A Good Day for Testing…

We’ve been really lucky with great breeze this winter. Trying out our new (old) fully batten mainsail, which is much, much flatter than the Pentex main. A reef, #4, 6 people on the rail, max backstay, and traveller down. She’s given all she’s got Captain. Thanks so much, John Bartlett, for coming out to sail with us. We really value your input.  Thank you Lynna Holland for the photos!

We learned a number of good things.  First, our mast is really stiff.  Even with max backstay only the tip really bends.  Second, this flat, fully battened main works really well with the stiff mast.  Third, the main is so flat we don’t need to reef as early.  We probably didn’t need to reef yesterday at all.

The highest gust for the day was 33 knots, but slowly eased throughout the race.  We started with the reef and #4 and finished with a full main and #3.