Aeolus must have had a bad week as the winds gusted up to 60knots in the Solent for our supposedly last race in this series. The race committee made a wise decision to abandon all racing as they remarked ”It’s time to put our toys away for the winter”
With our 7 point lead in this series and only 6 points in total out of 6 races, this made the X-34 the undisputable winner in the biggest IRC class with 31 competitors. Looking back on our series, the only non wins were caused by our own mistakes. Changing one win into a 7th due to a Z-flag penalty and another one into a second as we lost control of a spinnaker halyard.
Originally intended as a fast cruiser, I was truly impressed with her upwind speed and even in the lighter conditions she was remarkably fast always outpacing her opponents on any leg of the course.
She was primarily sailed by a relatively new amateur crew and driver. Although there were times where we made mistakes our boatspeed always came to the rescue. She is a well balanced boat and with her high stability she is easy to sail over a wide range of heel angles and courses. Our average lead on handicap was 2 minutes or more on a 1 1/2 hour race.
With the class in the past being dominated by X-332’s I think a new era has come. From a perspective of speed and comfort, the new X-34 has proven to be a true winner!
Jochem Visser
During the prizegiving at the Hamble River Sailing Club skipper Tim Smyth not only collected his silverware for the IRC 3 class win but was also awarded the overall trophy for the Boat of the Year for best preformance over all classes. With a smile from ear to ear Tim Smyth left the podium with a rather large trophy.
