We took the Reenie K out to Spruce Run again today. It was cloudy and windy, with winds at 6-10 mph. (I think higher).
We grounded against the shore after we launched. The motor isn't strong enough to keep us heading into the wind and we broached to. We were towed off by a friendly fisherman (Thank you whoever you are...)
After that, we had quite the sail.This was Brian's first experience with a boat heeling, and heel she did. She caught the wind and took off! I kept easing the sail to lessen the heel so Brian didn't get too worried.
I am very proud of Brian! We ran into some problems between a lot of weather helm (I'll talk about that later) and a very undersized motor. He let me know he was nervous, and a little scared. He hung in there, followed orders with alacrity befitting a much older crew member, made suggestions about handling the boat, took the helm and steered straight and true (even when we heeled).
Here's the WAY cool part..... The theoretical maximum speed of a sailing ship is 1.34 the square root of the length of the waterline. For the Reenie K, her max should be about 5 1/4 knots. Here is the max we registered today:
We read this as about 6 1/4 knots the knotstick. By all reports, the knotstick is quite an accurate piece of mechanical engineering. We achieved this speed several times on a beam to broad reach, heeled about 10-15 degrees!
What I heard in the beginning has turned out to be true. The Reenie K does indeed sail sweet!