A few words from the sea

Miranda Merron on board Campagne de France

Not much wind, even dropping to 5 knots under a malevolant cloud, but all the better to appreciate the scenery at nearly 60 N. The sun has finally made an appearance so it almost warm in the shelter of the cockpit, but the cheddar I just ate was the same temperature as if it had come out of a fridge...

Sam Davies on board Initiatives coeur

Triple head! It's when you set all the sails you can at the same time. It's the sailmaker's dream. For the solo sailor on a boat with only 4 winches, it's a spider's web of bits all over the cockpit! But it's BEAUTIFUL and it goes QUICK!

Boris Herrmann on board Seaexplorer-YC de Monaco

Issues in the night. At 2am CET last night in 13-15 knots of wind, the J3 sheet cover broke with the hiking cleat and the sail flogged for about 20 seconds the ring of the flapping sail broke his starboard window. Luckily the boat was foiling so no water came in and I cut up a transparent office plastic folder he uses for boat docs and sikaflex to glue up the hole in the window. The rope snapped because I used a purchase plus cleat for the sheet instead of the winch. We do that when we use it as staysail. The cleat is too aggressive at his high speeds. Good lesson learned for the Vendee! Note that this was just a user error and nothing to do with our great ropes @marlow which we are super happy with. The new foils the appearent wind is so much stronger than before!