Years later...

I have owned Reboot for at least a decade. I raced her. I have been cruising the world for 8 years. I have always been dismayed that it is difficult to sail dead down wind. I have taken to gybing downwind. I have looked at cruising spinnakers, in particular the Parasail™ but the price has always been out of reach. In fact when solo sailing it is difficult to use the whisker pole and my light air asymmetric is beyond my ability to use alone. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that putting the main sail out made Reboot get much closer to dead down.

Allow me to explain. Reboot prefers to be pulled downwind by the jib. The Monitor™ wind steering prefers it too. And from a safety perspective it is much easier for me to reef the jib from the cockpit then go out on deck to reef the main. (Yes, a furling main would be great if I had the money.) Downwind if I put up the main it blankets the jib. So it is one sail or the other. It turns out that the 4th reef on the main (which is actually the storage pack for the sail) has enough windage to stabilize Reboot going dead down if I swing the boom out to the side. Who would have guessed?

Fair winds and following seas :)