New Maverick 400

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by chris smith

I agree...saildrives add more to what can go wrong !Shafts are first prize. I would not buy a cat with sail drives, thats why i just bought a 2003 leopard 47 , tried and tested

No doubt, saildrives are a trade-off. You either learn to maintain them, or put up with engines under berths, which come with fumes, heat, smells, and raising a mattress to check oil.

My experience with saildrives = 1500 hrs, 7 years, not a problem!

[loowigi]

Hi Paul rack saw your vessel coming in at RCYC on Sat, she looks great. Really hope you enjoy!!!!

[paulrack]

Thanks Dimitry, come by next time you see me there if you would like a closer look, I am moored in Cat corner.

We went for the sail commissioning test this afternoon with three people from maverick, two from Northsails and 2 from Southern Spars and myself. I was not hopeful as the wind was very very light. We also had limited time so did not do any focussed sail tweaking to try and get good performance. I noted down some stats with the different sails. All speeds are GPS, there was no tide, and all the windspeeds and angles are apparent. I will post some more info when we have the time to tweak the sails to get max performance and do more angles.

I noted down the following:
Main and Genoa - 6.2kts apparent wind, 55Deg angle boatspeed 3.8kts
Main and screecher 5.8kts apparent wind,90deg angle 5.6kts boatspeed
Main and assymetrical 5.6 kts apparent wind, 100deg angle boat speed 6 kts
Main and assymetrical 5.3kts apparent wind, 150deg angle boat speed 5.4kts.

I noticed with the tiny puffs she accelerated easily, she was so silent and the wakes were so smooth.

For me it is really exciting, it has been a long but fun road with the build. The north sails look fantastic and she performs way in excess of my expectations. The only hard thing was to drop the sails and come back to the harbour. For a true cruising cat I believe she performs exceptionally well. I am looking forwad to a nice long sail where I can really tweak the sails to see what she can do. In light winds she seems fantastic, I reckon I am going to be sailing nicely when a lot of other people are motoring.

I stupidly left my camera in the car, however one of the guys from Southern Spars had one so I will try to get his pics.

[loowigi]

HI Paulrack

Will definitely drop in the next time I am there. Cannot say we were doing the same speed on a L26. Was a long sail from Langebaan.

[paulrack]

That can be a long sail, I have done it on my previous boat, a L34 a few time after the Mykonos race at night. After two days of racing in the sun to come back into a howling South Easter is not high on one's enjoyment list.