Today was excellent!!! Twig picking in the morning then out sailing for most of the middle of the day. Winds were supposed to come up to 25 knots in the afternoon so we practiced early. We got the heavy 4 up and sorted trim and hoist numbers. We then ran all the halyard lock tests successfully and moved to main halyard marking for the 3 reef points. By time we completed our tasks while dodging various ferries, police boats, Finn regattas with Jimmy Spithill in attendance we were out the Heads. One last boat approached on starboard doing 30 knots… a fully foiling tri-maran… couldn’t have avoided them if I wanted to. They had coach and press boats chasing them as well so sort of busy, reminded me of last year’s Joe Mele International press operations ?
So out of the heads with all sorted and we turned to come back in. Sam had joined us for the day which helped so we launched the FRO… nice sail for heavier weather than we had. Dodging the busy Harbour traffic we hit easy 12 knots in 14 knots of breeze. You can just feel the potential of this boat when the wind loads us up… no such thing as hull speed limitations for the new Lindy.
We gybed our way down Sydney Harbour with the FRO, something we wouldn’t ordinarily do as we typically have a kite up. The runners are tricky to sort when off the wind with the square topped main… will need to watch that. We finally cleared a large 470 regatta and gybed over and ran under the Sydney Harbour bridge with the staysail up. Testing went great and we headed in for lunch and a cold one. Then back to he boat to load the PLBs in the new Spinlock life vests. Then crew roster numbers were added to the crew extra gear bags mounted on the keel trunk. Joe put a pair of socks and a Lindy vest in his and it was full. Be warned, we are looking for a spot for sea boots to be stored while not being worn, fingers crossed.
Crew provisioning on for tomorrow. Rafa thinks the freeze-dried spaghetti is an offence to Italian culture ? Looking at the usual power bars, fresh fruit and the like along with a decent main once a day. Need to keep regular while sitting to pee with a crash helmet and seat belt on… good grief!
A few pics from today, boat is awesome, can’t say it enough!!!!
A rare photo of Joe actually doing something!
Carla working port runner!
Heading for Harbour Bridge while prepping for the staysail!
Our nuclear powered heavy 4!
Luckiest driver alive!
Late afternoon with iconic backdrop!
The famous Stevens designed Dorade!
And that was the day. We moved slips again today and we are now next to a Volvo 70… looks sort of tankish to me! ?

Well today was about safety and halyards. We have many ways of getting sails up the mast and today was all about hoist height and release angles and offsets. The halyard locks on the main were replaced with a more reliable 2:1 system for now. EPIRB and PLB (personal locator beacons) were organized and tested.
And today was the big boat series with Wild Oats, Beau Geste and the like competing within Sydney Harbour. The race was live streamed back from several drones, surface craft and a helicopter to the jumbo tron at the YC! Very fun!
We finished early today with no sailing. Disco finished up some jobs and closed the boat. Carla, Libby, Jay, joe and I had a nice grill at the house with a preliminary swim, very refreshing.

Here Joe advises on the correct placement of our Xmas tree… so helpful!

Here is the allotted slot bag for personal gear for each crew member. Enough for a change of woofer-covers me thinks.

We mounted our water bottle holders. Sunglass holders are next.
Our provisioning is starting to look like PB&J Sammie’s and Cliff Bars.
Another awesome day here is sunny Sydney!

Well, today was interesting! OMG! Started at 8, finished near 9 with a nice curry dinner and home by 11pm. Much ass dragging going on by end of day.
Brad must have been up the mast 10 times sorting halyard locks and such… and he has to go up each time we hoist and douse the main… Brave new world there. After much futzing and organizing of safety and related gear and a half dozen riggers and sorters dropping by we got out for the compass adjustments. Just a few folks for that and we stayed under power.
By 5pm we were ready to go again and headed out with a re-run main halyard to test more sails. We had all onboard from regular crew such as Joe, Jay, Brad and me and then Carla and Libby to a mix of folks from 20 year old Josh to Mod 70 sailors, Olympians and the like. No punters there. Beautiful evening with 18 knots of residual sea breeze. The boat is awesome, complicated, frisky, but awesome. We tested the JT and a 3. We used a single reef using more toggle locks, very cool. Dodging ferries and other traffic we flew up the harbour testing all gear. I have to say having hydraulic winches is different. The winch calls for hydraulic pressure which starts the engine, if not running, and provides power. However, if you also have the clutch engaged for forward boat motion the boat takes off as the engine revs, very neat and somewhat unnerving at the same time. The new sails look great, haven’t seen the kites yet but hear they are extra fine as well.
Met a ton of nice people today and with a complicated new Lindy the learning curve is perfectly vertical but we’ll get there.
The boat is so light even harbour waves will throw you about.
I am sure the learning curve will level out but it all starts again with the next wave of crew. I can only imagine the sh-t eating grins we will have off the wind in a big blow with a major kite up doing 20+ knots, can hardly wait…
Cheers for now, Sean

Joe, Jay, Carla, Libby and I all arrived Sydney airport within 30 minutes of one another which is impressive when we took 3 different routes to get here. After checking in to our main house (very nice by the way) we headed down the hill to CYCA to check out the new Lindy. Brad and Tori and team had the boat in great shape and she looks ready to go.

Note the carbon fibre liferaft case painted white for sun exposure!

Down below is slick, all carbon, ultra lite and organized. The spare stowage for extra personal gear is arranged around the dagger board trunk and suggests a spare pair of undies might fit and that is about it.

Jay doesn’t fair so well either as he is tucked away under the cockpit sole… but at least he is aft. The two burner stove bottles suggest hot food might still be possible if the seas cooperate.
Plan is for mast head investigations tomorrow then sorting other issues. Hopefully get sailing in a few days. More tomorrow, cheers, Sean

Two carbon fibre coolers that weigh nothing yet held an odd thing to find on Lindy, some cold VBA beer!