Finally dropped the mooring lines and headed Masquerade out of the cove for a test sail.

Using the electric halyard winch to raise the main was great as this is one very big sail. All seemed to go well until we had to tack.....hmmmm. Believe me, it was much simpler to tack our 27' Thunderbird.

Seems you not only have to backwind the jib but you also have to wait until the mainsail battens come over. This does not make for a fast turn and if you move the jib too early you end up in irons and then the commands just get less nautical and really salty...not good.
After about 4 or 5 complete failures we seemed to get in a rhythm and by the end of the day we were doing just fine. In a breeze that topped off at around 15 knots, we sailed a respectable 6 ½ - 7 knots.

Although we knew that we would be motoring more with this boat simply because we could, it seems in confined areas where short tacking is the only option it won't be an option for us. That said I do believe our performance will improve as our sailing time increases.
Once you come through the wind, the boat does accelerate quite rapidly and once we all calmed down, it was an enjoyable day.

Back in the cove, friends Wayne and Donna Stone who own an Admiral 40 cat named Eclectic joined us. I think Bob plans to sail with Wayne one day to see how Eclectic responds. They Wayne will go with him one day to compare notes.

Enjoyed gin/vodka tonics at the end of the day after we gave them a tour of our boat.
So all is well that ends well.