First Sail: The VX One by Bennett Yachting
With a very unfortunate accident, the Viper 640 that I've owned for 5 years is no more and has very recently been replaced by a VX One. In this post, I'm going to give you my impressions of our first sail and how it compares to the Viper 640.
The common thread here is that both boats were designed by Brian Bennett with the VX One representing 15 years of design improvement over the Viper 640 (which I still believe to be a very good design and very fun boat to sail).
Our VX One is hull #170 that we picked up from Donnie Brennan at Diversified Marine in Mobile, AL. The boat was built earlier this year (2014) and since Donnie raced the boat a few times before our purchase, he has professionally set the boat up with all the current go-fast bits. For anyone in the Gulf Coast region looking to buy a VX One, Donnie is a pleasure to work with and will treat you very well.
Setting up the boat and rigging is similar to the Viper 640, as I would expect. The major difference when setting up the boat is the mast and halyards. The standing rigging on the VX One consists of three shrouds and a fixed length forestay. The mast butt also is a fixed position, so this make tuning much more simple. The only thing you'll notice when attaching the shrouds in there are a lot more ring-dings on this boat than the Viper 640 and if your fingernails are sensitive, that can be a little annoying.
While the Viper has mast partners or a slot in the deck to hold the mast, the VX One has a hole. This can be good because once you set the mast in the step, no standing rigging is required to hold the stick up. The bad side is stepping mast takes a little more time with the mast being held vertical which can be a little challenging in higher breeze for first timers. But don't be alarmed, the mast only weighs 26 pounds and is built strong.
The VX One has a roller furling jib which was always a complaint I had on the Viper 640. The Viper has such a narrow foredeck that when you drop the jib, it tends to fall off the boat. On the VX, it's just a matter of rolling it up which is very nice.
The spinnaker halyard/pole extension setup is very good. With a single line to hoist and extend the pole, life is easy for the crew. The one thing to watch out for is to never lose your tracer line and remember to put the tracer line back when you de-rig. Just like the Viper, it is a pain to run the spin takedown line without the tracer to help. Make sure your crew is aware of this!
Once we got the boat on the water, it's amazing how easily it glides with the smallest amount of breeze. Due to the flatness of the bottom of the hull, it definitely likes a small amount of heel to get the windward chine out of the water. There's a noticeable difference in sound coming off the stern when you give it a few degrees.
The jib trim system is different than the Viper 640 or just about any other boat that's currently being actively raced, at least on the Gulf Coast. The self-tacking jib runs on a Harken track and provides two lines to trim from the center of the cockpit. The bottom line is your jib traveler and the top line is your jib sheet. Donnie marked trim positions behind the track with degree marks so they are accurate and make reproducing trim positions simple. Once your crew gets familiar with the boat, they will only have to remember a few basic starting trim positions based on point of sail, and then fine tune from there.
The spinnaker trim is continuous and does not have much load, even in high breeze. The small (40mm I think) racket blocks do a good job at making control easy. The chute itself is a different proportion that the Viper 640, so when the boat starts to load up and heel on the downwind, a small ease on the spinnaker sheet and you stay on your feet.
My first impression of the helm is that it feels amazing. The rudder is light and feels like it's at the perfect angle and position. This makes for a super well balanced boat. I remember the first time I drove the Viper 640 and I thought how balanced that boat was. Well, now I know I was wrong and there was room for improvement. When we were headed downwind with 12.5 kts of boat speed, the tiller felt exactly the same as it did at 3 kts of boat speed, it's that easy. Also, with the vertical rudder instead of the swept rudder on the Viper 640, it's much easier to get the boat to behave when you are right on the edge of being able to carry the chute.
The only time I felt pressure on the helm was driving upwind, which is expected. The slight pressure is great feedback to tell you to put on more Gnav/vang or change your main trim. You use more gnav on this boat then I did on the Viper 640. I'm still getting used to trimming the main off the boom, but it doesn't load up and it's easy to trim. I was able to sail at 12.5 kts and hold the tiller extension and main sheet with one hand.
If you couldn't tell, my impression of the boat is that it's a very well designed and put together package. I remember how impressed I was with the Viper 640 (compared to your standard PHRF boats) as far as keeping things simple and how fun it was sail. The VX One improves on just about every aspect to make it much better boat/experience overall. The only worry I had on the Viper 640 was when going downwind in some breeze, it was easy to lose control and dump the boat with inexperienced crew. That fear is almost gone in the VX One because the rudder bites so much better (much less cavitation) and the chute is relatively smaller overall. I feel I could teach crew how to work the jib and spinnaker on this boat in about 15 minutes, it's that easy.
I'll be writing more posts as we sail the boat more to let you know as much as I can about sailing this super-fun one design boat.
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