Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Thoughts on my first sail

Yee freakin haa, how cool are these boats!

I just got back from my very first sail in an IC. It was my AUS 33 "Magic Carpet Ride" and it was her very first sail too. I was stoked with how it went! Breeze was only 5 knots with puffs to 8 maybe. I was surprised with the stability, I was expecting it to be much tippier. I guess once I get into waves and stronger winds it will be different. I'm not convinced that the vectran rigging will work in the end. Since it's a una rig I don't need heaps of rig tension but after about an hour of sailing the boat felt wobbily while tacking as the rig had streched in a bit.

The boat felt comfortable underfoot but I was cheating a bit. I didn't bother with sliding the seat across all the time, just centered it and sat out. I need some more tell tales as the cambered sail didn't give much feedback on pointing and I think I was pointing too high, but once I came off the wind the boat took off. I know you are always fast when sailing by yourself but I recon I was doing at least better than windspeed while running back to the club.

I know the sailing anarchy rule of "pictures or it didn't happen" but this was a super secret first sail. I didn't tell anyone I was going incase it was a dismal failure and the boat needed to be burnt in a hurry but happily it was a success, for me anyway. I'll be out on the weekend and hopefully get the wife to take some shots from her dinghy (if she can keep up laugh.gif )

All in all a great session of sailing...

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