X-34 Wins Boat of the Year Award 2007
During the prizegiving at the Hamble River Sailing Club, skipper Tim Smyth and his crew not only collected the silverware for the IRC 3 class win but was also awarded the overall trophy for the Boat of the Year for best performance over all classes. With smiles from ear to ear the crew left the podium with a rather large trophy.
X-34 wins the heavily contested Hamble Winter Series
Aeolus must have had a bad week as the winds gusted up to 60knots in the Solent for our supposedly last race in this series. The race committee made a wise decision to abandon all racing as they remarked ”It’s time to put our toys away for the winter”
With our 7 point lead in this series and only 6 points in total out of 6 races, this made the X-34 the undisputable winner in the biggest IRC class with 31 competitors. Looking back on our series, the only non wins were caused by our own mistakes. Changing one win into a 7th due to a Z-flag penalty and another one into a second as we lost control of a spinnaker halyard.
Originally intended as a fast cruiser, I was truly impressed with her upwind speed and even in the lighter conditions she was remarkably fast always outpacing her opponents on any leg of the course.
She was primarily sailed by a relatively new amateur crew and driver. Although there were times where we made mistakes our boatspeed always came to the rescue. She is a well balanced boat and with her high stability she is easy to sail over a wide range of heel angles and courses. Our average lead on handicap was 2 minutes or more on a 1 1/2 hour race.
With the class in the past being dominated by X-332’s I think a new era has come. From a perspective of speed and comfort, the new X-34 has proven to be a true winner!
Jochem Visser
For detailed reports and results of this series, please visit;
Final Results
Pos | Model | Yacht name | Skipper |
1 | X-34 | Xtravagance | Colin Byrne |
2 | J/92S | Joostup | Paul Heys & Kevin Sproul |
3 | Sigma 38 | Festina Lente | Meakins Family |
4 | Humphreys 30 | Hot Rats | Lis and Robbie Robinson |
5 | Sigma 38 | With Alacrity | Chris & Vanessa Choules |
6 | Sigma 38 | Persephone of London | Nigel Goodhew |
RACE 8 - 25th November 2007
X-34 going into last weekend of Winter Series in the lead…
After last week’s bitter cold day the racing last Sunday couldn’t have been better. With a nice 14-18 kn of breeze the committee scheduled two races to catch up for the previous week’s cancellation. Now that we have learnt to sail the boat better and better we were pretty confident that we would be able to overcome our OCS in one of the other races. With a nice start in race one we let the first windward mark with a huge lead and never looked back.
The second one was a bit tougher as we got kind of locked in at the start by two bigger boats and with the port tack lay line approaching fast, we had to bail out early and take some sterns to get out to the right. A novelty for us, nevertheless, after some good sailing and excellent upwind speed, we still managed just to squeeze ahead of the others around the first mark on this very short beat. Once we were clear, we took off in the usual fashion and scored another first.
After racing, the committee changed our OCS penalty after realising there was a mistake in the earlier race. With two races now scheduled for Sunday December 2nd, we need to secure 5th place or better to result in overall winner! Reflecting on the performance of the boat, it is quite remarkable that the X-34 has won every race in this 31 boat fleet with only one second place due to not being able to fly a kite in one race and a 7th due to a Z-flag penalty which was a 1st + 6 point penalty.
All in all, we are very impressed.
RACE 7 - 18th November 2007
No racing
RACE 6 - 11th November 2007
Impressive speed
Having had quite extreme conditions in the last few races, from light to strong winds, we were very pleased to see a steady 20 knots of breeze slowly decreasing during the day to about 14knots. It allowed us for the first time to do some proper rig tuning before the start of the two races scheduled.
6 Minute Lead
The boat was absolutely alight coming off the start line with not only substantially better speed, but also coupled with great height. We rounded the top mark so far ahead that we cleared our rating for the entire race. We extended downwind as well as upwind in the next legs and ended the two hour race 5-6 minutes ahead of the competition in 1st place.
It was nice to see that with the rig properly set up she was so fast. The second race started down tide with a big favour for the left hand side of the start line. We got locked in by another competitor and came dangerously close to the line. We managed to dip back and thought all was ok. We excelled again up and down wind and probably had the biggest lead we have ever had coming over the finish line. In flat water, she especially felt nice to drive and easily picked up the boats which started ahead of us.
Happy with our domination and double win, our moods went quickly from hero to zero when we discovered we had an OCS (premature start) on the last race. This now makes life a bit harder on the series as we picked up 32 points for the OCS next to our near perfect score sheet. We are sure though, we can claw it back and after 6 races we should have a discard.
