Hi all,

I had a chance to spend three days sailing last weekend and it was lovely. South Florida this time of year is beautiful - warm afternoons, cool evenings, good winds - just fantastic.

On the second day we sailed off anchor in about 15kts, but it soon tuckered to around eight, so I got the asymmetric spinnaker up for a broad reach ten miles across the harbor, which was lovely. Once to the other end, I had planned to pull it down and go back to windward under super yankee, stays'l and main, but the wind was still real light. Out of curiosity, I kept the main down, but hoisted the stays'l, and tightened the asymm's luff, then headed up.

I had assumed the boat wouldn't be able to creep past 80 with any headway. Boy I was surprised to find that I was making good about 50* apparent at almost five knots under the asymm and stays'l alone. It seems that the stays'l was helping to create a fast slot on the spinnaker, driving the boat upwind. It was fantastic! And the asymm is a recut symmetric, to boot, so it's not even all that flat!

Anyway, just thought I'd share that experience. I suggest messing with that setup some time if you're inclined. The main probably would've helped some in speed, but I couldn't get any higher without the chute collapsing.

A couple photos:
Close Reaching Asymm
Proof is in the windvane :)

My picasa account


Cheers all,
Aaron N.