Projection 762 Help please?

Originally posted by jarmers Cheers, will have a chat with 1 sails next week. Hopefully getting the boat out next month to give it some tlc ready for the spring. Will play with rig once back in the water. We managed a mid fleet 7 th on boxing day with 3 on board. Found it really hard to stay close to the 6 melges 24's!more practice needed.

Hi everyone,

I have had some questions about Wee Bear (modified Projection 920), so I will copy the answer here for the general interest.

Wee Bear was modified by the previous owner Carl Wilcock, a professional shipbuilder:
- He redid the bulkhead just forward of the mast as there apparently was some deck lifting issue.
- The shrouds are now on the hull side, which means that you can't have overlapping jibs anymore (IRC will heavily penalise that anyway and I think other 920s are rated with No 3 size jibs).
- The very wide spreaders (mast is the same) allowed Carl to add a pulley at the top of the mast and therefore an external masthead halyard.
- He designed and built the carbon bowsprit to have A sails as he was sailing her solo. The A2 is a masthead 80 m 2 kite and the A3 fractional 60ish m 2 kite. We also have a masthead code zero.

We initially raced her both short handed and fully crewed with the A sails but were not performing in typical windward/leeward races so we decided to do the Hamble Winter Series with the symmetric kite a couple of years ago and achieved two overall 3rd places in a row, being competitive against boats like Sigma 38s, X332s, J92s, A31 etc etc etc. She is very nice to sail in a blow and will get on the plane in the right conditions (strong winds and/or big waves). We find that we lack a bit of power in the light airs because of the jib size. We have a new jib that is probably as big as you can get with the new rig configuration.

The symmetric kite we have is 60 m2 (original size). We have been flying this from the masthead to get cleaner air, but the kite has a weird shape and we are currently thinking about flying it from the fractional again. If/when we have more money available, we may well consider to go for a bigger masthead kite with a bigger pole.

Currently our IRC is 0.992 with the asymmetric kite (short-handed) and 0.985 with the symmetric kite. These ratings are a bit high, but much nicer than the P762 ones. The symmetric handicap is very close to the Sigma 38 and JPK 9.60, about 5/10 points higher than the X332 Sport and J97 (grrrr) and between 10 and 20 point higher than the J92. I think the A31 is a touch higher.

The boat is very stiff and easy to sail, even short-handed.


Some recent photos:

DSC_7800.jpg by Bertrand Malas, sur

DSC_8300.jpg by Bertrand Malas, sur Flickr

DSC_7884.jpg by Bertrand Malas, sur Flickr

Hi all.

Wee Bear is reluctantly for sale as one of the co-owners now lives too far away to truly enjoy the boat. She is a unique example of these rare desirable yachts as she was extensively modified by the previous owner (a professional boat builder) to improve performance, make her easier to sail short-handed and to fix known design issues with the deck. As part of the work the forward bulkhead was rebuilt and the shrouds base moved to the side of the hull. As a result, she carries non-overlapping jibs making her easy to sail short-handed and rate more favourably under IRC. She was also fitted with a custom built carbon bow sprit and flies an 80 sqm asymmetric spinnaker in this configuration.
She has been well maintained by the current owners. She is currently lying in Drivers in Southampton and being prepared for another successful racing season (antifouling, gelcoat polishing, minor jobs…).
She is competitive under IRC both fully crewed (symmetric) and short-handed (asymmetric) and has an excellent racing record with podium positions in major Solent series and regattas (3rd in the 2013 and 2014 Hamble Winter Series, 2nd in the 2015 Taittinger Regatta, 2nd in 2014 and 3rd in 2015 in the Royal Southampton Yacht Club Double Handed Series, Solo Offshore Racing Club…).

Please contact me if you want more details.

£31,500 Tax paid

Crikey going big or home this year with our new 55m2 kite. Initial testing is positive.

Halyard point was raised by previous owner for 48 symmetric. (About 70cm) Them we have a selden prod on the deck. Currently 3.1 out.