeks while Alibi and Britannia have made big moves up and Allegro is lurking just behind.
Last week we had a bit of breeze and set the No 1 heavy genoa. Perhaps we should call this our No 2 genoa or is it a 1.5? From the running start we reached towards the top mark keeping pace with Agrovation and Love Byte but when the wind freed we tried to pole out the genoa without any success. In the process we lost a few boat lengths on these tow but managed to hold off the rest of the fleet. At the top mark Love Byte went deeper and perhaps deeper than allowed while we lifted well inside and stayed on Agrovations line. At Steele Point Love Byte took advantage of a knock to tack back on starboard and we were forced to go behind. Alibi was just on our shoulder and preventing us tacking but then she tacked away giving us options for our next move. On out tack back we had gained half a minute on Alibi.
The next move came around Shark Island when we gybed in a lull while Amante came through with the following gust. From there to home it was follow the leader with Agrovation a clear first and fastest leader from Amante and ourselves. Alibi did themselves a service with a fourth fastest and third on handicap. We managed 6th on handicap while Allegro had a drop and were caught on the leader board by Alibi. We were pleased with our third fastest and felt we managed the rig well in the conditions.
This week was a much lighter affair with a long work to windward for the first leg. We started on the pin and managed to keep ahead of the fleet for a few minutes until Britannia showed good boat speed and passed us to windward. Once clear to tack we waited for the first knock and found ourselves well clear of all the fleet except Britannia who were deeper into the lift. The shift put us up with the tail of the Division 1S where we found ourselves crossing tacks with Marloo. Looking behind we saw that Meridian had taken our stern and gone further North to takd advantage of the next shift and get a big gain on the fleet.
We made some good choices going to the mark but could not match the boat speed of Agrovation, Britannia, Foreign Affairs and Meridian. Crosshaven also caught us at the mark but we managed to get this back on the run to Steele Point.
The shortened course gave little chance for gains and we managed to hold onto our fifth fastest from Crosshaven, a fast finishing Allegro and Alibi. Amante was an uncharacteristic tenth. On handicap the front runners took the first four places, Crosshaven leapfrogged us into fifth while Alibi was seventh and Allegro eighth alloowing us to pull ahead one point but the big move was Britannia with a first place and dropping a 13th to be second on the leader board.
Now while we have not had any great places the handicapper has nevertheless seen fit to make life harder each week and it will be interesting to see how much harder he makes it this week.
Boatbuilding has been progressing at a steady rate with some assistance from the crew and Elaine. Ten days ago I had allmost all the deck sheets cut and trial fitted. Since then I have been busy cutting doublers for the fittings and for butt joins in the long sides of the 12 mm ply sheets. These are best done before the deck is fitted as the shapes can be marked off the stringers and the fits made very precisely. Almost all the 14 doublers have been cut and some fitted. The edges are chamfered at 45 degrees to make a neat fit to the single 12 mm thickness. I have to confess to getting the chamfers around the wrong way more than once but fortunately the two sides are mirror images so that has saved the doubler from the trash can more than once.
As of tonight all the 12 mm ply on the deck is glued in place as are a lot of the doublers. Tomorrow I will move to the 6 mm sheets on the foredeck and complete the doublers on the 12 mm section.
