Monday, Monday, so good to me
Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Sometimes I help people who are trying to buy a new sail decide wade through the various decisions on what size, construction and materials for the new sails. In those cases I typically accompany them when they meet with the sailmaker and when the boat is measured. The best part is going out with the boat owner and the sailmaker when the new sail arrives, That was my Monday Morning. I had a lovely sail with David Flynn from Quantum sails on David Metzler's Dehler 39. While the forecast wasn't great, there turned out to be pretty decent winds and the temps were not insanely hot. The new jib was lovely and fit well. I had sailed the boat in similar conditions with the old jib and the new jib transformed the boat in terms of pointing ability, ease of handling and boat speed. That checked all of the boxes.
Cooincidentally, this same Monday, I had been invited along to check out the new jib on Starbird, the Tartan 101 that I have been racing on. This time the sailmaker was Chuck O Malley from Chesapeake Sailmakers. The new jib was meant to be lighter weight but more heavily reinforced than the jib it replaced. By the time of the sail at the end of everyone's workday, the wind had piped up. With any new sail, there is a bit of fussing around that takes place until the sheet leads and halyard tensions are sorted out. That alone was a lot of fun. But once we got the fine tuning tweaked, the new sail seemed to be a major improvement in our upwind speed and pointing. Of course the real proof will be how we do on the race course, but it still felt marvelous to be out there.
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way....