T680 in Berlin

On Oct. 11th I got a call by Tboat Europe and was asked if I can organize an experienced crew for the brand new T680 Sport for the Senats Preis Regatta held by the Berliner Yacht Club (www.byc-berlin.de) at the Lake Wannsee from Oct. 13-15th. The Senats Preis Regatta is the last regatta event for Sportboat sailors from Germany. The Beneteau 25 and the Streamline class will race OD as the H-Boats and STAR boats too. 30 minutes later I skyped Jan back and told him that I got a complete crew for the little Tboat: Thomas, Florian and me! Thomas decided to cancel our entry with his Skippi 650 he bought 2 weeks ago and we will race the T680 Sport for the first time in a regatta in Germany.

The boat was brought to Berlin by Radim Zizka, the owner of Bukvaj, a CZ company based at Prague. In July 06 the first T680 Sport was ready to sail and brought down to Lake Garda for the Gorla and the Centomiglia Race. The T680 performed quite well and finished both races as winner of her class. Radim, his daughter and the boat arrived at our club Friday after midnight so we just shared a CZ beer while some boat talking before we go for a short sleep because the 1st start would be the same day at 14:00.

In the morning Florian and Thomas joined us and together we had a close look at our new ride. We noticed the fine lines of the hull and the very good finish for a prototype, all deck hardware by Harken, a perfect looking 2 spreader carbon mast from NZ and a very small spinnaker chute at the foredeck

A tow by one of our club motor boats was fixed for 12:00 o´clock sharp and time was running out. So we hurried up and splashed the boat into the water and stepped the mast. Rig trim was more or less rudimentary and so we just checked the mast rake according to the advice given by Tboat Europe. We put the sails on the boat, took a bottle of Sherry, some sandwiches and off we go together with „Ciao“ a Beneteau 25 and the Thompson T750 „Rocking Girl“ from our club.

During the tow to the race area we decided no to use the spinnaker chute for hoisting or take down the asso. We put the sail after the mast and prepared all sheets to hoist the gennaker as we know it from our sailings with the great Tboat or our small Sympathy 600 what means we will pull it out under the lower shroud and the mast. Take downs at the leeward marks should be windward ones because it is a lot easier to pull the the 70 sqm spin cloth into the cockpit free from the jib. Okay, a look around the boat shows nothing totally new to us: Traveler sheet for the helmsman, mainsheet trim by the middle man, two in front to hike upwind and jib trim, downwind for hosting and trim of the gennaker. Should be a piece of cake – and we were right as we found out we we did some practice tacks and gybes in the last 20 minutes before the 1th start. The boat is easy to sail, no big loads on the sheets, the huge cockpit is perfect for fast crew maneuvers, roll tacks like dinghy style, but best: The T680 Sport is fast! Fast going upwind and faster going downwind under the huge asso! And we noticed how the T680 was checked by our mates on the mixed bunch of sportboats in our class as Melges 24, Hunter 707, Brenta 24, Delphia 24 Sport (new hottie from Poland), J 80, Helmsman 751, Mantra 7000, Beneteau 25, Skippi 650 and J22.

At the start of the first race wind was around 5-7 kns, not bad for the first time with a new boat. Thomas made everything right and we hit the line with good speed and free of other boats. At the first beat the big Tboat passed by at the windward side as normally the big T830 does to the T750. One Delphia 24 overtook us slowly too, but we couldn´t do anything against that, they had better boatspeed and were pointing higher than we did. During the regatta that boat was sailed always very good and fast, we found later out that the helmsman and his crew are semi-professionals who do the promo stuff for the Delhpia yard.

We were very impressed by the speed the little Tboat did upwind because the length of the hull is just 6,80 meter (= 22,3´). We were able to sail the speed of the Melges 24 and beat the UFO 22 as the Brenta 24 too. Downwind the same: T750 ahead of us, Delphia 24 too and around us Melges 24. Hoisting the big Gennaker at the mark was easy, the sail was set without any problem under the shrouds, went up to the mast top and out to the pole. When the helmsman pointed to the windward and the sail got air, the Asso showed very good shape. The T680 started to increase their boatspeed at once, no need for hiking in that low winds, the helmsman was still siting at the leeward side. The first gybe worked without problems, just give the trimmer time to pull in the new working sheet before steering to the wind again. The luffleach of the Asso twisted to the windward so we were able to point real deep when going downwind. Easing the tackline made the sail twist more and we got better control too. In the next gybe we found out that it makes it easier if someone helps the trimmer by working on the lazy sheet during the gybe. We found out later that the problem was not the underdeck runing Gennake rsheet but the small Ratchet blocks at the aft which produce some unwelcome friction on the sheet. At the leeward mark we did a windward douse and stuffed the asso into his tunnel below the foredeck. The jib was pull in and we tacked at the mark. At this upwind beat we caught up with the end of the Beneteau 25 fleet who started 5 minutes in front of us – so I think there is not problem with the boatspeed of the T680 Sport at all :-)

We finished the first race 4 minutes behind the T750 that took the gun, 3 min after the Delphia 24, 15 seconds in front of the first Melges 24 and 4:50 minutes in front of the UFO 22. But please remember: This is LAKE SAILING – if you make one wrong beat at a race of app. 1 hour you normally are fucked up. Later the wind increased and we thought that we will have a second race today but sadly there was a single Skippi 650 late and more than 35 minutes behind their group. So the Race Committee decided not for a second race at the afternoon to prevent trouble with the boys from the Water Police. Most of the boats have no navigation lights and sailing without lights will cost you 40 EUR when the daylight has gone :-( and that's a lot cheaper than run over by one of the commercial motorvessels on our waters here in Berlin.

