Three first places in seven races and second overall, that is the score after four days of Dartmouth Week on the Farr45 ‘Atomic’. Boatcaptain Tom Wilson has transformed the boat from when I last sailed on her and the crew has been developing itself even more although this was hard to notice when the middle of the boat saw some crew changes curtosy of the 2 extra days that had to be taken off to participate.
The event was sailed in generally medium conditions though Friday got blown out (more than 47 knots in the gusts before the day was canned) and Sunday had the breeze around 30 knots at times. For me it had been a while back since I last sailed in some big breeze but with the quality of the guys on board it never was an issue. Luck however seemed to be the biggest problem in the four races we didn’t win and even in those we did finish first we had not everything go our way. In the F45 fleet differences have become very small over the past season and although everyone seemed to have approached this event in a fairly relaxed manner the boats seemed to be evenly matched once again.
Personally the biggest plus was being able to sail with another highly experienced and top-notch (ex?) pro-bow behind me with a wealth of experience (both in- and offshore) and I’ve been able to take a lot from that. On a side note, it was also great to see the lovely Sanguma out racing (even if she was still sporting her final event’s sticker on the bow). I believe she managed a credible top ten finish in her class of 22 boats.
With another weekend’s sailing behind me I will be trying to read up on yacht design this week amongst more boring things…
Life’s pretty damn fine,
Ciao!
