It is early November and the harbor in Newport is pretty empty. No wonder, the first frost has arrived to the East Coast and most boats are already in their winter storage or headed south. But LUCIE is still holding strong – though not so much by choice or because her crew likes to bundle up like going to the ski-slopes but more because we still had some work to do:
After LUCIE and crew returned from a very successful campaign in Germany during the 6 Metre Worlds we decided to launch LUCIE again into the waters of Narragansett Bay to work on sails, trim and some of the performance parameters during certain wind conditions that we were not completely satisfied with. This of course meant to recreate the complete set-up as tuned to in Germany, then implementing a few changes and finally waiting for the right weather – meaning wind – conditions. And as New-England had a beautiful calm and warm fall season it brought us all the way into November until everything was just right for the last test sail of the season.
So earlier this week we found our weather window and we just ignored the fact that the day had started with temperatures around 30 degree F. Daylight savings time is already over, sun set is well before 5 pm but nevertheless LUCIE went out one early afternoon with a slightly modified set-up. This was the third and last sea trial of this fall season and finally everything was the way it was supposed to be. Crew and sailmaker were happy with the changes, there are some more items on the worklist for the winter but LUCIE has now accomplished her fall training and we feel well prepared for her next competition.
Jens
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