RACE 5 - 4th November 2007
No racing
RACE 4 - 28th October 2007
Our wishes to test the X-34 in some more breeze were more then fulfilled when the second race in the Hamble winter series started off in 25 - 30 knots of breeze.
In the gusty conditions we were amazed at her upwind speed. The X-34 has great stability and she showed this in good form beating her rivals to weather mark. Downwind we made a mistake and after a short run with the spinnaker we lost the use of the spi halyard. Nevertheless, without the use of the kite for the remaining 3 downwind legs, she managed to gain so much upwind that we were still in contention.
At the finish we had to settle for second place by only 23 seconds. Quite remarkable for a boat that raced without a kite downwind!
We have now increased our lead overall and are leading with 3 points in the series.
Pos | Model | Yacht name | Skipper |
1 | X-34 | Xtravagance | X-Yachts |
2 | J/92S | Joostup | Paul Heys & Kevin Sproul |
3 | Humphreys 30 | Hot Rats | Lis & Robbie Robinson |
4 | J/110 | Shades of Blue | Nick Payne |
5 | Seaquest SJ320 | Scarlet Jester | Jamie Muir |
RACE 3 - 21st October
We were all keen to test out the sportive capacities of the new X-34 and it has taken three weeks before Aeolus gave us some proper breeze to race in. Finally, the 3rd weekend of the Hamble Winter series gave the IRC 3 class, the biggest class in the fleet with 29 entrants, the conditions to race in.
Leading the fleet by 6 minutes
The X-34 is more of a “dual purpose” boat than the sporty X-35, however, we know that every X-Yacht customer still expects an X-Yacht to stand up in competition. Approaching the start line, in 6 – 8 knots of breeze, we were anxious to see how she would do upwind. With an average start, we quickly found her groove and were astonished that even in the relatively light conditions she excelled and quickly led the fleet around the top mark with a comfortable lead on Kevin Sproul in Joostup. Maybe our speed was also our Achilles heel as we sailed into the back of the previous fleet which started 5 minutes ahead of us and basically slowed us down slightly in extending our lead downwind.
With only half a race to go we needed some time and the X-34 showed her pedigree by powering away and achieving the time needed for her rating and further excelling in the last downwind leg in clear air where she steadily pulled away.
At the race finish we had an impressive lead on the rest of the fleet, with the next boat behind us by more then 6 minutes in rating on a relatively short race.
A promising start and first race for the X-34, with the crew optimistic and confident, we look forward to showing her pace in a broad spectrum of conditions.
Pos | Model | Yacht name | Skipper |
1 | X-34 | Xtravagance | X-Yachts |
2 | J/92S | Joostup | Paul Heys & Kevin Sproul |
3 | Humphreys 30 | Hot Rats | Lis & Robbie Robinson |
4 | Seaquest SJ320 | Scarlet Jester | Jamie Muir |
5 | Sigma 38 | With Alacrity | Chris & Vanessa Choules |
6 | J/110 | Shades of Blue | Nick Payne |
RACE 2 – 14th October
Although the racing was postponed for an hour, we were eventually started and had two laid windward/leeward marks to round. On the first beat we quickly accelerated and proved to have superior upwind speed over the entire class 3 fleet. We then tacked to consolidate our lead but we were impeded by a rash of J109's, and arrived at the windward mark in second place.
When crossing the finish line we were confident of a podium position and were delighted with the X-34 light airs performance. Unfortunately, due to failure to record timings, the race was declared void and will be re-sailed on Sunday 21st October together with race 3.
RACE 1 – 7th October
The crew assembled for 8am on the dock and as we headed into the Solent, there was a light breeze from the North. After a short beat to windward, we lined up against the X-35, which was racing in the class above. She proved to hold her own against her lighter sister ship. The wind completely shut down and after some hours the racing was then abandoned for the day.
Pre-Race - 6th October
The X-34 crew, with Jochem Visser at the helm and the X-Yacht office staff completing the team, met on Saturday afternoon for a shakedown sail and to assess the new North 3DL sails. With 8-12kts of wind from the east, and blue sky we had a short beat towards East Bramble under the no 1 jib, and a spinnaker run back towards Hamble. After a few minor adjustments to the rig, she proved to sail beautifully to windward using the non-overlapping jib and inhauler system.
The main looked excellent on the rig and gave her plenty of drive. Heading round the mark we hoisted the 2S spinnaker helping us attain a respectable downwind run. We then headed back to the pontoon in Hamble and after making notes of a few settings, we were then happy to race the following day.
