New Class 40 Launch |
| Tuesday, 14 August 2007 |
|
|
|
Courtesy M Ranchi www.maxranchi.com
|
In amongst the gentle green rolling hills and peeling church towers of the South Devon town of Totnes, Alex Bennetts new Class 40 Fujifilm launched on Monday the 13th August. At Baltic Wharf Boatyard the end of a week of intense preparations culminated in the first dip for the latest Class 40 from Martin Boulters Composite Creations. With a rising tide Fujifilm had to be on her way in short order as having sounded the first part of the River Dart the previous day the distance between the bottom of her 3.0m deep 2200 kg keel and the soft river bed mud was recorded as being likely to be a minimum of only 300mm. Not much room to play with and this was in the deepest part of the channel.
Alex Bennett, Ifor Pedley, Simon Elyatt (General Manager of Baltic Wharf) David Bennett (Alex’s Father) and Liz Tier (Owen Clarke Design) crewed the vessel on her first excursion. The pace was perhaps less than the usual expected blistering performance of these exciting racing yachts and more sedate and in keeping with the rich rolling scenery and winding shallow River Dart channel. VHF and mobile phone contact was monitored by design and build team members at various key points down the river to Dartmouth, often the only visible sight of Fujifilm was her towering black carbon Lorimar mast which appeared to be gliding through the tree tops. Without a hitch or even a sniff of the river bed mud Alex’s new Class 40 was snugly tied up at Dartmouth Town Quay at 8.30pm and thoughts then turned to the unfolding dramas only a few miles out to sea as the first competitors in the Rolex Fastnet sailed by the harbour mouth on their way to clearing Start Point as the weather began to rapidly deteriorate.
40 Degrees. Peter Hardings Class 40 was officially launched two weeks ago by Emma Sanderson at The Royal Southern Yacht Club. Hamble. After her brief outing at the Class 40 worlds immediately after delivery from her Cape Town Builders Jaz Marine and with a second place overall under the belt 40 Degrees made it to UK waters for her official naming before preparation by the team for the Rolex Fastnet. At the time of writing Peter and his crew were having a wild ride hitting a maximum of 19.3 knots off Lands End and pointing directly at the fastnet rock positioned 54th overall in the remaining fleet of 153 yachts.
|
|
Email this page to a friend  |
|
