Work plus practice day this Sunday.
Finally mounted the new pedestal guard. A little more time than expected, but done correctly at least. Next up, remount Wall-ee (our chartplotter) and a binnacle compass.
Jean-Ray and Brian showed up early and worked on increasing our adjustment range on the rigid vang. Roughly, we needed to completely dis-install it, then cut about 3″ off the outer rod cover in order to (hopefully) prevent it from twoblocking at max Vang. Seemed effective, but we may need a shorter tackle line.
Then spent about 4 hours under white sails, trying to get our main trim down.
The frac rigged X362S is much less forgiving than the 911 and much more sensitive to correct main trim. It absolutely will not sail in a direction it’s not trimmed for. (Unlike the 911, which was a classic driver’s boat. Just point it and go and sort out the trim later. Maybe that’s why the shorthanded sailing was so successful).
The other issue with the X is that the mainsheet system is a simple (but nice) gross/fine tune tackle. No winches or other cleverness. Above 17 TWS, it’s extremely challenging to react to gusts and shifts using the gross tune. What seems to work best at that wind speed is to go traveler down and use the mainsheet fine tune to react. That worked great, though I think we may try more weight on the rail to allow us to keep the traveler up a little better.
( ^ and note the new cruiser special pedestal guard)