Well, that was exciting! A squally day, with almost no wind unless one of the many large clouds happened to be nearby in which case the speed went up and the direction could change by 90 degrees in a few minutes. A challenge for our first go with the mainsail. Started off puddling about under jib & mizzen again in almost flat calm. So up went the sail. The wind then gradually started to increase until we had a nice F3 or maybe more in gusts. Enough to have her heeling over and the gunwale getting wet, much to Marianne's alarm. Valentine felt totally happy with it though and transmitted that to me so I felt no need to let off the mainsheet, but did to stop M squawking. On a beam reach, with foam creaming off the bows, we hit our maximum speed of 6.3 knots sustained. This via a good GPS, so pretty reliable and not just a random fluctuation. She was doing 3.5 knots close hauled!
All good things come to an end with M getting tired very quickly so a derig under power just as a very strong squall hit, so maybe just as well. Mizzen did her job while we derigged main and jib while the engine at idle kept the nerves at bay. Getting onto the trailer was never going to be super-smooth and the wind was by now almost abeam, so I missed the roller entry gate and scraped the coppercoat against the trailer edge. Never mind - these things are meant to be used and will pick up knocks in so doing. The off-season can be used for patch ups. Then the wind pushed her off the rollers as I wound in, so in she went again and helpers appeared to wind in while I held her off with into-wind pull on bow and stern lines. Problem solved!
A great first sail with all 3 sails. The boom swung well clear of our heads and wasn't a problem to gybe. All good!
Comments
Post a Comment