Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

5+ knots of SW wind, our boats speed pulsed between lows of 3.5 knots and high 5 - 6 knot range.

It was at that point of sail where the wind wants you to bring it just a little forward - to increase speed - but the course had us falling off slightly. The genoa was on the edge of being blanketed by the mainsail but still every effective.

We finally saw another sailboat a few miles short of the harbor. We quickly caught up and past the sloop. It was a Cape Dory 36. Not towing a dinghy(bragging), it must have been a local boat. The CD36 had a good sized genny but it also had a mast furled mainsail. Their main looked anemic.

We needed our old fashioned preventer/vang to get a good mainsail shape in the lightish wind. The power was coming from our main on that broad reach. Snatch blocked to the end of the boom (you can just see in the pic) and moving the other snatch block forward along the genoa track, the tackle gave the main great power.

The staysail gave us a nice little boast filling the big hole between the main and mizzen. It's an easy sail to fly but trim can be a little mysterious at times. This was the perfect condition.

Because the water was so flat, the old WP steered a perfect course (Rudder Gain set low - 1 or 2), so I could tweak to my hearts content. A 3 hour sail, it ended too soon.

Messages In This Thread