Today my daughter and I took the new boat out for a shake down cruise.

The wind was light to little, but all in all a good day to take her out and figure out the new boat.

It took about an hour to rig her once we got to the dock. I hope to speed this process up. The biggest thing slowing me down is having to crank down the stays each time, and then to place the cotter pins.

Once she was all rigged up, we pulled her down to the water. The good news is the tires on the jeep barely need to get wet in order to launch the boat.

We got her out on the water. I must admit the hydraulic jack that pulls the swings the keel up and down is very slick, worked like a charm. The vera rudder is novel. I am not sure how much I am going to appreciated it. Two things that immediately stick out are the fact that it can't swing up if I run into shoal water, and once under what sort of balance does it have.

Under power the boat scoots along very well. Either turning her with the rudder or just using the motor. Under full throttle she pushes a small wake, the motor not working to hard.

Once we got out in open water, the main came right up the track, the jib spun right out. The day was very light (< 8kts) so knowing if she was light on the helm or not will have to wait.

We sailed some, popped the Asymmetric out on the pole just for fun (barely enough wind for that).

Drove the boat back into the dock, she slid right up on the trailer. Again, only the tires need to get wet. I think I need to add a step along the trailer arm to walk along.

Once we started taking the rig down, the stays are still an issue for speed. The other thing is, I need to figure out a good method to pack up the main sail at the dock. I just loosely folded it up because it is so large on the boat, and shoved it in the car. I waited until I got to the yard to spread it out and fold it up nicely.

All in all, not a bad day to shake it out, and find any bits that needed fine tuning.