When we bought the boat, it came with, I think, 7 sails - if not more. Since the boat is almost 30 years old, they were all in various shapes and conditions. We removed the jib and took all the others, with the exception of the current main, to be checked out. It turned out we threw away everything except the jib (which needed to have the Sunbrella sun protector sewn), the 135 genoa, and the staysail. Of course, the main was still on the boat. After this summer, we decided that the main needed to be replaced for safety's sake. We didn't want to be in a squall with a blown out main and no back up.
So, we called Paul at
Omar Sailmakers who set us up with a full-battened loose-footed main with a third reef ring, as well as a Strong track for easier raising and dropping. Of course, when it came time to install the Strong track, our storm trysail track got in the way and Baxter went up the mast to move it over. Oh yeah, it also happened to be pouring rain, lightning and thundering, but that only caused a minor delay.
We sailed from New Bern to Oriental and put it to the test. It was pretty exciting to be doing 7.4 knots in a 17 knot wind!
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| Old main that came with the boat. |
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| Baxter and Paul installing the Strong Track. The storm trysail track is the metal strip on the right. |
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| The beautiful new main with full battens and third reef ring. |
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