First Sail of the Alwoplast Built Atlantic 57TM

June 17, 2008

Last Friday, "Espiritu Santi" the first of several A57's building by Alwoplast, of Valdivia, Chile went out into the cool Pacific for her first sail. Onboard was a large cast; the builders of course, the owners, the designer, the delivery crew assigned to sail the boat to the USA, the owner of the next-to-launch A57 and his surveyor.

As usual with the inaugural sail there was much to do and a little bit of confusion as people unfamiliar with sailing this cat "learn the ropes". Having just finished sailing another new A57 to Bermuda, from where I went directly to the southern hemisphere winter, I was under dressed for the cold "fog"- a euphemism for an air/water mixture which anywhere else in the world qualifies as rain. But during the south Chilean winter, it seems the term rain is reserved for use only when about 50% of the air is filled with water and it is moving mostly in a horizontal direction!

Wind conditions were quite variable, light and shifty until we got clear of the Valdivia River then briefly some stronger gusts as a little squall passed then back to about 12 knots of wind. I am always a bit nervous the first time the rig of a new boat loads up- what parts haven't been properly secured, what running rigging items have been mislead or not tied off, how is the mast behaving as load is applied- is it standing straight? No significant problems were evident, so the sheets were gradually hauled in as ES gathered speed and the apparent wind built. Typical for this design, we were soon close hauled at 10 to 11 knots as she lifted gently over the 5 foot swells outside the harbor.

The Quantum Sails from the Cape Town loft looked fine, everything fit well. Although the mainsail outhaul needed further adjustment as well as the mast bend to pull some draft out of the sail. Daggerboards went up and down easily and were quiet under way. Rudders, steering and NKE instruments and autopilot all functioned normally- no surprises there either.

The discomfort of my fog soaked cold feet was moderated by the broad smiles of owners Santiago and Carolina Becerra who looked more like kids on Christmas morning than anything else. The others on board were equally impressed by the speed and responsiveness of ES so as they say- a fine time was had by all.

Mid way through the sail the dinghy was launched in order to get some photos. At the end of the photo session we were headed back to the dock and rather than hoist the dinghy back aboard we towed it in. I bring this up because it helps to illustrate the only surprise I had in this sailing trial. The performance under power of the latest generation of A57's is substantially better than the earlier sisters. The difference is due largely to the Volvo D2-55 engines which have more torque then the Yanmar 56 HP engines that we had used previously. There was also a change made in the propellers which may also have helped but unfortunately it is difficult at this point to know exactly how much one contributes vs. the other. In any case, we had 11.5 knots boat speed at max throttle and watching the dinghy planning behind the cat was quite a sight. More importantly, at a low cruise around 2200 rpm ES still had 9 plus knots. I noticed the same thing on the recent sail to Bermuda on the new the A57 "Leopard" built by Aquidneck Custom Composites. We had wind all the way to Bermuda so we never spent any time motoring beyond the harbor until we dropped sail outside St. Georges. Then we turned "Leopard" up into the fresh breeze and throttled up about half way as we looked for the channel marks in the dark. Still, she was making 8.5 to 9 knots into 18 to 20 knots wind. This is about a 15% or better improvement over the very good power performance of earlier A55 and A57s, and a pleasant surprise.

With "Espiritu Santi" tied up at the Alwoplast dock, notes were compared on what tasks still needed to be completed prior to hand over while the diesel heaters drove the damp chill out of the pilot house and some fine Chilean vino tinto pushed some warmth back toward my cold feet!

Another fine Atlantic 57 is born. Thanks and congratulations to her owners and builders.