Mini Diary: 2 days to go

Finally A2 – 75m² – masthead – 0.6oz

Theoretically this is the sail that gets me the most miles,
it is this sail that we all dream of screaming through the trades with, the
biggest sail area = the most miles.

This sail had a very specific design spec; I wanted the
biggest sail area that was sensible and a sail that was very easy to manage
alone; and that is exactly what I have.

It has a shape that will encourage me to soak down, and keep
looking at my best vmg to waypoint (as I have discovered it is really fun
reaching off all over the place with your kites, but sometimes it is quicker to
square the pole back and soak a little bit down the waves). However, when I do
want to heat it up and increase the apparent wind a little the shape is very
forgiving and I have found out on my trial sails off La Rochelle that I can
comfortably sit helming the boat with the sheet on the winch next to me and
when I start to lose control with the rudders, it is easy to dump a little
sheet, resulting in a curl, to the leading edge of the spinnaker, but not a
full collapse so you can sail on the edge, but without losing control.

John explained , ‘giving a single hander an asymmetric
designed for a fully crewed boat, usually results in them overtrimming it to
keep it full, as it is unreasonable to expect them to keep it trimmed as
constantly as a full crew.

Therefore the OneSails designed single handed spinnakers are
a more forgiving less critical and more stable sail shape.

In practice this means a shape that is a little deeper in
terms of overall camber than it’s fully crewed equivalent and that the cross
sectional profile of the sail is a little more rounded’

And for those people out there who identify cars by colours
(just like me) all my spinnakers are white, with chevrons down the leading
edge.

There are a couple of reasons for this decision – one, it is
simple to make them and repair them, but also should someone wish to paint
their logo on the sail it is a clean sheet just waiting.

Two, – at night time it will be easier to see these sails
and so trim them.

Three – if all my sails are plain white then from a distance
it will be close to impossible for a competitor to ascertain which sail I am
using. (This was something I had not considered but my experienced
sailmaker had and of course it
makes perfect sense.)

So all in all I am very happy with my wardrobe, I feel a
girl could not be better dressed for the Atlantic- I really do have an outfit
that fits, for every occasion.