Spontaneously took Proasis out in 15-20 kn of wind for a speed run. Top speed was 11.7 kn, but to exited to turn on the camera. The video below is shot at 8-9 kn.
The feeling of 10 kn and above is just magical. The platform starts to hum (very gently), spray is flying around the bow and the splashing noise is replaced by a pleasant shhhhhh from behind. everything feels light and free. Just like riding a magic carpet!
Had much fun at the 2nd Kiel Climate Week. As usual we opened Proasis for visitors, gave short presentations and took people for a sail. Looking forward to next year!
This is a little bit of a late post but Dominik, a friend of us, recently launched his kite powered proa. Now we have two shunters in Kiel. Check out his website, he is trying out lots of innovative stuff with the ultimate goal of green transatlantic shipping in mind.
Had a great party including campfire and sauna on the beach!
Took Proasis out for a few days on a singlehanded sea trial to Denmark. Aside of the pure fun and joy of sailing the main purpose was to fine tune the rig and and the general capabilities for short hand sailing.
Sailing into the sunset
It turned out Proasis is quite well suited for this. It is very easy to to find a balanced setup for almost every point of sail. Once the rudder, sheet and mast rake is adjusted properly she perfectly tracks on her course (as you can see in the video above) and hardly needs any attention on the tiller.
The free time under way was used to work on the boat. This includes a new, easier to use main sheet system. The new sheet is way easier to uncleat, adding some safety for the windy days. In addition many minor improvements of the storage system in both hulls were made. It just sucks to dig for equipment when sailing alone.
After some delay we finally managed to modify our new sail for the reefing system. We have designed an innovative system using a long zipper parallel to the trailing edge of the sail. In strong winds the aft part of the sail is simply zipped of. It works well so far but time will tell whether this is manageable in high winds and swell or not. We will keep you posted!
Sail cut in two to sew in the zipper. Weird feeling to take scissors and cut a nice new sail!Zipper is on, quite difficult with the small sewing machine.First test sail with the zipper in. The wrinkles disappear in anything above 5 kn of wind.
The highlight of the Kieler Woche 2022 was the tallship parade. After two years of covid it was great to be part of it and see so many traditional ships!
Our new sail is finally ready to take it out on the water! So far we are very pleased with the shape and the performance. The reefing system is not yet installed, testing the shape first was more important. It will follow later, stay tuned!
The wrinkles disappear as soon as there is more wind (see the slack in the sheet)