Friday, October 1, 2010

We're sailing

Its is always interesting when you sail a new boat, you start to see what happens when. There were a number of observations that I made.

The first was that the boat just tracked so well. I had heard this from others but when I discovered exactly how to balance the sails, the rest was easy. Of particular note was reducing the main one reef (normally) and the boat set back on a more level keel and off she went. The action improved remarkably, we lost a little bit of speed but the comfort level was so much better.

I had fitted a windvane and had fully intended using it but to be honest except for sailing off the wind it really wasn't needed. As usual everywhere we went the wind was usually in our face. The boat seemed just to find her way and I could comfortably move off the helm down below and do some things in the knowlege that all would be ok upstairs.

One of the other observations I had was that the boat was very clean in the water, whilst we were out in no more than 25 knots, we never really had green water in our faces, in short the sea action was great.

There were times when we a carpet of lobster buoys as far as the eye could see, and when we first went out these were a great source of anxiety, however towards the end we were quite comfortable sailing right thru them. We still were a bit concerned whilst motoring and I suspect that was prudent.

I seem to remember that the top speed we experienced was almost 8 knots and the boat was handling well at that speed, mostly on close haul to close reach we would be around 5 knots, with the speed increasing as we moved aroound off the wind. Running was slow it seemed compared to reaching and I think is quite normal. In particular the sea action while we were running was so pleasant and the speed was surprising even with just the yankee up.

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