With eight or ten knots of wind, we unfurled the mainsail today and plodded downwind at three or four knots, then we added the genoa for five knots. The genoa is designed to provide the power, but with off-shore sailing in mind, it’s built with a heavy Dacron than gives it a wide range of wind speeds it can tolerate. But a stiff material that performs well in 35 knot winds, doesn’t do so well in eight. Enter the drifter: a light air nylon sail with a lovely shape and exceptional performance in eight knot winds.
We furled the genoa and unfurled the drifter. I didn’t see much improvement at first, but we discovered that the top of the sail was wrapped up in the spinnaker halyard. After that snafu was unfu’d, the boat speed went up to over six knots. Yahoo.
OK, you’re thinking: so what. But imagine two boats sailing with the trade winds, one at five knots and one at six knots. It will take the former six days to go as far as the latter can go in five days. That translates to safety in terms of crew endurance, resources consumed and exposure to adverse weather - a sound investment.
Knot bad!
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