Passion for Cruising

After several sessions with the crews of the other vessels crossing the Gulf around the same time as ourselves it is clear that all the cats had much more comfortable passages than the dogs (heelers) and that we had the fastest passage of all the cats. We think this is due to the hull design of the Seawind 1160 which allowed us to travel typically at 8-9 knots with bursts up to 18-19 knots without ever feeling that the boat was other than under total control. The autopilot steered a perfect course at all times, whereas we heard that several of the other cats had to hand steer most of the way.
The new sails were an absolute joy and with wind to 30 knots we saw only maximum apparent winds of 22-23 knots so that we never even considered reefing the main. The reefing genoa was in and out several times and we found that sailing goosewinged in the confused sea conditions, the sail set best with one reef in. For those Seawind 1160 owners who have experienced reefing line failures due to chafe at the cringle the photo shows the answer which is working perfectly. The line is 12mm spectra.