Matt collecting his prize for winning the evening race
John Turley of JT SailSports, the D-Zero Northern Area Sales Agent, lent his boat to Matt Lulham-Robinson for the event. Matt reports on his experience:
Having raced Mirrors and 420s competitively over the last few years, being offered to sail a D-Zero was a great opportunity to see what single handed racing was all about. Rigging the for the first time was a surprisingly simple task and took only a couple of minutes – very refreshing in comparison to the endless adjusting and tweaking of settings I encountered while racing in the 420 class! After not racing since Bass week last year, sailing the first race with 14-16 knots in this new, mean looking racing machine was an exciting if not (slightly daunting) prospect but I was pleasantly surprised to realise that the boat handled with ease.
Once I’d adjusted to not having a crew to do all the hard work, I found upwind sailing to be great! The simple yet effective control line setup enabled easy de-powering of the sail while the large roach adding to the sail area ensured I was rarely left wanting for more power when the breeze dropped. After the first beat I knew I was in for a very enjoyable week.
However (as probably with most boats) it was downwind where I had the most fun, I found the boat planed easily – before most of the other boats in the medium handicap fleet – especially when reaching. I must admit that in the first couple of races I had a few tippy moments but these became far less frequent as I became familiar with how much kicker to let off and how much dagger board I could get away with lifting up when running by the lee downwind (Things which are probably much more familiar to single handed sailors). The highlight of the week would have to be winning the evening race – finishing 2nd on the water in front of all but one of the RS 400s despite having a slower PY. I was also pleased with coming 16th out of 91 boats in the second pursuit race of the week after having to battle through that pesky laser fleet!
I’d like to thank John Turley for lending me such a great boat and really hope I can get my hands on a D-Zero again soon!
PS: After reading this I realise it sounds somewhat like an advertisement for the boat but I really did enjoy sailing it that much!
For more information on Bass Week click here.
