ORC European Championships
Farr 400 Team Premier Sonnkenkoenig
End of June, Punta Ala, Italy
This was my first experience with ORCi
rating system. On the good news, the system is a published rating
system and there are no secrets. That said it is easy to figure out
that this system in its current form is a lot like IMS. The B/C
boats that are made to go up and down are very fast. What I do
remember when we brought the TP’s into the Med a number of years
back the TP’s were able to beat the IMS boats under IMS. This
happened here too. The lone TP, Aniene, well sailed was an easy
winner, winning every race they started.
It was good to see how easy the Farr 400 is to transport through Europe. This boat just won the trans Lake Constant race over all and it had to make it over the alps to get to Punta Ala. The rig made it easy.
Back to the Future
Sailing a great one design boat in a
handicap system, one should adjust the boat a little to max out the
performance under the rule sailed. We made only one adjustment, and
that is adding a spinnaker pole to the already fast down wind 400.
It was an easy thing to add, a removable sleeve over the mast to hold
the pole gooseneck. 2 after guys and a peace sign… We set, gybed
and dropped off of the bow sprit. In the very light and big breeze,
(there was none) we would also go off of the sprit. But the pole
gave us many advantages. We now had a choice of what angle to sail.
We could sail around traffic, or run deep into a mark if we didn’t
hit the lay line perfect. This was huge.
But the biggest thing was the speed.
Punta Ala is normally a light air 6-12 knots Med condition. A
performance boat like the 400 has a hard time against the lead mines
of the IMS or even IRC, in these conditions. Having to sail high in
this wind range with the A sail on the Sprit is not how these boats
should go. The pole boats that can’t speed up, just run deep. So
I came up with this idea, to be able to sail to our rating down wind
by sailing less distance. In ten know of wind, we can sail 10
degrees lower and .5-.75 knots faster, around 8.75-9.0 knots of boat
speed.
The racing was fun, only the up and
downs were a bit like ground hog day, all the races sailed in the
south 7-12 knots of wind. You had to go left and wait for the big
boats to tack and pick your spot. We were the smallest boat in our
class but we rated 3rd highest. Of course the one design
boat wants to be fun down wind first. But we did surprise many by
being right in it at the top mark and always finishing on the water
3rd.
We did have one good race in the 150
mile offshore race. Twice around Gillio was a good course. We had
0-18 knots and all angles. We sailed very well around the holes of
the islands to take a second, our best finish. Sailing a boat like
the 400 in this race is great. Every time there is a change, the
boat steps out. Anytime there are extremes, the boat is much faster
than its rating. Like under 7 knots and over 15 when it starts to
plane.
In the video, you can see many things.
We sailed with 8 good guys. 8 guys on this size boat is not too
many, but as you can see, there was not a problem to do anything
well. We just figured out how to move forward and take care of
things. The grinder made it easy and the ability to trim from the
windward side really keep the boat moving all the time. If we sailed
in a windy area, I would pick 9 people but making them smaller.. You
just don’t need to add weight to this boat.
We ended up 6th
in the regatta. It could have been a bit better but the rating in
that condition is hard to sail to. But for a one design boat that is
not designed to the rule and sailing against boats that are, it is
not too bad. I can tell you one thing; we enjoyed our sailing more
than the others. A lot of heads turned as we flew by..
