and a set of new performance main sail and jib from BWY. We tasked ourselves with setting the jib up on the furler, swapping the stays and furling the mainsail onto the boom with sail straps before putting in.The forecast called for 15mph winds and 30mph gusts. We confirmed this in the parking lot while rigging, the forecast was right, a cold front had just moved in with rain the day before.
Rigging went perfectly, and we decided to keep the jib furled, this proved like the right course of action. Common guidance including from our members on this forum suggested I was operating in the upper limits of our boats despite Roger's impressive demonstration in the promo videos.
We put in about 2pm, and motored out while filling the ballast with a brand new home made ballast tank full indicator based off one of the reed switch mods posted, will post more on that later. I mention now only to say I had never in my one year of ownership filled the ballast tanks all the way until this day.
We raised the main with a lot of trouble, using the winch to crank it up while luffing like crazy... It was about 2:30/3pm, see the chart below of reported wind speeds...
Forgot to attach the clew properly, so it bubbled out more than I think it should have...
We spent a couple hours tacking up and down the Elk River, lost a batten along the way, but man... What a confidence builder in these boats' capabilities. We heeled over to 30 degrees a few times and though scary the first few times, she never gave any indication of trouble. Just a couple of inexperienced sailors learning her. I also believe it's a bit of thanks to the better roach on the new main that kept us from heeling as much as it would have with a standard roach.. open to being corrected here
I will note that it was hard to keep her on course, and should have definitely been reefed, but once we rolled up and started to motor in, there was an extremely noticeable difference with daggerboard up vs down. We ended up docking around 5pm. I am so glad we went instead of fear keeping us on the dock like I read this forecast should have done to a day sailor like me.
Here's a short video of the event. My buddy asked me why it seemed we were traveling diagonally instead of straight, you can hear my answer in the audio.
