WORK IN PROGRESS:
During the delivery the crew experience strange noises from the shaft. On return we handed this problem over to the experts. To date they have diagnosed that coupling was most probable of this noise. They are engineering it at time of this posting. Once fitted we will be able to be sure. While the boat has been out of commission we have taken the time to reduce some weight in strategic areas, namely below the cockpit floor there has been a well(as like all other Farr 38's) The well servied as storage foer the liferaft. No one uses if for that as sometimes it has water in it which long term is detremental for a liferaft. Most people just use it for fender storage etc.... It serves as no structural importance. In this well our boat has had a 200 litre stainless steel fuel tank. Really nice for the long hauls but striclty speaking in the wrong part of the boat. We have therefore fitted a modern small tank in the same position as all other Farr 38's and have removed the reather heavy tank. While we were at it, it was decided to remove the well as well. We then scratched around and removed or changed a couple of other little things as well as to fully service the steering system. Once the boat ias operational again we will have to have the boat rewieghed and checked by the IRC measurer and well while he is at it, we might as well optimise our rating with one or two more measurements.

MYKONOS RACE

Race 1: Cape Town to Mykonos.

Wwe started in fickle southerlies. We got away to a good start and promptly powered away. Round the first buoy and the kite went up. We then worked down to Robben Island with the smaller boats holding on. The winds then swung to a SW. We peeled to Code Zero and carried to Dassen Island, After Dassen the winds went forward and died so we sailed at about 3 knots, we went outside Jutten to pck up some currents. As we got closer to Mykonos the winds picked up nicely and we were sailng in on a full beat nicely powered up. Unfortunately with the finish line a few hundred metres away and in sight midnight had come. Midnight being the cut off time. We calcualted that we would have finished within another 8 minutes. But that is how racing is. We missed the cutoff. Lots of sailors are outspoken about this however, it was in the rules and therefore it is fair as that is what we aggreed to sail to.

Race 2: Pursuit race in Saldhana Bay.

This race was held in lightish conditions, in our opinion we sailed a flawless race, getting every shift right. Crew work was supurb. The only mistake was a short a sheet on the "codey" which hampered the last gybe. We came second, just behind "No Promises".

Delivery back:

Ian Coward, Sarel van der Merwe, Siger Smink and Asaaf Yechiel delivered the boat back. They left at around 7:30pm. According to them they motored most of the way back as there was very little wind and lots of fog. Just after Robben Island they picked up strange noises from the "iron sails" so they sailed the rest of the way and only used the engine to get into moorings. They arrived at 4am. We have had the engine checked and it would seem to be the coupling on the shaft that was making that noise. It is currently in repair.