Today we went for the second test sail on British Beagle after the winter refit. Yesterday we had full main and full genoa and tood some shots of the new mast (looks pretty to me!).
The conditions were totally different, we had 25 knots gusting 30 in Plymouth Sound, the wind was houling and I felt still a little rusty after more than 6 months at my desk in the office. We took the chance to test the new staysail, a smaller sail I have had made to be used in this kind of wind. We had three reefs on the main, we set the autopilot (working effortlessly on the perfectly balance rudder) and again something strange happened... I sheeted in the staysail and the boat speed went 5.8.... 6.2... 6.5... 6.8... 6.9kt, beating hard at 30 degrees apparent to the wind with very little canvas. This cannot be right I thought, . So I switched on the GPS and was even more confused, it read above 7 knots boat speed! We turned around, tacked, gybed, sailed downwind, beat hard on the wind... only one conclusion seemed plausible, the boat sails a lot faster!!! The new rudder produces less drag, plus I did some fairing around the keel recess, the mast is setup properly which means the boat is balanced and so you actually use the rudder to change direction, not as handbrake... I was grinning with happiness... enough for one day.
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