Jon and Paul Lockwood installing the new jib having just finished installing the Harken furler and forestay.

Well, we helped Paul Lockwood from Omar sails install the new roller furling jib yesterday at his dock along front street in Beaufort. It was cold, but good to get the roller furler in place.

Paul was awesome! In addition to installing the new furler, he tightened up the spreaders, replaced the stays'l halyard block, and measured for some linkplates to tidy up the multiple turnbuckles on the backstay! It was fun watching Paul go up and down the mast with his electric winch motor attached to the bosun's chair (mmmm thinks - we've got to gety us one of those!).

So, today we took the boat out and sailed in the Morehead City shipping channel to check out the new jib and stays'l. Check out the gallery on "New sails" - the jib not only looks great but performs really well.

We'll be installing the new main tomorrow along with the reefing lines and will be going sailing with Paul to tune the rig, and to get some advice on trimming the new sails he made - should be fun, especially as its supposed to be almost 70 degrees tomorrow!