Monday, February 27, 2012

Farr 400 arrives in Sydney

#9 Farr 400 arrived in Sydney last week and in 5 days hit the starting line off Shark Island. the course was out of the heads to a windward mark about 3 miles out. Then 2 more laps up and down outside and a down wind finish in Watson’s Bay. The weather was perfect. Starting in about 10 knots and reaching about 14 by the time we got back into the heads.

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The boat performed very well. We did not have the full sail inventory. The Hy jib was a little under range. The first beat was not so good, but as the wind got up over 12 the jib came into range and the boat took off. The couple of boats that were pretty far ahead, were brought back and we ended up overlapped second with a 46 footer on the finish line.

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Dock talk was all positive as everyone saw how fast the 400 progressed through is first race here in Australia. People were surprised to see a boat so light go upwind with much bigger boats in mid range conditions. More to come over the week.

Two days later we sailed a Twilight Race out of the CYC in a NE wind from 6-12 knots. Still only sailing with our Hy jib we ended up beating all the other 40 plus minus footers over the line fairly easily. As we are a new boat here, there was not a chance to enter officially but the boat showed very well.

Ichi Ban on the last run to the finish of the Twilight Race

As always, it is a lot of fun sailing here. Nice weather, really clear blue sky and warm water. Not a bad office at all.

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All photos from Phil Ross