It’s amazing to see the improvements we have made compared to our first trip. The Seascape 27 is probably somewhat easy to sail but we’ve had our hands full anyways – we still have but it feels a lot less stressful.
The sailing part is relatively easy though and the boat is fast even with improper trim. Anyways, after 200 miles the stress factors above have decreased tremendously. We have found our ways to handle the boat – far from efficient yet but at least it works safely. A trick with the battens helps to secure the luff against being blown overboard and almost folds the main so it can be rolled up when lowering it.
you can easily pull or push it to compensate for a bad maneuver
Driving backwards is just a matter of practice and I have given up to turn over starboard… well well. The Seascape 27 is light weighted, you can easily pull or push it to compensate for a bad maneuver at the pier. Good for the rudders, they are quite exposed at the back. A good way to practice is with 4 people on board. You can place a set of hands at each critical spot to push or drag or do whatever when necessary without hard to the crew or boat.
We still didn’t get the hang of safely putting a reef into the main while rolling in 1.5 meters of waves. So we take it slow, if the forecast says 15 knots of wind or more, we’ll prepare the reef while still tied up and live with it, in case the wind is lighter and the reef becomes unnecessary.
This regime of safety led to a complete underpowered boat last week. She’s still beautiful though and could sail closer to the wind and even faster than most of the other boats at our course to port.
Practice makes perfect. Less stress = more fun and it’s getting prettier with every mile!