First Real Sail Ends in Blasting Down the Channel at 20 Knots

Yesterday was our first real sail following the complete refit of Le Pingouin. We took off from the marina at about 11:00am and headed out of Charleston Harbor. The weather was looking perfect for a true test of our complete new sail inventory. Farley with Quantum Sails was onboard, along with my crew, volunteers, and a computer specialist who continues to dial in the nav station equipment and offshore communications.

We had some real breeze once we were out of the harbor, but everything went as smoothly as I could hope for. We started with 3 reefs in the mainsail and the staysail, then 2 reefs in the mainsail and the solent, and worked our way up to the gennaker. Of course we have a punch list of things to do after this initial outing and some refining to do on the deck layout, but overall this baby can run!

On our way back into the harbor in the late afternoon we were blasting down the channel at 20 knots. We will continue to tweak and tune the boat on another sail today. Thanks to Dustin Ryan for enduring the rough weather to capture images and John Bowden for driving the chase boat!

Cheers,
Brad

Photo by Dustin K. Ryan

Photo by Dustin K. Ryan