Day 4 - A Whale of a Sail
Day 3 we flew the main and Code D. The conditions were the stuff that sailing marketing videos are made of. The wind was a steady 20 knots from the starboard rear quarter, with following seas. We set the current speed record for the trip thus far: 21.9 knots.
The wind decreased on day 4, which meant it was time to break out the parasail. It’s shaped like a regular spinnaker, but there are two important differences: both clews have both a sheet and a guy attached to them (four lines total), and the “waist” of the sail has a section of the fabric cut out and reconfigured to form something similar to a windsock that runs the width of the sail. It forms a “wing” perpendicular to the front surface of the sail, which provides a lot of stability to the sail and eliminates the need for a spinnaker pole. Since there is no longer a pole, the sail can be moved freely to either side of the boat depending on the conditions (i.e. no jibe required). If the sail is trimmed properly, there are a series of telltales above the cut-out that should be pointing straight down, and a series of telltales below the cut-out pointing straight up.
