Author should read: Nathaniel (don''t know why it''s doing this...)
Tender, that''s the word! The T-bird has a beam of 7 feet, a sail area of just over 300 square feet, and more or less just bobs on the surface. It was designed as a racer and is really fast, which may be the biggest problem.
I try to adhere to reef early and often, but it doesn''t always work; just yesterday we were sailing in the Gulf Islands with no
jib up and a reefed main, and still she was heeling at 45 degrees and hit over eight knots in a 20 knot wind!
We could have gone under bare poles, but if you motor when it''s calm, and you motor when it''s windy, might as well just get a motorboat! I looked around at the dozens of boats in the channel, and most are much larger and many still had their full main and genny out!
The vessel I''m looking at (we would eventually like to do the liveaboared thing) is a 40 foot 20,000 lb steel schooner with a 13 foot beam and very deep hull. Unfortunately it''s on the hard which means no sea trial...