The glimmer of hope for the RANSA Winter Wednesday series grew a bit brighter with the forecast of a brisk North West wind. For several days before the last race the forecast showed the North West wind direction ahead of a strong southerly change for the Thursday. The RANSA course for the prevailing wind is a broard reach to the heads and a tight reach back to Steele Point with works to Point Piper and from Shark Island home. Reaching in a strong breeze is one of the strong points of the Dudley Dix designed Passion X so my mood for the series was growing brighter.
On the day the breeze was gusting to 25 knots so we set the No 3 jib and full hoist main. We were further encouraged when our main rival, Alibi, also set a small jib so that if the breeze did die we would be in different boats but in the same situation.
With the gusty winds we were late at the start with only Amante and Britannia up on the line. Britannia was up and planing away from the fleet while we tailed Amante all the way to the heads.
The tight reach back to Steele Point was good for us as we caught Amante but could not get clear ahead and so rounded the Rose Bay mark in their dirty air. The work to Point Piper looked to be a single board but a late header sent Amante and us into the shore where we had to tack away.
The reefed Joli was lurking close behind with the reefed Allegro further back. Our rival Alibi was not to be seen and Agrovation was unusually back in the fleet.
From Point Piper we chased Britannia who was chasing Amante.
Amante had the jib nicley poled out to starboard while we stayed on port with the jib flying to windward and delayed out gybe until we were clear of the wind shadow. We just failed to clear Britannia but after the rounding went low and through their lee.
Out in front Amante was extending her lead while we were inching away from Britannia and watching Joli creep up on both of us. Allegro was a few minutes further back but Alibi and Agrovation had disappeared from view.
Over the radio we heard that Alibi had retired but with such a small fleet were unsure if we had enough points in the bag.
After the race we celebrated our second fastest with two bottles of sparkling wine and motored around looking for our divison finishers of whom there were few.
Back at Greenwich we heard the sad tale of the collision between Alibi and Agrovation and saw first hand the damage and then the results came out.
We had managed to get enough seconds in front of Britannia to beat them on handicap for second place which sealed the series for us.
It was a relief after many weeks of long beating courses to have a reaching one that suited Passion X.
A big thanks to the crew who have kept us in the race all season.
Back on the new Passion XI project, the Dudley Dix designed Didi 120, it has been a bit of an anticlimax after the excitement of getting the engine installed on the day it arrived. There is a lot to do and so much that I had stopped doing lists.
I had left the cabin front off until the engine was installed so that we had the extra exit if needed. Now that the engine was sitting on the bearers I was able to do the two layers of 6 mm ply in a single session and leave the laminated ply for a few days to cure well.
A heatwave had hit Sydney but the transom was under a tarpaulin and so it was a pleasant area work and a lot of work was needed. I like the big picture projects where acres of plywood can be glued down in a day but the transom is the opposite of that. Small infill pieces need to be glued between the stringers and then the inner 6 mm layer of ply glued in place. Next a 12 mm capping piece goes over all the fiddly bits to seal the stringer end grain and all the infill glue joins. To ensure a neat fit I made up some dummy capping pieces and covered them with masking tape and then used these to ensure that all the small infill pieces were in perfect alignment.
In the process all the bare timber had to be epoxy sealed including the inside of the 6 mm ply inner skin.
As an extra insurance policy I added a second layer of 6 mm ply to the inside curve. The transom step on Passion XI is so narrow that the inside curve at the transom is a small triangle of plywood and an extra 6 mm layer a tiny addition of weight for long term peace of mind.
In the hot weather and looking for small tasks I tackled the third stub floor under the kingplank forward of the mast. The first two went well but this third one was at the narrow end and had very restricted access. After removing a slot for the stub floor to pass through the web I thought I might have missed my calling in life as it seemed much like dentistry including the sound of the multipurpose tool. All three are done and done so well.
Tomorrow is another day and I might start work on the cabin top joinery where there are fore and aft stringers to be added. These will capture the cabin top hatch and provide good handholds for the crew climbing across the cabin top. That leads back to the companionway hatch and as the engine is in I can complete that. So many jobs to choose from.