X-35 IN THE WARSASH SPRING SERIES

X-35 Gets off to a great start

Only 24 hours after arriving by truck, we managed to get the X-35 on the water for a short 2 hour tuning and training session. On the short sail in 8 knots of breeze, she felt great and showed great speed towards an IMX 40. The next day we competed in the first race of the Warsash Spring Series. With a rating of 1.057 we were in the competitive IRC 2 class with 26 entrants.

The conditions were quite different from the tuning day before, with 15 to 24 knots of wind, we had to do some more tuning of the rig, nevertheless, she showed excellent speed and height off the start and although we were still learning how to sail her, we managed to go around the first windward in 2nd place just seconds behind the first boat.

As we are one of the smallest rated boats in the fleet, the X-35 was solidly in the lead at the time. On the next jib reach and spi reach, she showed great speed and hung onto the bigger boat easily. On the next two beats the wind increased to 20+ knots and we lost some on the two leaders of the fleet. Primarily because of a windshift and the fact that we sailed the boat with a crew of 8 instead of the 10 allowed for this IRC series.

With the tide increasing, the two leading boats sailed slightly ahead of us on rating leaving us in a credible third place. We were extremely happy with the result, considering we had had very little experience in the boat and spent most of the race getting to grips with her. During the race, she showed phenomenal speed and height upwind and was really fine to helm. I can't wait until the next race to reveal more of her hidden potential!

Jochem Visser / X-Yachts (GB) Ltd.