First sail of the season

After I launched Saturday morning, I was able to motor a short trip together with my wife and our 2 yo daughter.  They were on board for their first time.  Our daughter had a thrill when she found out how the tiller works.  Sunny, warm and absolutely no wind.

Sunday turned out to be unusually windy for the season.  We all had our hands full trying to avoid the docks being relocated and the boats being hurt by all the jumping around.  I didn't find these conditions suitable for a first sail, none of the reefing systems etc. been tried out, and relatively inexperienced, at least for F-boats, crew.

Today, the wind direction turned to a less challenging direction at the dock, but still about 20 knots of wind. Finally this evening it calmed down a bit and we finally got "air borne".  Vegard, Guttorm and I planned to sail from Holsand to Levanger, about 8nm, where one were changing vessel to help Audun bring his 36 ft leadmine back to Holsand after being stuck in the weather.
12 - 15 knots of breeze on the nose, gusting to 20, turning more and more to port as we were rounding the peninsula "Nesset".  Full main, no jib.  Sailed effortless 12-16 knots, some old seas made the trip very wet.  Waves reaching just to the deck of the main hull.  The boat torpedoed through, was a bit stopped by the largest waves but most of the time just went on like a train.  Very impressive! Hit maximum speed of 18,88 knots on a close reach, main only, in a 20 knot gust.

When we got to Levanger nobody wanted to get off so we told Audun to leave his keel at the dock and come with us for a beam reach back.

This leg we had main with one reef and the self tacking jib, a bit smaller than the standard jib for the F-22.  I have however a rather large mast section that costed me a lot of penalty on the rating, but seems to work very well.  So off we went, now 4 raqther big guys on board, easily reaching 14 -16 knots of boat speed, searching for "sporet", translates to the track or similar.  In a gust we took off and were not below 18 knots for about 4 nm.  Most of the time between 19 and 20.  No sounds from the daggerboard.  A very fine vibration in the fingertip controlled tiller, but barely any audible hum. The boat felt very easy, were very easily controlled, but Guttom reported increasingly frequent that the lee bow seemed to be pressed ad I decided to roll in the jib and bare off towards the dock.  What a ride!

Happy crew, puddling along at 12 -14 knots under reefed main only.

Back at the dock, checking the hard facts of the trip.

Average wind speed 6,65 m/s, that is 12,93 knots.  I saw gusts at over 10 m/s, but on the return the instrument showed apparent wind speed and I haven't really gotten around to learn all the tricks of the Nexus system so I don't know.  It seems probable that the wind was somewhat the same.

The instrument showing maximum speed 21,15 knots.  This is the fastest I have ever sailed a boat that I know of.  The previous record was in a Banner 33, a really nice oversized dinghy, at 18 knots.

It turned out to be an even more enjoyable first sail than expected, and I am looking forward to new fine days on the fjord.  Have to get my self some boots though.  It gets wet at 20 knots.