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Congratulations to the VX teams finishing 1,2 and 4 in the sportsboat class at Cowes Race Week.  A Viper came 3rd and a modified 1720 was 5th.  Would be great to hear some first hand reports from anyone there!

Link to overall results here:
http://www.aamcowesweek.co.uk/web/code/php/main_c.php?map=cw14&style=std&ui=cw1&override=&section=racing&page=points2014&resultrequest=440&submit=

A bit of a recap from Day 5 here:
http://www.cowes.co.uk/Cowes-Week-2014-Day-5-Round-up.aspx
<snip>White Group
White Group dayboats starting on the Royal Yacht Squadron line headed to the east, with a following wind for their first leg today. The healthy fleet of 22 Sportsboats racing under IRC has seen two of the smallest boats – Glyn Locke's Viper 640 Fer de Lance and Chris Turner's VX One Zhik – dominating the top of the rankings. Today both were again at the head of the fleet at the start, with Locke closest to the outer distance mark and immediately hoisting his asymmetric spinnaker. However, it Turner got his kite set first and his ultra-light boat accelerated rapidly to double-digit speeds and a significant early lead.

The VX One's clearly revelled in today's stronger breezes, with the three boats taking all the podium places on corrected time. Howard Steavenson's Abracadabra finished 40 seconds ahead of Turner to take first. Although Locke was third across the line a little over three minutes later, Nathan Batchelor's lower-rated Grapefruit Graphics gained an 11-second advantage on corrected time to take third place..</snip>


A bit if a recap from Day 8 here:
http://www.cowes.co.uk/Cowes-Week-2014-Daily-Round-up-Day-8.aspx
<snip> In the Sportsboat class, three boats were vying almost neck and neck for the lead going into the final day. Glyn Locke's Viper 640 Fer de Lance and Chris Turner's VX One Zhik were again the first boats off the start line, with Locke setting his spinnaker first. When Turner threw in an early gybe to head offshore, Locke followed to cover him. However, it was the three VX Ones that triumphed in today's breezy conditions, with their ultra-light weight helping them power to impressive downwind speeds. This leaves Nathan Batchelor's Grapefruit Graphics heading the leaderboard on 11 points, with Turner second on 12 points and Locke third overall on 14 points.</snip>

Thought I would post a short clip from the Newport Regatta last weekend - It was great to race one design with 7 VX Ones in our fleet (5 Newport-based plus 2 trailering from Lake Champlain (me) and Annapolis.)   Since I've only had my VX since Memorial Day, I was also very fortunate that Brian offered to sail with me and coach (thanks again for the invaluable lessons Brian - not to mention for your patience with my tacking(!))   

Saturday conditions were very light and declined from there so we only sailed 1 race.  Sunday conditions were 6 - 10 knots and we sailed 4 races. The clip (tiller mounted GoPro) is from the third race on Sunday where I ended up 5th... very motivating to see how much ground I kept losing alongside the better handled boats in basic maneuvers - still a lot of fun though - and definitely more practice in the works.

Overall, thanks again Brian and thanks everyone for a great series in Newport!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/70672047[/vimeo]

New VX owner here (USA 142, now 4 days old) and just though I'd post a link to results from the Atlantic Cup. (By the way, scoring gave high points to the first finisher and low points to last across the line):
http://atlanticcup.org/vx-one-results/

Actually had my first sail on the boat on the way to Race 1 (!)   Saturday had cool temps and some rain but overall a great day with 8 boats getting in 4 races. Highlights (for me) included:

-being able to share the race course with the very impressive Class 40's
-being able to line up next to truly top level sailors racing the VX out there
-very cool race format. Race instructions included a map of Newport harbor with 11 government and drop in marks, as well as 20 possible race course options (8 of which were slightly shorter and more likely to be selected for VX racing.)  About 10 minutes or so before a start, race radio would announce which course we were racing, and we'd pull out the map to see where we were headed. Race 1 was an upwind start with tide a factor.  Race 2 was a reaching start where half the fleet decided to start with the kite up and half did not.  Race 3 was another upwind start to above Newport Bridge and then a downwind finish (I think.)  Race 4 was another reaching start past an enormous anchored cruise ship and wind strengthening enough to put a few boats on their side (including us.)  Definitely a lot of fun compared to a series of W/L's.  Our velocitek recorded 17 knots max for the day. 

We woke up Sunday to even cooler temps (below 50) and consistent 18 knots with gusts to 25+.  Dry suits would have been good to have but the plug was pulled on more VX racing (definitely cold.)  Then had a very useful debrief with BB and the top guys from Saturday, and a few VX's headed out on their own (faster than Saturday.) 

Thanks to everyone for a great regatta and in particular Fleet 5 Captain Tim Pitts for a ton of help getting my boat set-up!