DAY 5 - DREAM SAILING CONDITIONS FROM FIJI TO AUSTRALIA

[@SailingNahoa]

Thanks for sharing this calm video with real sailing without the drama.

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Welcome and thanks for the comment. We’re glad you enjoyed the no drama sailing. Isn’t that how it’s meant to be? 😁

[@pakkelly]

Happy Birthday Clo!

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Many thanks Pat! 🙏

[@meganokelly]

Happy belated birthday Clo, hope you had a wonderful celebration and arrival!!

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Thank you ❤️ she had a lovely day eating beans and she was happy they were all gone by arrival so no wastage 🫘 😁

[@captainsensible298]

Galloping along nicely.

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

She sure is! 😁

[@USA4thewin]

that center cockpit is so awesome

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

It sure is!! 👍

[@kankama1]

Thanks Jason. I really like the idea of you pushing as hard as the conditions will allow. It is something I can understand from our coastal cruising, there are onlya few times you can every push it. Watching the ama kiss and slap on the seas had me thinking of the decades ago when I used to watch the same on my Twiggy and the Nugget beforehand. Will she touch? Gets close, kisses and then the wave moves away. The shape of the bottom of an ama is so important for livability when sailing.

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Thanks 🙏 You’re right about the ama and the shape being so important for a comfortable life at sea. Watching it kiss the wave tips can be mesmerising 😁

[@Mokescam]

Soo lovely! Please try and get some footage of the breeze on the nose when it comes up if you can. Thanks you for sharing such awesome adventures.

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Will do got some good video that I’ll pop up soon showing her sailing into 20kts. It’s wet!

[@johnoconnell2271]

Cracking along indeed! Merlin

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Hard to beat these conditions!

[@canyonhaverfield2201]

❤my birthday hug & luv to Chloë and her two desperados !

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Thank you 🙏

[@colinboniface194]

Magic...

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

🙏

[@svZia-Switch51]

Giddy up! 😊

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Yeeehaaaaa 😎

[@Kathikas1]

I wonder how much admin you are contemplating on arrival - registration, import etc etc? Oh, I’m probably being thick here but what does the XL behind Spirit stand for?

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

We plan on doing as little as possible, no import and no registration 😁 the XL is because our last trimaran which is in our earlier videos was a touch smaller so this Spirit is XL

[@markgumprecht2295]

Idyllic sailing! The wide beam of tris makes them so powerful on a reach! What is the flexing you mentioned?

[@PeterJordanSmith]

Also curious about the flexing you mentioned. Is that something that can be corrected, or is it normal part of a fiberglass trimaran...?

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Yeah she’s nearly 12m in beam so plenty of power there! The flexing is because we have large areas of balsa core that’s needing to be replaced. It’s non structural and only near the sheeting points of the jib so we have had to take things easy. The core is going to be replaced soon and our plan is to refit Spirit and to bring her back to life and to her original design philosophy, which is simple efficient and fast cruising. Needs not wants 😁

[@ZoneTelevision]

Looks so epic. Your own ocean race 😊

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

Hey mate sure is we’re racing the sun trying to beat it up every morning 😁

[@PN_48]

Your vids have been so helpful. Being new to tri sailing and having no reference to how hard we can push, your explanation on “more main when the windward ama starts slamming” makes a lot of sense, as we had that exact issue coming up the chain last season. Is there a visual point to start reefing? As in, if the leeward ama starts to submerge regularly, is it time to wind things back? Or is it more mono-based (ie. At this wind speed, R1, etc)?

[@rickemmet1104]

This boat was designed by Chris White - years and years ago - it's still quite a capable multihull. He wrote a book called "The Cruising Multihull" which is still available. Some things in the industry have changed, like material science and engineering, but other than that all the info Chris provides in the book is still spot on. I highly recommend the book! Generally speaking you reef based on the numbers - you'll learn to feel when this needs to be done as well. Multihulls need to be reefed for the gusts, monohulls need to be reefed for the lulls of the wind speed.

[@PN_48]

@@rickemmet1104Yep, the Hammerheads are awesome boats. We’ve progressed from monos to cats to our first tri - they’re quite different to sailing cats however. My question really was about when Jase feels it’s necessary to reef or add more power - I’ll grab a look for that CW book now👍

[@TrimaranSpiritXL]

This is a great question and there’s nothing really a simple answer. There’s a lot of nuance to it. A lot depends upon the boats design and condition, the sea state and weather conditions and the crews experience. For example we’ll push harder if it’s a 100nm day passage up the coast whereas middle of the Pacific where you really don’t want any issues you tend to take things a lot slower. With Spirit being a new boat to us and not knowing her well we’ve been taking it easy however that has changed as we’ve done more and more miles together and we’ve experienced her handling in different conditions. There’s nothing like doing miles it’s really how you get to know your boat and her limits. The beauty of a trimaran is that they are far more forgiving and they give more feedback to how powered they are than a performance catamaran ever will. With a cat the difference between flying a hull and capsize is closer than a tri flying an ama and capsizing so it’s a little easier to judge how over or under powered you are. At preset we’re still taking it easy with Spirit but the amount of load on the leeward ama and the immersion of that ama/float speak volumes and it and the boats motion is what we really focus on. The sea state dictates a lot. Flat water or 2-3m seas? Running deep downwind or hard on the breeze? So many things to take into account but you don’t really want to be pushing that leeward ama underwater while offshore shorthanded on long passages. Once that starts being buried it’s definitely time to start reefing! Once you know the boat you’ll then notice the conditions and numbers that are associated with the boat being pressed at certain times. For me the numbers are what you learn after you learn the boat. It’s impossible to say you just reef at these numbers as conditions and skill really dictate that. A skilled sailor can push a boat harder than a novice. Saying all that though now that we know Spirit and have done over 10,000nm in the past year we have some basic numbers. She has a short rig so we can maintain full rig until 25kts true this is without any worry of capsize. What slows us down or puts the handbrake on is the sea state. At those speeds we’re plowing into waves and something will soon break so instead of doing 14kts we double reef and slow down to 10kts, which reduces the motion and stress on the boat and crew. This also reduces the rig load and then if the breeze is too far aft and the sea on the beam we get the float slap. Like all things in life it’s a constant balance. Sorry if I waffled on a bit here 😁

[@PN_48]

@@TrimaranSpiritXLThanks mate that’s super helpful, esp the bit about tri’s being more forgiving. We went from mono to cats to the current tri and while we know she’s done a lap and will take the rough stuff, she’s also coming on for 40 years old and we don’t want to beat her up too bad. So far our sailing has been windy in short chop coming up the Carib chain, and then bugger all wind after that, so the first 1k nm has been difficult to get a gauge on what does / doesn’t work! But it’s downwind from here to the Bahamas with better sea states so we can experiment more. It’s been handy seeing your chartplotter with wind & boat speeds, and then seeing the sail you’re carrying as well - just to get an idea for our boat as well. Anyway, getting out of here in three weeks so will see how she goes. Fully loaded for 6 months of island hopping so not breaking any records, but should be a good run. Looking forward to seeing how you guys transform Spirit XL👍