Shake down sail # 2

In the lee of San Francisco

Find Karen???


Today we decided to test out everything on the boat in stronger conditions. It's not like it was blowing a gale or anything but the forecast was for 10 -15 knots becoming 15 -25 this afternoon. Perfect morning for going out and heeling her over!

Geoff wanted to try out the reefing system which is totally different to Timana's. There are only two reefing points which allow us to reduce the size of the mainsail in strong conditions. Timana had three which allowed us to end up with a little triangle of mainsail flying. The difference in this system is that it can all be done from the cockpit. It means as the conditions get stronger Geoff does not need to go up for'ard to reef the main.....which is much safer and drier! We sailed out of the estuary and west then south into San Fran bay over towards South Beach Harbour and the AT & T Baseball stadium. The conditions were gusty and probably in the range of 11-16 knots with the occasional bullet (gust) off San Fran of 20+ knots. The boat handled everything really well, stayed pretty flat and did not lean too much. She hit an average of around 6 knots of speed, with some angles of sail a bit more in the stronger winds. Pretty good compared to Timana. And Geoff was a very happy boy with the reefing system....he loved it, the mainsail kept a good shape and the boat kept her speed. With the benefit of a more comfortable ride.

We also sailed dead downwind to try out the second hand spinnaker pole that Geoff had shortened and refurbed. He poled out our little 90% Genoa and it all worked perfectly.....in fact we couldn't find anything to complain about today at all! The boat was comfortable, dry on deck, dry down below...steered the course well (no autohelm yet) and was generally very friendly. I even got competitive against another yacht ahead of us and tried to out run it!!

We got back into the Marina around 2.30 pm after a pretty fast ride downwind home, we actually hit 8 knots speed!!! .....Okay I think we had a bit of current with us too ;) We tidied up, hosed her down (a wonderful luxury compared to water restrictions at home) and headed off to have a celebration dinner at the L & L Hawaiian BBQ Franchise, mmmm

The wind has continued to blow harder since we got in and we think we timed the day just right. Hopefully we can do the same for the big trip??

And we have a great week ahead of us next week too!! Have a good flight Chrissy!