49 nautical miles in 9 hours. 2 first hours in shifting conditiones. Last year I made the trip in 7 hours and 15 minutes, but that was in ideal conditiones all the way With one panel Down, and an inshore sail a bit less frantic. Surfing along in 10+ knots is quite hilarious.

Ketil 

Hi,

My NOR rating is 0,911 fully crewed, and 0,9011 shorthanded. A normal rating for an X-99 is 0,978 fully crewed. I could not get the rating for a BM rigged X-99 shorthanded.

The rating for the BR rigged fully crewed X-99 is hard to sail fast enough to win.  To find the differences, you multiply the sailing time With the rating. Sailing for an hour, I would get the finishing time 54.066 minutes, while the fully crewed standard boat would get 58,68 minutes. To beat me, they would need to sail 9% faster than me, wich is easy enough sailing headwind/ downwind (With spinnaker). Without a spinnaker, or With some reacing, they would have a hard time beating me to the finishing line. The last race lasted 7,5 hours and I was fit as a fiddle, while the others expressed feelings of fatigue. Adding to that, I had to beat to the racing track, 2 days sail, 15 hr total, and Reach home in a 20 knots Wind in 9 hours at the age of 69 years With little wear and tear thanks to the genious Chineese rig.

Regards

Ketil Greve   

I am far from an expert, however I can tell you what little I know.

Lexia has an IRC rating which was required to enter the OSTAR (2009 and 2013) and the AZAB (2011). 

Fortunately a Sunbird 32 junk rigged schooner had been registered for IRC previously and so it was just a matter of providing details of any changes, eg a feathering prop when fitted.  (I would imagine that it might be more difficult to start from scratch with a model that had never previously been IRC rated.) 

According to the IRC, Lexia is getting slower with age - just like her owner!    Indeed the AZAB gave me a trophy, apparently for going slowly, rather like a slow bicycle race. 

As regards sail area - the sail area is the sail area of the junk rig sails as per the sail plan.   And the junk rig is rated or entered as being without spinnaker. 

The only possible point of contention was that IRC insisted on recording the junk rig as a "Cat Ketch", presumably because that was the nearest description in the list on their computer system.  I didn't bother to argue. 

On the few dealings that I had with the IRC Rating Office they were very helpful.