VX40 in the Worthing Sailing Club Wednesday evening race
by Bob Garcka 17 Aug 2006 12:20 UTC
16 August 2006
How to you give a Volvo Extreme 40 a PY handicap? © Martin Chadder
The JetAir VX40 crewed by Worthing Yacht Club members competed in the Wednesday evening race at Worthing. The sea was flat with a force 3 from the southeast. The competition consisted of a couple of Lasers, a Phantom, some Dart 18s and a Hobie 16.
The start gun went at 19:00 and we immediately rolled a Dart 18 to windward and gave them a bit of dirty air, (nearly blew them backwards). All the club boats are sitting in because of the light winds, except us who were flying a hull 10 feet off the water and easing the traveller in the gusts.
The 300 yard beat was followed by a beam reach. Known as a reach of death on a VX40 because you can only dump 3 feet of mainsheet in the gusts, the rest has to be on the traveller. In really big gusts you run out of options...
20 knots down the reach for a bear off and set the gennaker. Do we really need to set the gennaker? It's only a short downwind leg. Skipper says yes as it's good practice. In no time at all we are setting up for a gybe. That means a half furl on the gennaker because it overlaps so much, and lots of pulling on the sheets to get it through. What seems a few seconds later we are at the leeward mark and dropping the gennaker.
By now we had a commanding lead on the Lasers and Phantom.
The crew are completely out of breath and looking forward to a rest upwind. But no, it only lasts a couple of minutes and we're off down the reach of death.
On the second round we are lapping the Lasers and Phantom quickly followed by the Hobie and Darts. It must be disconcerting seeing 5 people flying a hull above your mast.
After 45 minutes the race is finished, we have no idea how many laps we completed. The club racing is worked out using your average lap time and a PY number. Any ideas for a PY on a VX40?
The crew are absolutely done in, there is no gym work out that can compare to racing a VX40 on a club course. Why the hell was I wearing oilies? I'm soaking with sweat.
After the racing the Commodore jumped on board for a 20 knot ride downwind back to Littlehampton where the VX40 is berthed.