G'day,
I arrived in Brisbane a week before the race to check out the boat.
Sailing notes follow.
Day 1 Scrubbed it inside and out, including the toilet which was
pretty awful, and is still not ideal. Suspect some leakage under the
holding tank. Otherwise the boat is in good nick for 3 years sitting
on a mooring. Basics are good, some of the eye shine needs a look.
Went sailing, main was very hard to pull up (salt in the cars), lots
of headstay sag unless main leech very hard on. Jib track should be
on top of the track, not the front face as the roller car can't handle
it. Needs jib luff tension to get the shape right, but then the jib
doesn't tack. Added a jib downhaul so the jib can be pulled down from
the deck level. Shunting easy enough , but independant rudders are
harder work than with linked rudders. Put the kite up, but 3 lines
on one winch did not work.
Boat seems sluggish, maybe due to only partial scrub. Lucky to beat
the Seawind 12m on the strength of this performance.
2nd sail Bit more breeze, bit of weather helm, fixed with topping
lift to flatten and twist off the top of the main. Jib needs hollow
cut in luff. Main easier to hoist after a wash. Shunting better
every time, down to 30 seconds from dumping sheet to moving on the new
tack. Reached at 15.7 knots in 15-18 at the local weather station.
Tacked through 90 degrees at 7 knots, about 20 knots of breeze, lumpy
waves. Motion very nice, but wet on deck. Dismantleable boats need
lips under the joints to stop waves coming up the trouser legs of
unsuspecting crew. Steering blocks stuffed, need replacing. Boat
sailing much better, may match the Waterlines if the breeze is up.
3rd sail 10-15 breeze, top speed 13.6 Steering upwind with stern
rudder centred and steering with the bow rudder is effortless and
holds course for minutes at a time. We could put the boat near head
to wind and speed down to near stopped and still get back on course
with the sails sheeted on hard. We lifted the front rudder except
when going upwind, which did not affect the steering. The jib track
rotated to 90 degrees from the forestay works much better. Motored
at 10.7 knot (2x Honda 20's) in flat water, 7 with one. Kite up in
10 true, nearly made it to the end of the lines, when it fell in the
water. System still not perfect, but two cleats and a winch works
well single handed.
Crew for the race was me, Col (owner, sailed a bit, but never raced),
Karen (his girlfriend who has never been on a boat before), and Katy
(my 7 year old daughter). The race started at 11 am, we left home at
7 and arrived just as the gun went. Gave the fleet 5 minutes start
and took off after them on a broad reach in 5 knots of breeze. We were
slow compared to the others who all had spinnakers or screechers, plus
their working sails. I Can't find the sail area of most of the fleet,
but it looked like our working sail area of 72 sq m was less than any
other boat in the fleet, except the 9m tri.
After a couple of miles we had a short beat in a bit more breeze.
Difficult to tell how we were going as we way overstood the mark,
partly due to not knowing where it was as the sailing instructions
were at home.
Then a long reach out to Tangalooma with the breeze up to maybe 15.
We went past the Seawind with main, jib and screecher up and near the
end got past Catalina (Rogers 11m cruising cat) also under screecher.
They got us at the mark as we were a little low. Bore away onto a
broad reach, got a puff and went past to leeward of them at 17 knots.
Boat under control, lot of spray, but no problem. Then a 2 mile
square run. We did 2 incredibly bad shunts and Catalina got past
under symmetric spinnaker. A long broad reach in a little less wind
and Catalina stayed the same distance ahead under screecher again.
The first of the non 50'ters in the mono race with shy kite caught up
half a mile on us in this leg. Then a very tight fetch for a couple
of miles in pretty choppy waves on a sizable swell. All 3 boats were
about the same speed and height.
Next leg was 130 miles of beam reaching in 15-22 knots under a
sporadic full moon. Rare Bird loved it, we had dinner and Col and I
were doing 4 hours on, 4 off while the girls slept. We were cruising
happily at 10-15 knots, steering with the stern rudder with the bow
one free streaming. At midnight we had an accidental jibe so decided
to put in a reef until daylight. Speed dropped a bit and it was much
more relaxing to sail.
At 2 am we were half way up Fraser IsIand when heard a quiet, but
distinct, bang. The steering and speed were unchanged and nothing
seemed amiss so I kept sailing. 10 minutes later I got up for a
stretch and noticed the bow rudder at right angles to the hull. The
19mm/0.75mm stainless pintle had sheered at the bottom gudgeon, then
bent 75 degrees at the top one. There was a little bit of damage at
to the carbon tow at the lower gudgeon but no other damage. Got Col
up and we wrapped a rope round it to stop it floating away if it came
loose, dropped the sails, started the motors and headed for home.
Informed the Coastguard and through them the organising club at first
light.
On inspection, the ends of the broken ss rod had rust spots on most
of the surface, indicating that it had cracked (crevice corrosion?)
almost all the way through before breaking. This was supported by the
quietness of the bang and the obvious lack of load on it.
It was disappointing that one of the few structural non composite
parts broke, and that it probably was not the marine grade specified,
but all in all, a fun experience with nice people. It was my first
decent trip on a large cruising harry that I had not designed and
built myself. I have a couple of pages of notes and changes to make
to future boats, but nothing happened to alter my conviction that a
harryproa is the best way to get space and performance at low price.
Col started out pretty dubious about the side mounted rudders, but was
sufficienty impressed to decide to repair them with carbon rods and
use what he had learnt about racing, preparation and his boat to have
another go next year.
The boat was definitely slower than the 15m/50' cats in the race in
light air when they put up screechers and spinnakers, but given that
Rare Bird was designed as a cruiser for an owner who never bothered
with extras on his earlier cruising cats, this was not a surprise.
Col is debating whether to get a screecher or add 4m to the mast (or
both!) for next year.
Doug, welcome home! Your trip sounds more exciting than mine, any
chance of some details?
Answers to other forum and personal questions in the next day or so.
Any that aren't answered by the weekend, please send them to me
personally. Got a bit on as the 15m panel boat started without me
knowing and they are waiting for some drawings, the Chinese have some
orders for a yet to be designed 6m and there is a bunch of other boat
stuff going on at the moment.
regards,
Rob
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