VX ONE sails from Sydney to Pittwater

by Andrew York on 15 Nov 2012 Back in May, Andrew York had a few test sails of a VX ONE. On Mother’s Day, the boat’s owner, Fred Kasparek watched on from a rubber duck as Yorky and Andrew Cribb set the kite in a south-westerly that was gusting to about 30 knots and flew down the harbour doing 23 knots.

After that day there was no doubt in Yorky’s mind that he would be the third owner of a VX ONE in Australia. On the first outing in his boat in August he took it out on Sydney Harbour in a howling southerly. It was to be an introduction to the VX ONE for his crew Karyn Davis and Matt Craig. They found a lull near Clarke Island and set the kite. The breeze built quickly to 35 knots and the boat just kept on accelerating. After about five minutes of plowing over and through some waves they wondered how they were going to get the kite down. After hitting 24.7knots, one gust and a wave got the better of them. They beat back to the CYCA as the breeze built to 40 knots. There was plenty on but after furling the jib the boat became quite controllable.

Apart from introducing 30 people to the VX in an effort to build a fleet for next season Yorky has a competitive spirit and, being crazy for sailing has done a couple of things that others may not want to attempt. Towards the end of October he went out single handed in his VX on a Saturday when the breeze was forecast to be around 17 knots. When he was on the water a southerly hit at 20 knots or so. There was no way he was going home without setting the kite. At the top end of Rose Bay he hoisted the kite held on. There was no time to pick up the mainsheet as he had to hike flat out as soon as the kite was hoisted. After just making it above Shark Island he held the kite all the way to Athol, hitting 16.7 knots along the way!

At the end of October when the forecast showed that there would be a 20 knot southerly and two metre seas on the Friday it seemed like a great opportunity to Yorky to see if he could get more than 25 knots out of his VX ONE. If he could do 24 knots on Sydney Harbour how good would it be surfing down that swell offshore?

Yorky put a plan together to sail his VX ONE from Sydney to Pittwater. His partner, Julie would take the trailer to a ramp just inside Barrenjoey. A friend was lined up with his rubber duck to accompany them on the trip. A crew and someone to take photos and video did not prove easy to find. A number of his friends really wanted to sail but were busy and actually had to work!

As luck would have it a few connections led to a phone call to Josh McKnight, the Moth World Champion. Josh had just finished his University exams and was keen to do the trip. Yorky also contacted Andrea Francolini who had a small window of opportunity at 7am to take photos on The Sound before a shoot he had at Middle Harbour Yacht Club.

At the last minute the rubber duck could not do the trip so Cribby saved the day, picking up Andrea from MHYC for the session on the Sound. On the way down the Harbour Yorky and Josh hit 20 knots as the southerly began to build. After 40 minutes of sailing around, the rubber duck with Andrea taking photos they headed out to sea.

The waves were up to three metres and the breeze had built to 25 knots. It made for an extremely exciting run to Pittwater. The boat took off on many a wave and probably did mid-twenties on numerous occasions but the GPSs onboard were a bit worse for wear with all the water, so unfortunately there was no maximum speed recorded.

Enjoy the video!!!