Sailing the new rig

First preparations- part II

Sunday was the day to try the new rigging with light winds. Monday was the day to try the strong ones. The forecast was straightforward: starting at lunch time,the North wind would pick up and grow stronger during the afternoon. Obviously, I had to be there to check if it was true! And it was true indeed!

The wind was constantly around 22 knots, reaching 25 at times. It wasn't gale force, but it was already quite strong to give the rigging a rougher treatment, and see if the performance would live up to the expectations created on Sunday. Well, it did! Speed was faster, but that was not the only improvement to be noted. A very important one concern weather helm. Weather helm is the tendency for a sailboat to turn into the wind when sailing against it at close angles. The helmsmen of Clavadel know this quite well, as when sailing upwind with full sail on, weather helm quickly became very significant with stronger winds, making it hard to secure the helm, and obviously, to gain speed. Not anymore! There is still some weather helm, which is a good thing, but nothing compared with before. Now, it is actually possible to sail upwind in strong winds using the autopilot without draining the battery!

And speed was indeed fast. When sailing at a broad reach Clavadel was easily doing over 7 knots, reaching to 8 knots at times. In practical terms, this means we were keeping up with all the other boats that were on the sea, even if they were bigger, and theoretically faster. There are happy days on the life of a dolphin researcher after all!!!

I went out with my father and João Mendes, an old friend who has also helped in collecting samples in the past. Of course, while some people where hard at work...

... others were playing with a digital video camera!

Fair enough, they sometimes helped as well!

The video will soon follow...

First preparations

After several months stuck inside the lab, it's once again time for Clavadel to set sail along the coast of Portugal in search of dolphins. This will be (sadly) the final year of fieldwork so we have to give all we got to make sure this will be a successfull fieldseason. The stakes are pretty high given our record of 89 samples last year, so there is no time (or energy) to waste.

There are a number of important changes this year, the most relevant of all concerns Clavadel's registration. As many of you already know, Clavadel has been registered in the UK. In practical terms this means very little, but there is one important benefit which is that Clavadel's official navigation area is now the whole world. So, crewmembers beware, I might well decide to sail somewhere far away and force you to long periods of isolation in the deep blue ocean! The other, less relevant, detail is that the flag flewn at the stern will be British and not Portuguese.

There are also a number of goodies that Clavadel got fitted during the winter, such as a new genoa halyard and a new mainsail sheet or a new set of elastic straps to secure the mainsail, but one consists in a massive intervention: the standing rigging was completely replaced (only the backstay remained) by a brand new one! Needless to say, I was dying to take Clavadel out for a sail. Yesterday I came down to Portimão from Lisbon and today I took advantage of the forecast north wind to give her a go. The result was surprising to say the least. At around 10 knots apparent coming from the bow, the wind was hardly exciting to give the new rigging a try and I feared I might not try anything at all. However, soon after hoisting both sails, Clavadel was easily doing over 5 knots. For those of you who know Clavadel a bit better, you will be aware that doing over 5 knots in 10 knots winds was outright impossible in the previous years. If I tell you that, after a while, the wind increased to around 15 knots, and that Clavadel reacted to this by reaching 7 knots, you will probably think I'm pulling your legs! Well... I am not! The book says that it is essential to keep the standing rigging well maintained and fine tuned to maximize your performance under sail, and I had a first hand confirmation of this. So I tell you, come and experience this for yourselves, and be prepared to witness Clavadel reach performance peaks you never thought possible! Clavadel is now a proper boat, and I won't allow anyone to say otherwise!