1500 – Delaware River off Bombay Hook Island:

We would rather show you a photo of Beowulf at speed, but the weather has been awful for photos and we’ve not had a chance to get off in the dink for some pictures. However, this profile of her at anchor will give you an idea of the agressive nature of her new roach – both main and mizzen have this shape.

This wonderful high-pressure breeze we’ve been sailing with down the coast has evaporated with a peaking barometer. The center of the high must be close to passing over us. As the wind drops so does our speed, and the 800-foot ships we’ve been racing up the river are waterlining us – they are receding over the horizon. They know they’ve been in a fight – but the big dogs still rule.

Since Cape May we’ve been neck-and-neck with a couple of bulk carriers and a huge container ship. When the breeze would come on, into the low 20’s, we’d hold them or gain. But passing one of these behemoths is tough. They throw a huge wind shadow!

We’ve been giving our new main and mizzen a real test the last three days. Labor Day sailing with friends on Long Island Sound, we were reaching at a steady 10 knots in 8 knots true – probably three-quarters of a knot faster than with the old designs.

Our VMG upwind is at least 5 percent and maybe as much as 8 percent faster. And power reaching down the Jersey Coast we’ve just averaged 14 knots in 18-20 true broad reaching – with just main, mizzen and reacher (no spinnakers or mizzen genoa). So, the new design which our sailmaker Dan Neri has come up with is fast! These sails also load the keel less as our leeway appears to be reduced and we accelerate out of our tacks faster.

What’s the secret? We’ll let Dan tell you himself – click here to read his article. But in general, these sails have more of their sail area up high. The overall sail plan is more elliptical, which reduces induced drag (and heel) while generating more net usable power. These sails also twist open better when we’re off the wind – making for a huge improvement in downwind boat speed.

When we started the design discussions on the new sails we all knew that to get the ultimate shapes, like those used in the recent America’s Cup, we’d have to put up with some structural and handling hassles. But this is a cruising boat and we asked Dan to give us as much performance as possible while minimizing the hassles. However, when you are pushing the edge of the envelope as hard as we’re doing with this rig, you never know when you’ve gone to far – which tends to get expensive. We’re very happy to tell you that the aforementioned performance enhancement comes at no cost in handling efficiency. The sails hoist, trim, and lower as easily as did the last suit Dan made for us.

There are a series of structural detail and sail cloth innovations to help the sails last longer (although the last main and mizzen have 28,000 miles on them). We’ll let Dan tell you about those.

We’ve also gone (finally) to a single-line reefing system. We’ll describe how it is rigged and what we’ve found in a later article.