Hove To

I keep forgetting to mention about the hove-to scenario.

I think there is a pre-conceived idea that a fully batterned mainsail would be difficult to depower in between races and when having a rest or on water bimbling.

So just to give you an idea of it's capabilities.... On Sunday in a Force 3 gusting 4 after one of the races I wanted to make a few adjustments to the downhaul and mast rake.

This meant moving to the front of the boat for a bimble.

Procedure was kicker off, downhaul off, mainsheet track completely off to leward.

In the time it took to undo the mainsail tack line round the mast, and the block that the downhaul attached to the mainsail with, in order to adjust the length (to avoid it riding up the mast track) unthread the downhaul, put it all back together again and change a chock for the mast rake, I can say that I had started to drift backwards at a slow pace, but the boat did not want to tack or anything that would have me worried about being at the wrong end of the boat without a tiller in my hand.

So I was very happy with that....it's very well balanced.