Last Sunday was the launch. I neglected to take pics, but here's my first impressions from the launch.

Rigging
From the time you start getting the boat off the trailer to the time you have the mast up and are ready to put on your wetsuit is no more than 15mins. Raising the mast is simple and uneventful, almost a one handed job. Compared to past boats the rigging and mast raising is a dream. This is huge. I love the simplicity. I feel like I've forgotten something. Ok time to change into the wetsuit.

Once I'm changed and ready to go I roll the boat down the ramp. Now it gets a little interesting. Its harder to raise the sail standing waist deep in water when you have to hold the boat and push up the sail without a halyard. Next time I'll get the sail up on the beach or the ramp, rather than in the water.

Sailing
The wind is 10-12kts with slightly higher justs. Small chop, less than 2 ft in the harbor. The boat is amazing upwind. It points very high and once I get my weight forward the bows slice thru the water. It feels fast upwind, very fast. Everything is working well, the rudders feel light, the daggers feel good, nothing if fighting me and everything feels aligned and quiet. During a puff the boat accelerates and its very sensitive. This feeling of acceleration is amplified and unlike any other boat I've sailed. Its very cool.

The midboom sheeting cleats and uncleats just right and I'm shocked that its in the right place. I spend some time going upwind on the wire. I easily pass a F31 and outpoint him by a ton.

Ok, now time for a tack. I'm used to the endboom sheeting and the midboom sheeting confuses me for a minute. My tack sucks and I get tangled in the midboom sheeting. I'll have to figure out how to get under the boom without getting the sheet caught on my pfd....

A couple more tacks and its time to do downwind. Travelor out, main in, heat it up. Wow, the wild thing - hull flying downwind, this feels just like a spin....here's a puff, bear away, keep the hull up, head up, bear away. Now its working, hull up, very quiet.. Thats cool. I'm not missing the spin, the feeling is the same. The boat acts just like it would with a spin. The angles to get the hull up seem higher initialy, but once a puff hits, you head almost dead downwind. I've instantly forgotten my plans for a spin on this boat.

Ok, time for a gybe. The boat suddenly feels too light. I'm hesitant. Will the travelor rip out when the sail comes over. Ok, here it comes. Very sloppy. Not happy with the gybe. At least the travelor didnt tear off. Ok, back to the wild thing.

Returning to shore.
I get the rudders up and uncleat the rudders,I hop off and work on getting main unshackled. The boat doesnt want to stay head to wind. Next time, I'll unshackle the main before I get off. I ask Mr Jetski to hold a line which I've tied around the forestay. I jog up and grab the wheels.

Overall, I'm very happy with the boat. It feels great upwind and downwind is awesome. Rigging is simple and unrigging is even easier. Moving the boat around on land is easy. No heavy lifting. Launching and returning to shore require some advance planning , but I'm looking forward to figuring all that out. I'm also looking forward to working on my tacks and gybes.

Bill