Sea Trials with new sails

18 nautical miles

The aim for our sea trials with the new sails was to sail to Agia Napa and back. The wind looked fairly reasonable for this, with a northerly 12 knots gusting 15. We started early, motoring out of the marina before 8:30, but the wind was higher than forecast, being 15 gusting 18, so we decided to start with new genoa and the old mizzen.

This worked very well indeed. We had also changed the running backstays, to being two rather than one. This made tacking a whole lot easier. The mizzen sheet we had changed to a bridle fitting. This wasn't quite right and we will work with this to get it right.

The wind dropped slightly so we decided to raise the new main sail too... the stack packs made this a lot easier.

Actually, when we came to drop the main, since the wind picked up, and despite gusts, it dropped easier than we ever have before, this was definitely a major plus for the new stack packs.

The new main, a Long Distance Cruising Sail set beautifully. The shape significantly better than the old sail.


King Malu felt very much more in control than she had with the previous sails.

However, it was definitely cold... at least for those of us who are Mediterranean summer sailors. I toughed it out to start with then gave in and put on my foul weather gear!  I think I need some better base and mid layers.

Jacob, who normally runs around in shorts even when there is snow on the ground even had on a hoodie, though he wasn't running his feet in the water.

The genoa was very slightly smaller than the old sail, but being a Performance Cruising Sail, made out of Hydra Net, it set better and the speed was slightly higher than before.

Being cut higher also meant that we could see under the genoa, which made keeping watch easier.

For the final 30 minutes or so we even raised the mizzen staysail for the broad reach back to the marina. This gave us about half a knot of extra speed.

Coming into the marina we always try to keep at least part of the genoa up. It's often a little choppy just outside the marina and with an outboard on the back it tends to cavitate. The genoa holds King Malu on a constant angle and also helps to hold the bow down. The new Furlex meant it furled very much easier, so I think we can hold off final furling of the genoa till we are through the marina mouth now.

So, if you want to know the summary of our feelings about the new sails...

just look at the smiles!