Arpex Review - Sailing Performance

The objectives regarding sailing performance for Arpex, were to obtain speeds under sail, in a range of 80-120 percent of the true wind speed. Considering an average sailing condition of 8-10 knots, this translates into 6,4 to 9,6 knots of speed.

I would consider this achieved. Such a range of speed corresponds to my perception of average speed. Arpex will als chieve speed of over ten knots. I have achieved 11,9 knots, which I saw on the GPS as a 3 minute average speed. And my impression is that we have also sailed faster than that. Maybe 12,5 to 13 knots. But the condition was not stressed. I suppose that a potential 15 could be achieved. To achieve that, Arpex would need a consistent 15-20 knots of wind.

From 18-20 knots, that it is where I start to think about reefing the main.

But in general, I feel Arpex lacks a little bit of sail area. I suppose the mast could be about 50cm taller. As a matter of fact, I could gain 100cm, if I stepped the mast on the deck. This could increase my sail area by about 4-6 square meters, between 13-20 percent. This would give higher speed.

But for now, I am thinking about options to increase sail area, without having to invest into major structural changes. The easiest way would be to produce a bigger fore sail. A large genoa, which would come from the bow. It would also increase about 4-6 square meters.

But the architecture for the foresail has not yet been defined. My first thoughts went into a asymmetric nylon sail. However, I feel that Arpex actually seldomly sails at large angles, which would profit from a light nylon sail, for beam reaches. Maybe a more genoa stlye would be the better solution for this boat.