by Yuri » Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:08 pm
I'm love my Evelyn 26. She's not the 'perfect' boat, but no perfect boat exists. She is a looker, and gets lots of attention.
I'm slowly fixing her up as time allows. But even in her present condition, she amazes me at her speed in light air and her incredible responsiveness.
For example, the other day it was blowing very lightly, about 5-6 knots. Just enough for some steady ripples on the water next to our club.
I was with a friend who races often. We were starboard reaching as we approached the entrance to the club, doing maybe 4 knots. Too fast to enter
the fairway. So we sailed about 200 feet past the entrance, running parallel to the outside slips. It was like a high speed fly-by of the club.
My friend asked, 'how tight can she turn around?' I answered: "very tight!" He said, "go ahead, and throw her hard about."
So I did, pulling the main sheet in, while putting the tiller all the way to starboard in one sudden yank. That big fin keel snapped the bow around instantly, the sails swung to starboard, our heads swirled from the cg forces. But we kept so much momentum through the turn that as soon as the sails popped full of wind on the new course,
we were still moving at almost the same speed, not loosing even a knot of speed. As we completed the turn and looked back, all we could see was a circular swirl of water about 10 feet in diameter. The maneuver took less than 8 seconds to complete, it was over before we even knew we were turning. My friend let out a loud Indian war whoop and said, "We just did a perfect donut!'
She is a very exciting boat and I love it.
Yuri