Time to take Aphrodite out to sea and see what is what. Bob Watson a keen sailor and climber was happy to come out and put the boat through her paces.
We took the dinghy to the mooring, climbed onboard, prepped the boat for sea, started the engine, slipped the mooring and headed down the Exe past Exmouth and out to sea.
While I had been out with the previous owners for a test sail now was the time I could put her through her paces and see what she could do. A few things quickly became apparent the sails were bigger, they felt much bigger. She moved faster and accelerated faster than the old boat.
Out at sea, where we had some room, we set about testing her on different points of sail, checking how fast she would respond to the helm and slow down when needed.
For lunch we hove to off Dawlish only to discover that the genoa got tangled with the spreaders and the UV strip separated from the sail! Frank the sailmaker would have a small repare to do during the week!
All in all Aphrodite performed well. She handled well, I could turn on a sixpence, a big difference from my previous boat and was certainly faster.
We had our play and headed back up the Exe to the mooring. I had been told that while the engine was in good order it did have a habit of "stalling" at low revs! On the first approach to the mooring buoy she stalled (we were ready for this) and she restarted at the first turn of the key. Thankfully we picked up the mooring on the second pass and put the boat to bed.
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