Sailing back to our club I took the helm and I was very pleased how the boat showed fast and immediately response to the helm. Sensitive but not nervous on the rudder and with the right power at the tiller the T680 is very easy to steer. Upwind the boat demonstrated good pointing quality. We think that we can improve that by better trim of the mast, but for the first try it was okay for us. All sail are made by North Sails NZ, the Jib looks great  and I think the Loft in NZ did a good job with this first set of sails ever build for the T680 Sport. The Main sail was to deep in the middle, so we decide to install a cunnigham for next day races. The main itself need more bend by the mast to get a better shape and / or a re-cut in the luffleach, to take maybe 2-3 cm (1 inch) off there should be no problem for a sailmaker.

Next day we meet early for breakfast at the club. The wind had increased up to 10-12 kns, maybe 14-15 in the gusts so planing downwind should be fun today. While the Beneteau 25 and Streamline had their countdowns to start we trimmed the main: Cunnigham close and Outhaul to flatten the main. We got a better shape then yesterday but it showed clearly that there is a lot of work ahead to work out the mast trim to get the carbon stick in the right bend. But the T680 was fast even with this now known problem.

The boat heeled more than yesterday but to our experience with the T750 the boat was more stable then the bigger Tboat. The big T was designed with an integrated instrument to check the right heeling: If water comes in from the open transom you are heeling to much! The little Tboat is sailing very dry if you compare it to her older sister, the crew has to sit at the rail if the wind is over 10-12 kns. If the wind it over 14 kns I think you have to start hiking hard but hell: Do we want to sail a sportboat or a 4 knots leadmine? I was glad that we sailed a true sportboat that day: After the start we had a fine long upwind beat, the boatspeed was good and with a better trimmed mast we should be able to point 5 degrees higher than we did. Downwind the boat was pretty quick and we had some fine surfing within the Melges 24. No problems to gybe the boat, everything runs smooth and fast. When we reached the leeward mark our trouble started: Boat with the right of way from everywhere, the clew of the Gennaker got hooked by the knot of the sheets at the forestay, the sail still got wind and so power, passing the layline,.... as result we lost 3 boat at the mark because we did shit crew work.

Upwind we chose the wrong side of the course and missed a big windshift. Another 2-3 boat gone, downwind lot of fun again when surfing to the mark, at the mark same procedure as the first time: Trouble to get the Gennaker  down, 2 boats passed by. At the end we finished 4 minutes behind the Delphia 24 and the T750. We know were we made our mistakes and lost a lot of time and places. So we did a change in crewpositions to prevent the communication problems we had during the last race. In the next 3 races we did much better and finished always in the first third of the sportboat class.

At the end of the day we took the 9th of 23 boats under corrected time on the ORC-Handicap. First place was taken by a J22 which we never saw at he race course after the start, but they got a handicap you can not loss with = 3 J22 within the first 8 places! Second boat overall was the very well sailed Delphia 24 Sport „Makowski“ from Poland. The UFO 22 finished 4th after a – you are right: a J22! Followed by a Brenta 24, 2 Melges 24 and the last J22 just in front of us. The big Tboat finished 12th in front of another Melges and the Melges with the canting keel, J80, Mantra 7000, Hunter 707, JS 9000 and Delphia 24.

Sadly there was no Wind on Sunday – after 3 hours of waiting the RC canceled the regatta and so there were no change it the results possible any more. On our way home we started preparing the T680 for a fast getting out of the water, took down the sails and packed them in their bags. We spoke about the boat and we all agreed that he had a lot of fun together at the weekend.

The boat is really fast for its boatlength upwind, downwind there is no problem to get the boat surfing under the asso. The boat is easy to sail, no big loads on the sheets, easy to sail with a crew of 4, in wind up to 10-14 kns a crew of 3 should be able to do the job too after some practice. The finish of Hull #01 is very good for as it is a prototype. Of cause there a some things to be improved by the yard, i.e. Radim should replace the Spinnaker chute at the foredeck by a huge Gennaker bag after the mast. But no big things - more the little things you find out after some racing weekends to speed up the handling of the boat by the crew.

The price for the boat is roundabout 23.000 EUR incl. a Carbon mast but without sails. This price is ex VAT and free yard Prague, CZ. I think that is a fair price for a boat of that quality in design, building, speed and fun. If you know what boats there are in this range of the sportboat class and you are in the market for small boat that has no need for big crew, easy to tow behind your family car, easy to launch from the trailer – I suggest that you put new T680 Sport on your list. Hurry up and contact Radim at www.bukvaj.com and fix a ride as quick as possible.

Joachim Rieken,
Berlin