Wednesday night beer can race

This Wednesday was the first sail in decent winds.  Probably around 8-12 knots gusting to around 15.  We were not able to make it to the start and met the fleet a few minutes after start, fell in behind the last boat and sailed the course from that point.  A 15 nm triangular course.  Crew was one man on a sail boat for about the third time, one very experienced cruiser not familiar with this boat.  We sailed conservatively and did not use the spinnaker, we didn't have the option of using the screacher without the bow pole.

On the reach we sailed pretty well, hitting 14,5 knots in a gust with the sheet well out and the traveller down.  The boat was absolutely stable and would have been able to take a lot more power. We had a compression fracture between the plastic insert and the carbon in the mast foot and had to rake the mast more forward to keep it rotating.  One more issue to address when indoor again.

The downwind leg was pretty boring without the spin.

We put in a reef before the upwind leg and did 11 knots pointing as high or higher than the rest of the fleet.  Neutral helm and almost no movements due to waves.  Pretty impressing! The wind died after a while and we shook out the reef, but continued to make huge gains on the fleet including a Dragonfly 28 sport.

Conclusion:  It's a rocket.  Can't wait to learn how to sail her!