Last Saturday Jan and I met up with John and Chris of Quantum sails onboard Ninjod to test out some of our new sails.
We started out with our new headsail and went up wind to see what it was capable of.
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The sail set perfectly and generated lots of lift.
When far enough up wind we got out the new furling downwind sails, all of which are set from the bowsprit. With the furled asym hoisted we tugged the leeward sheet and watched as it unfurled. Conditions were light and we gybed a few times as we drifted down the river. The sail filled well and only required a minor adjustment to the length of the static line that allows us to furl it.
Next up was the Code Zero. We wound on the 2:1 halyard as much as we dare and then unfurled the sail. As we came up onto the wind Ninjod took off. At 50 degrees in 11 knots true we were making in excess of 7.5 knots through the water and we took the sail as high as 38 degrees.
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All in all we had a very successful day.
Many thanks to John for the pictures.