Having owned "Second Wind" for seven months I have at last had a chance to have a sail on her.
The trip up from Lake Macquarie to Bundaberg as I recall only afforded one opportunity to turn the engine off and sail for about half an hour near Tacking Point.
Due to circumstances, weather and opportunity it has not been until last Tuesday that I have been able to get a sail out of her.
My sister in law is visiting from Switzerland and we couldn't not take her out for a spin on the yacht.
My task was to row out to the yacht, haul the anchor and put her alongside the marina so the ladies could step aboard easily and then we could enjoy the yacht. Enjoying the yacht is what it is all about. "Second Wind" is a Lotus 9.2 which is designed by Alan Wright and built by Lotus Yachts N.Z. and the design and build has an excellent reputation in New Zealand. There are not many of them in Australia and they were never designed to a race rule. They were designed to be the best 30 foot yacht that money could buy.
As far as accommodation, comfort and handling as a boat goes, that was proved on our trip up to Qld which was motoring all the way.
This Tuesday proved to me what a fantastic yacht I have got hold of.
When sailing out of the Burnett River you are 50 miles from an anchorage North or South so if you are not intending to spend at least two days out, you exit the river, have some fun sailing or fishing and come back in.
The B.O.M. forecast for the day was 10 knots NE and I reckon we had 6 to 8 knots. Over 8 knots and there should be some "white caps". Look at the pics and you will hardly see any "white caps".
We left the channel at the third mark past the South Head Light, rolled out the head sail, turned the engine off and sucked it to see what we would get.
At the time of that day there was not much of a tidal effect and the GPS gave us an SOG of between 3.5 to 4.5 knots for the whole time we were out for 4 hours and that was towing the dinghy.
Do you think I am stoked with this yacht. You better believe it. I can hardly wait to get her out in 20 to 25 knots of breeze.
Edit: - The photos were taken with a $60 water proof to 3m camera bought at Aldi which you can also buy at AusPost shops with a different brand name. Top bit of kit.