The idea was to get the cruising shute sailing for the first time. This would be new to me, new to Stephen and Colin who was on board as well, and new to the sail itself which was still prestine in its sail bag circa 1997. New blocks were acquired at Darthaven Marina and we tried to work out all the lines before leaving the dock at Noss. All was going well in a flakey wind and we had just sorted out the correct way the lines should run when the wind dropped and as we tried to find it, a slight error in going up rather than down wind meant the sail got wrapped around the steps on the mast and the sheet around the prop! We all recovered well. The tear was not too bad when we got it down and Stephen bravely unwrapped the remaining line on the prop back at Noss. The rope cutter on the prop did its job so it could have been a lot worse. This is how lessons are learned and we’ll know better next time.