Since the beginning, we have been trying to get this boat as fast as possible. You have to deal with hull shape, fairing of the keel and rudder, choice of sailmaker, sail designs, the team, the deck layout, and so on.... every minute of every day you think of extra things you could do, and also about things you will forget to do.... that's an aging thing (yep, already).
One of the most important things is the rating, how fast do we have to sail against our closest rivals, which handicap factor will they give us?
You fill in an endless bunch of papers with hundreds of numbers, so that the guys at the RORC can make a "correct" calculation. An important thing to do, is to weigh your boat, IT IS ALWAYS HEAVIER THAN WHAT THE BROCHURE SAYS !!! And the heavier the boat the better the handicap factor. If you do not weigh your boat, they (RORC) automaticly use the numbers on the brochure.
But in Belgium and Holland, every official measurer was on holiday in August. Well, that's nice for them.... but that leaves me with a boat that couldn't be measured before the Dutch Nationals.
Now we have a rating which tells us to be 36 seconds per hour faster than the other First 35's.... I would love that to happen, but it has been a while since I've believed in ferytales.
It is what it is.... there is nothing more we could have done!
Third and last training before the DUTCH NATIONALS
Our first training was ok, as you could see before, we had a pretty steady breeze of around 15 knots. But having no idea what the normal boatspeed should be, this was only a pretty fun day on the water in stead of a real training. A maiden trip voyage can never be described as a good exercise.
Day 2 of the training sessions was, as we like to call it, SURVIVAL! Around 30 knots of wind and a broken halyard after 2 minutes beating upwind, kept us alert for more damage. So we opted for safe sailing and didn't train on boathandling and manoeuvres. However, we flew the fractional spinnaker and had a blast sailing the New First 35 downwind at 11-12 knots. Day 3, as we ordered, was light..... We wanted to sail with our A1,5, an assymetric sail for light to very light conditions. When you struggle to keep the symmetric flowing, an A-sail will give you more push and flow around the sails. But none of the crew, coming from a one design class, has ever sailed with such a set-up. So we needed at least one day of light winds to try the sail for the very first time before sailing the Dutch Nationals. And we did! We had between 7 and 11 knots all day... and for the very first time we could practise some manoeuvres and were able to concentrate on boatspeed. In a line up with a Sun Fast 40 Performance, we noticed that at 75% of the time we had same speed and same height. And only a few times the First accelarated and stretched away from the Sun Fast. At other times we pointed 5 degrees higher. This tells us that the boat is capable of much more than we squeeze out of her. If we struggle to keep consistancy in height and speed, we are in for a laugh at the Dutch Nationals this weekend.
For us, The IRC Nationals will be a huge learning curve. Trying to keep up with the other First 35's, A35's and the J109's. A real training where we can start comparing and tuning our mast. Wish us luck!
What a day on the water. With the complete crew ready at noon, we went out for our first test sail. With 12 to 17 knots true, the conditions couldn't be better. The boat behaved far beyond our expectations! Steady and fast (as we hoped) The sails looked beautiful, and yet again North have delivered what they stand for.... Quality!
July 30 : Anti fouling Sat July 31 : Put name on the boat and prepare the mast Sun aug 1 : Instruments and mast Mon aug 2 : Mast on boat Thue aug 3 : IRC Measurement
