‘RelaX of Phoenix  ’ skipper’s familiarisation – report by Chris Watts 

On a wet and windy late April day   I had the pleasure of doing a familiarisation day on Phoenix Yacht Club’s new boat ‘RelaX of Phoenix’ – they had want just to call her ‘RelaX’, but there is another registered in that name. RelaX is an X-Yachts X-40 built in Denmark and is 9 years old and has had 2 previous owners, who apparently used her very little. She is 12.19 metres in length, 3.80 in the beam and 2.1 metres draught.

I arrived at 0850 to find Trevor Nicholls – PYC’s Rear Commodore Sailing – on board. Trevor was running the Fam. The other skippers soon arrived. Peter Clare, Barry Barnes and Ron Clark.

The layout below is the modern 3 cabin version with a curved seating area to Starboard - this can become a single berth, with an island seat opposite, on the Port side is the galley. It looked as good as new down below with light wood and leather seats. The only snag I saw below was that if someone was at the galley then access to the forward cabin or the heads was restricted, or you climbed over the island seat. The companionway is a bit steep so going down backwards at sea is advisable.

The morning was spent below where Trevor ran through his very thorough training check list. Engine is a sail drive with access at both sides from the cabins or by removing the companionway, as is standard on most boats.

One nice feature below was that the fridge can be left on all the time and it will automatically adjust itself according to battery state. The cooling for it was by pipes attached to the sink outlet skin fitting.

Trevor told us that on the trip back from Denmark it was found that you could plan on 7 knots as a passage speed whether under sail or engine. The engine works well at 1800 rpm giving 7 knots. Engine range is about 24 hours as RelaX has a smallish fuel tank.

After our sandwiches we donned our wet weather gear and headed onto deck. RelaX has good clean lines and a relatively rope free deck which makes moving around fairly safe. The cockpit is large with the main traveller just in front of the wheel, so well out of the way. The wheel is huge with not much space at either side to get in and out of the steering position, because of its size it sits in a well in the deck, Trevor pointed out that ropes can get snagged in there.

There are 3 large lockers for ropes, fenders etc, the Starboard one contains all the safety gear – liferaft, flares, grab bag and emergency steering tiller etc. Ropes in the Port locker and the fenders went into the aft locker.

Trevor took RelaX away from the berth reversing out towards Fort Blockhouse. We then took it in turns to get a feel for the boat under power. It was a very direct and responsive feel whether in forward or reverse and she turned on a sixpence without needing lots of revs to turn her, just a short burst was all that was needed.

We then motored up to Fareham Creek where we were going to practise picking up a mooring and also set some sail and sort out the reefing. On the previous couple of days RelaX had been on the Hamble having her rigging checked by X-Yachts. The shrouds and backstay are solid rods – not sure about the forestay. As Phoenix are going to race RelaX she has to conform to RORC rules, which meant amongst other things, the loose footed main had to have an extra reef put in to be able to reduce the luff by 40%. The X-40 is designed for 2 reefs so we spent a happy hour or so, working out the best way to rig the extra reefing lines as there are only two lines coming back through the boom and mast to the cockpit, these lines only tighten the outhaul. In the end Trevor decided to rig reefs 2 and 3 permanently, the first reef being the easiest to put in using a short strop at the outhaul and a shackle or similar to connect the luff to a point on the mast, it could do with stag horns to achieve this.

Before we set the sails we all had a go at picking up a mooring, the ones chosen by Trevor were ones I had never seen before. These buoys consisted of a large float with a 2 ft high tower on it in which was a rope with an eye in, this made it very simple for the person at the bow to collect.

After we all had a go we started playing around with the main and having played around with the reefs we set full main and the heavy weight jib and in relatively light winds we achieved over 8 knots. Again she was very responsive to the helm. RelaX, unlike most modern boats, is powered by her main and not the genoa. Not totally sure of her full complement of sails, but I think it is main, genoa, heavy weight jib, furling asymmetric spinnaker and storm sails.

One feature which will be new to most people is the fact she has two mainsheets – one Starboard one Port, I’m very familiar with this arrangement as the sail training boats I sailed on always had this. It can lead though to problems if you let too much out on one side without compensating on the other you might run out of rope. The sheets disappear into the deck near the traveller and reappear by the mast leaving the deck uncluttered. There was one snag with the jib in that when we furled it away the halyard wrapped itself around the forestay at the top. Trevor knew about this and was in consultation about how to correct it.

Back at the marina we all had goes at bringing RelaX alongside and reverse out again, I haven’t jumped ashore with a line so often in years. RHIP. I must say I found her a delight to manoeuvre, very responsive to the helm, and short sharp bursts on the engine stopped her if needed. I was lucky in that I got 2 goes at bringing her in as I was last to have a go. Both times I had a slight following wind so after I got her going forwards I put her in neutral and glided in.

The berth is portside to and the engine controls are on the starboard side low down on the side. Trevor was sitting on the edge on the cockpit just aft of the controls, so I got him, under my commands, to work the engine controls whilst I concentrating in not hitting the pontoon. Worked well!

We got back just as it stopped raining, so down below for tea and a bit of theory. Trevor had set us some tidal calculations to work out before we got on board. This was because RelaX draws 2.1m which is far more than previous boats. I won’t give away too much as Gordon has yet to do his Fam, but the calculations involved secondary ports and tidal curves. Obviously my little grey cells were still working as, along with the others, I got them correct.

I can’t wait to have a proper sail on her, she handles well under sail or motor slipping through the water with ease, and down below she is very comfortable. I think she is an excellent replacement for Spellbinder and will give PYC many years of excellent service. Those on the PYC new boat committee have done a superb job.