Its amazing how quickly one gets out of practice. Or maybe I was just rubbish today. Seemed like a real slog to pull the boat down to the launch spot - perhaps the fact that the trolley tyres had no discernable pressure in them might have had something to do with that. When I got down there I discovered that I had left the sails, and the lock for the trolley behind. Anne kindly brought them down to me, while I fiddled around rigging the boat. Only took three tries to get the mast right and the stays untangled.
Some good gusts were coming through while I was rigging, so I thought today would be a good day to try out the mainsail reefing - a January project in which I was much assisted by the New Mirror Dhinghy Discussion Forum http://forum.mirrordiscussforum.org/node/475 .
I headed off with the full jib and the reef in, and once I was out there I was glad I had done so. I am very pleased with the reef - it sets very nicely, ties up neatly, and makes everything a bit more relaxing. Without the reef I would have been hiking out on the gunwale with white knuckles a fair bit today. Instead I was able to sit in comfortably. The helm with full jib and reefed main doesn't seem that different to normal rig.
I didn't go that far - out past the Altona reef and back. For an experiment I dropped the jib as well. Looking at the gps, I see I was scooting along around 3.5 to 4 knots most of the time, which is plenty for me.
All in all, a good experiment and a good learning experience. A check list might be in order, as well as pumping the tyres on the cart more often.
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