Despite the forecast for little breeze we set out today to practice our spinnaker work and to hoist our new No1 heavy genoa. To our delight the breeze kicked in at around 12 knots which was a perfect test for a perfect new genoa. We worked up to Manly with very little traffic to disturb our trip and tuned around and hoisted our fractional spinnaker.
After a second work back up the harbour we hoisted the 6o sq metres code zero and gybed that four times on the way back to Greenwich. We practiced gybing outside the forestay but settled for furling the code zero and unfurling on the opposite gybe which seemed more effective and less susceptible to problems.
It was a long but very enjoyable afternoon during which we hit our windward speed targets a few times. The new genoa is a Dimension Polyant Carbon Sports light skin with the same area as our old No 1 from Passion which had been recut to fit around the shrouds on Passion X. The new sail is longer on the foot and can be sheeted closer to the deck while still clearing the shrouds. More of the area is lower down and forming a better end plate with the deck so we are hopeful that it will be useful over a wider wind range and we are very pleased with the first sail.
Our new No 1 heavy genoa our for a test sail where we hit our speed targets several times.