INVESTIGATOR 563

Wind ESE 20k gusting to 25k
Launched at Berkely ramp sailing across Lake Illawarra south past Gooseberry island towards Oak Flats.Return NE to Illawarra Yacht club and dinner. Motored back to Berkely ramp.(winds gusting up to 30k). Other T/S a rare Castle 600 had wife and child on board and also abandoned the sail at the yacht club.

Looks like a nice ramp and that's a fair bit of wind did you reduce sail, reef main No2 jib, or manage with full sail up?

Andrew

I'm in the lazy cruising category Andrew so up to about 20k winds I'll use full sails then over 25-30k I'll furl the jib and if the wind increases I'll drop the main and motor. I leave the headsail trimming to the big boys - Magnums, Spiders, Elliots, Ross' RL's and keel boats etc.
Personally I think a separate furler is ideal for the Investigator due to limited deck space. Offshore this allows me to drop the furler if things get really rough also a separate forestay gives more mast support and storm jib options. Having a fuler ready at hand has also saved me a couple of times - once motoring out of a marina when a stern rope choked the prop leaving me drifting through a crowd of expensive boats -furler saved the day!.
I have reefing points in the mainsail but find the main so small that I hardly ever use them. Even with the spinnaker I use it like a blooper without a pole and have had no problems controlling it. Also there is an obvious safety issue in moving around the deck on such a small boat - I have frightened the missus (and myself) a couple of times Enough said!!