Project Circus - 2008
The off season has been very busy with the Flying Circus Team sacrificing the last race of the Winter Series in order to carry out some planned maintenance and some major alterations. We had a window of opportunity from 10th of August to the 12th of September. The RPNYC Opening Day was the 13th of September and we wanted to be in the water for that event. The timing of the project couldn't have been worse with an exceptionally busy time for our business and a planned trip overseas with some customers so it was essential we had someone with the foot on the gas in my absence. Early on Paul had offered to act as Project Manager much to TJ's relief. It seems she has the opinion that I tend to encourage scope creep. She clearly doesn't understand that some things just need to be done.
The Main
Work on replacing our mainsail started in July. Our beautiful D4 main was hammered from day 1. This sail was pretty special to us giving us fantastic speed but it was past its use by date and at last count had over 100 pieces of sticky back holding it together (and it was still fast). Paul went out to market and obtained a multitude of quotes and options which we waded through and finally made the decision to run with the local Doyles Loft, Linton Sails who had been servicing our sails for the last two seasons. Lintons offered us a Doyle Stratis sail which would give us high performance and longevity. We decided to run with Taffeta one side to improve the serviceability of the sail. Brett met with us, measured the sail, gave us what we felt was the option to go with and delivered the mainsail finished under 4 weeks later.
The Rig
Gordy at Duffy's had been murmuring about changing things on our rig to 'stiffen up the noodle' and help to reduce the rig tension that was causing damage to the decks. With the need for the rig to come out to fit into the shed at Hakes Marine the decision was made to have a look at what we could do in the time. What ended up happening was quite a significant rebuild of the spar with new lengthened spreaders and altered spreader angles. This turned the rig into a pretty close version of a cathedral rig and enabled us to turn some of the lateral loads generated by extreme rig tension into vertical loads. The team at Duffy's were completely let down by their suppliers who supplied the new spreader sections un-tapered. This meant that Duffy's would need to undertake this work adding time to what was already a tight programme for them. To their credit and particular mention must go to our crewmate Matt who worked his backside off on our rig, Duffy's delivered on time and to the usual very high standard.
The Hull
Hakes Marine took delivery of the boat (thanks again Paul and Matt) on 11th of August. They had a time window of 4 weeks to undertake the work. The work as far as the crew knew was to get the windows replaced, strengthen the chain plate area and repair the decks and transom where we had cracked them due to rig tension. What they didn’t realise was that a topsides re-paint (The Red Bits), companionway alteration and full rebuild of cutlass bearing, stuffing box, Transom strengthening, rudder removal, keel repair, water tank replacement plus several other small but important tasks were being undertaken at the same time. Paul and the team at Hakes really pulled one out of the bag considering the number of surprises hitting them every time they opened something up. Despite this they managed to get the boat in the water on time. I really have to mention the level of professionalism that this team demonstrated. The level of communication from this team was fantastic with us being informed of problems, pricing updated and commitment to get the work done without impact to our 'hull wet' date. It is clear that this team has earned it's reputation through the big builds of TP52's, Maxi and many high performance boats and while in the scale of things we were a small fish, we still felt like we were the most important customer they had. The work was completed to an excellent standard, on time and all with a smile. We have a huge amount of respect for the job this team did on 'Circus'.
The Re-Launch
We re-launched her at Petone on Thursday the 11th of September and Paul and I motored across with huge grins and an extra knot of boat speed under motor thanks to a straight prop shaft. We pulled up at the marina an hour later and within three hours the rig was in and getting twanged up. A day of tweaking and preening followed and at 3pm I got the call from Paul that Flying Circus was heading out for a test sail with new main, new rig and a new look. A very exciting day given the effort that everyone had made to get the work completed. To celebrate the efforts that all had put in and to pull the wrapper off for the crew and Wellington based 'friends of Circus' we held a bit of a dock party with a whole bunch of hardy individuals and drank beer, rum and wine in the freezing cold adjourning to the club to warm up. The project was really well managed thanks to Paul and his attention to detail. saved me from pulling whats left of my hair out during what was an extremely busy time.
A Huge Thanks Goes To...
Brett and his team at Linton Sails
Gordy, Matt and co at Duffy Yacht and Rigging
Paul, Nicola, Katie and the team at Hakes Marine
Paulie's Project Management
We had a really enjoyable opening day race despite the fact that we missed the start in our excitement at being on the water and then trying to sail the boat like we used to before all of the changes. We are confident that the speed will come. We have seen some really exciting numbers and all we have to do now is put it all together consistently.
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