Seeing 18+ knots at the mast head.
Started with little wind in the Severn River. Motored out to find wind. Good breezes by G "5" and onward. Boat pressed over fairly hard. Making good speed with a lot of pressure. Decided to put in a reef to compare that result with the unreefed condition. Put in a single reef somewhat after passing R "4" and before tacking. First tack, from starboard to port, was part of the reefing. Tacked to place the bunt of the sail on the port side and prevent it from being compressed by the reefing line.
Seemed to be the same speed after reefing as before, but with less heel and less feeling of the boat being pressed. By the wind instrument sailing at 40 to 45 degrees to the apparent wind. Compass showing 10 degrees on starboard tack and 90 degrees on port tack. GPS shows tacking angles of 105 degrees. Leeway? Current? Per NOAA, half knot to three-quarter knot ebbing current at 11am.
Better with the reef in place. Looking forward to seeing how the new genoa from Interrupt will perform. And to test the jib with its jury rigged roller furling luff tape.
Shook out the reef in the shadow of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge abutment. Good speed downwind back to Annapolis. Might have been better with a clean bottom.
GPX formatted Track distance: 10.82nm, average speed: 5.0kts, duration: 2:10