L400 performance

[monte]

No Robert, we will be sailing direct, but likely setting a course to within a couple of hundred miles of Cape Verde

[robert sailor]

That's interesting Monte, I guess because the ARC stops there I thought you guys did. Well I hope you guys have a wonderful sail, maybe we might cross tacks in the Caribbean.

[django37]

Originally Posted by monte

No Robert, we will be sailing direct, but likely setting a course to within a couple of hundred miles of Cape Verde

So Monte, is this your boat at the start? Concrat. to a good start!

[Barra]

Yeah thats Balrog on the bow alright. DAMN now im jealous im back home!

BASTARD!

Looks like you got the hang of that parasailor alright too mate

[django37]

Atlantic Odyssey multihulls today at 8:30 UTC, Sephina is the dark blue boat north of Cap Verde, See Track the Atlantic Odyssey boats - Cornell Sailing, There are 3 Lagoon 400's, Monte leading ;-)

[django37]

Chili, a Danish Lagoon 400, the blue cat here, is doing quite well in the ARC among much larger cats:

[monte]

Thanks guys, yeah that's us winning the start (10 seconds before the gun we had a great trip. Sephina performed flawlessly with no breakages. The 3 L400,s arrived within a day of each other around 22 days and all are happy campers. Crazy weather, mostly from the NE but with a good mix of squalls, electrical storms and many nights over 35K. Sailed into a crappy low pressure system 4 days out with 5m swell and 35K westerlies and Sephina handled it in comfort and style. Definitely not the milk run we were expecting but life's good. Sampling ample portions of Martinique rum...

[Barra]

Congrats mate. Ill be following in your footsteps next year thopugh still jot sue if we will go in a rally - they just all seem to go a bit too soon for the trades to establish. How did you take the 35 knots westerlies? bear off or punch into it?

[monte]

Hey Barra. I'd highly recommend the Atlantic odyssey. I was a bit suss On doing a rally as well but it's really been an awesome experience and great to share it with a lot of new friends as well. Next year they will be doing one that cruises the canaries before departing and they also have a choice of dates ranging from nov to jan.
We tried a couple of things whe the low hit us, ranging from hove to, to shy reaching. We ended up shy reaching for the worst of it with no main, fully reefed jib and wheel lashed hard over. This had is sailing north a about 3K into the NW swell which was safe and comfortable. We relaxed as much as we could while Sephina handled herself until, the wind abated enough to get back on course. We could have continued on our SW course through the worst of it but we opted to take the more comfortable option. We definitely could have gone a lot faster than we did. Early on we were flying the parasailor in 30K true overnight and surfing at over 15K but after a 38K parasailor take down In the night and feeling like we dodged a bullet that if was still in one piece after flogging around like a cut snake, we started taking more care and generally sailing a lot of nights just under jib. Skipper fatigue was to much to be dealing with inexperienced crew handling the PS at night with most nights ranging from a steady 15-20K to 30+ In The squalls which usually we had a few of each night. After the squalls there's usually a period of light flukey wind that can make keeping the PS flying require a lot of attention. Squalls were a it crazy ut the worst we encountered was an electrical storm that tracked right over us one night. We were seeing lightning left and right and at one stage the watermaker turned itself on as lightning crashed overhead. One of the other yachts lost all it's masthead gear and electronics the same night.
So we are stoked to arrive in tact, well fed, no damage and no injuries after an amazing 22 days at sea with some really awesome sailing days mixed I with the more challenging ones.
Surfing at 15K is all well and good till you come off the back of the wave and the boat slows and the force is transferred back into the rig and sails. I think that's what can really break stuff. Also the cooler night winds are so much denser than the day winds that the force of 30K at night more like 40K daytime. But what a fun ride!
One of the surfs

And tracking north moving squalls to the south of us with southerly moving electrical storms to the north, sandwiching us between. The ones to the north were on the bottom of a low above the Caribbean Islands with a trough extending to our position

[Barra]

Thanks Monte - great post. When the admiral reads this she will be even more robust in insisting the parasailor comes down at night. Sounds like you were lucky not to lose it there.

You are spot on - apparent wind and big swells can be a disaster waiting to happen with a spinny up short handed. I know from personal experience there. It was all over in 1 second!

[monte]

Cheers barra. I think we had particularly crap conditions. Perhaps too early, too high or just strange seasonal stuff going on. The locals here are saying the same thing, it's usually much more settled this time of year here. The times we did have settled weather we flew the parasailor non stop, but the longest was around 48 hrs before squally weather made us decide to drop it. The longer runs under PS are really nice. Easy sailing and good boat speed. Cruising across the Atlantic under PS in 15K NE under a starry sky at around 7K is really nice. Unfortunately that was the exception rather than the rule. I'd definitely look into the Atlantic odyssey rally for next year that cruises all the Canary Islands first before crossing. It will probably leave a bit later. Price is likely to be (much) less than the marina birth prices included in the rally.

[Grateful]

Monte,

For what it's worth, you just described the weather we experienced on our passage last November from Cape Verde to St Martin almost to a tee.

[2Hulls]

Originally Posted by monte

Price is likely to be (much) less than the marina birth prices included in the rally.

Cheaper than in a hospital?

2 Hulls Dave

[django37]

2 L400 in ARC-direct:

[monte]

Just an update on this thread and our observations. Maybe I was premature in the previous windward performance observations (or just couldn't sail the. L400 as well) , but after more sailing I have to say we are really happy with the L400 at all points of sail.
We just sailed around the west of tortola up to little harbour and beat into a nice 16-18K easterly with a fairly mild sea state, a bit rough in the channel between tortola and St. John but otherwise a nice sail.
Average SOG was around 7K with tacking angles close to 90 degrees, into a 1K+ current.
TWS here should be closer to 18K but fluctuates with swell etc.


Log showing 8K through water and opencpn showing 6K SOG. Some current.....

Jen helmed the whole way and did a stellar job. I handled the sheets and fumbled a couple of tacks...