05-09-2011
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Portland, Maine
Posts: 635
Rep Power: 10
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First sail of the season
Took the home out for a spin yesterday and had a great sail. We hoisted our new sails and sailed from Portland up around Cow Island and back through Diamond Rhodes reaching both ways. The new sails performed perfectly in 15-20kts of wind and we averaged between 6 and 7.2 kts. A little weather helm but we were lazy and did not do much to optimize the trim.
We only saw 3 other sailboats out there. Most of the time we were in the sun but sailed into a fog bank as we approached the commercial channel. Radar is not up and running yet but I did get to use the automatic fog horn on my Icom VHF and also checked "ShipFinder" AIS on my droid to look for big commercial traffic. Not a substitute for radar but the visibility let us see smaller craft in time. I was more worried about tanker traffic.
The Caliber 40lrc is criticized for moderate upwind ability but my theory is that this is largely due to blown out sails and the fact that most of these boats came with in-mast furling mains. Well, we were able to point as high as 30° apparent and still maintain over six knots with our new slab reef full batten main.
Sorry, having too much fun to snap any photos.
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Tim R.
Living aboard in Portland, Maine
1997 Caliber 40LRC
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Last edited by treilley; 05-09-2011 at 11:28 AM.
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