Gennaker up and flying !!!!

What an awesome sight. After waiting patiently for the wind to drop a
bit and the swell to settle it was time to rig the gennaker. It has been
a few years since I've had the privilige and the stress and the
responsibility to fly this huge sail. Made for downwind sailing in
lighter conditions, it certainly gives a good turn of speed. On a
catamaran it is rather easy to set up such a sail. As the boat is fairly
wide, there is no need for a spinnaker pole. One of the many advantages
of sailing a catamaran. With a gennaker one can also sail in those very
difficult wind angles when the wind is not from the side or from behind.
It also gives you a wider option to choose in which direction you can
sail.

I first had to scratch my head a bit when we were setting this sail up.
Which lines go where etc. Took it up the first time to measure the
length of the sail. In a nutshell the sail is covered by what we call a
sock. Once the sail is up, you haul the sock up with the uphaul. The
downhaul is used to pull the sock back over the sail when you want to
bring it down. Running both motors we hoisted the sail and allowed the
sail to open up slowly and under control. We do this by tying the
downhaul around a cleat, and slowly letting the sail open. It is quite a
powerful sail, and some people try to hold the downhaul by hand. This
normally results in the sail powering open, rope burns on your hand, and
the sock also having little burn marks from the friction. The sock in a
way protects the gennaker, but the stitching on the sail can also be
damaged if you burn the sock. This all sound technical I guess, so I
will explain quickly that the uphaul and downhaul are ropes that are
attached to the sail to lift the sock up or pull the sock down.

On the tack of the sail, the corner is attached to the boat by two even
lenghts of rope. On the clew we attach a long rope which comes back to
the helming station and around a winch. This we all a sheet and it runs
through a snatchblock which we attach to a cleat or a deckring. I have
to explain that we don't ever call ropes ropes on a boat. Every rope has
a specific name, for a very good reason. They all serve a specific
function, and if I give an instruction, the crew knows exactly what or
which rope I am talking about. To pull the sail up we use a halyard, of
which there are normally two. One for the mainsail, and one for the
gennaker. Halyards are thus used to pull a sail up. Ok, enough sailing
lessons for today. Bwahahahahahaha!!! If you want to learn how to sail
there are many good books and very good sailing schools in South Africa.
And there are also online courses. Nothing beats the real thing though.
Experience experience experience. Not position position position as with
real estate :) The colour of our gennaker is a deep azure blue,
absolutely beautiful. As you can imagine, Thibault, our French
crewmember, was out in a flash with his GoPro camera. We hope to share
some of our footage when we will have some time in Panama.

We will probably drop our sail before it gets dark as the weather is not
completely settled, we just couldn't wait to fly it.

And that is it for today. Oh wait. No. Another time. Next time.

Our current position is 26*24'S/10*33'E. Apparent wind is more or less
13kts south easterly. Take care and wishing you a great week ahead.

Paul