Well done, Peter, out there on the briny at last! Creases? Not nearly as many as I have in my sail, albeit a much more cambered sail. Don't worry about them, it's just a question of tweaking the luff parrels a bit - more tension on the top parrel, less on the bottom parrel, letting the tack go forward more. A few more miles under the keel, and you'll not be concerned about them. 

Have filched the above exciting report  to finish the article for the mag., Peter!   Hope that is okay,  along with some of the beautiful pictures?  Congratulations.   I think a LARGE bottle of bubbly is called for.....

Fantastic news and pictures Peter.  It's really thrilling to see all your hard work and perseverance doing what she's meant to do - get you sailing and having fun.  As you get to know her in different winds and weathers I am sure you will soon sort out the creases and tangles.  The one piece of advice I can offer is 'don't be timid about reefing - having the lesser amount of sail up is so much easier to handle when you're learning and you can so easily shake a reef out.  It took Steve and I years to twig that you actually go faster sometimes with less sail up!! Now get out there and enjoy...

                                                          Stavanger, Tuesday

Mallie is a mighty fine sight Peter, you certainly deserve to be proud!

Good luck with the sailing season. I am looking forward to hear reports on how she works, details about handling the new daggerboards, about balance and of course about the rig (and more...). In a couple of months you will know a lot more and can produce a good write-up for us to enjoy!

Cheers, Arne

Wow, Incredible, fantastic, are just three words to describe Mallie's maiden voyage which took place this weekend, but then I may be a little biased. In gloroious sunshine and a force 3 breeze we left Preston marina on our way to Piel Island near Barrow in Furness about 35 miles away.
We motored down the river Ribble out to sea and for the first part of our voyage then had the wind on the nose. About halfway the wind backed and we were able to set sail. Mallie sailed beautifully. The sail set quite well although with some creases in the lower three cambered panels. It is difficult to exprees my feeling actually sailing the boat I fitted out and equipped. Eleven years in the building became a distant memory as we gracefullyt made our way towards Piel Island. After a quiet night at anchor we made our way back to Preston. Although we could have sailed back, we had to meet a time schedule. However, on reaching the Ribble we were able to sail again as we now had a following wind. We broke no speed records but were no snails either. Sailing at 60 degrees to the wind in a F3 we managed just over five knots and with a F 2/3 wind behind and about 2 knots of flooding tide decreasing we glided up the ribble at between 5 and 6 knots. Quite acceptable for our first voyage.
We were fortunate to have one of our friends who have a flat in Lytham contact us and said if we could sail close in as we passed they would take some photographs. We could not miss this opportunity and some of the results can be seen in the photo gallery.
In a couple of weeks we hope to go on an more extensive cruise for the best part of two weeks which should provide a nice opportunity to find out Mallie's good and bad points.
The real adventures start here.
If anyone has any comments good or bad about how the sail appears to set I would love to know and also how I may be able to eliminate or reduce the creases in the lower three cambered panels