Dear Ketil,

Good to see the new sail in action.  How much improvement do you find?

Do you thin the angle of the battens helps - I assume they should be more in line wit the air flow?

Cheers,  Mark

If I understand Ketil correctly, you do not luff to the puffs (if racing)  You hold a course and let out the sail.  Luffing to puffs works well in a heavy boat,  in a lightweight boat it is all too easy to loose way.  If the self steering is engaged it may be easier to play the sheet?

Thank you Edward,

I had an outing With one of the fast boys in the pointy brigade on wednsday the 1st October. The Wind was in the region of 20 knots. I just gave him the tiller and he sailed the boat. He owned an X-99 10 years ago, and was very comfortable With Marie G. I took a panel Down in the upwind leg, but shook out the reef when going downwind. To make a 2 hours sail short: I never thought that Marie G could be that fast against the Wind. I noticed what he was doing: he steered the boat With the sheet, not With the tiller. He did not mind the leach fluttering a bit in the sqalls when the boat rounded up a bit, in other Words, he did not use the rudder as a brake, killing the speed. He was constantly doing more than 4 knots to the eye of the Wind. I had a steep Learning curve just by watching, and I used all I learned in the Stord race. Do I look forward to the NeXT season?   

I found a race at Stord on their website wednsday the 1st October, held the 4th of October. They invited 2 classes of crewed boats and single handlers and double handlers. As I am still hungry for more, I entered the singlehanded class. I planned to sail to Lervik on Stord on Friday, compete on saturday, and sail home on sunday. Friday came With 30 knots Wind from the South. I left Stavanger harbour With 3 panels up. After crossing the Boknafjord, I reduced the sail to 2 panels up for sailing along the coast North of Haugesund, called Sletta. The Whole trip was 60 NM, done in 7 hours! The singlehanded class had 2 entries, so we where put together With the doublehanders. The regatta was sailed in the same conditiones, but this time we had the Wind straight on the nose. I reefed 2 panels Down and entered a very wet race. Marie G was going very fast against the Wind and Waves, sometimes the Whole foredeck was under water because of steep Waves. I rounded the first mark mid Field, and looked forward to an open Reach, getting Marie G airborne. Imagine my face when the Wind died to a meagre 10 knots. The rest of the sail was a straight forward affair back to Lervik. I thought I had too many boats in front of me to be a contender for a good finishing position, so I was quite astonished when People started coming about to congratulate me With winning the shorthanded class. The trip home was mostly motoring in a calm, and lasted for 11 hours and 55 minutes. So far 2014 has been a good year With 4 first Places, one 2nd and a first Place in a two days competition. Not bad when one considers having a rig that dont sail against the Wind.