At the end of August Ariki was in water again. When sailing with motor Ariki went straight on, without a problem. Problems came when the sails were lifted. Catamaran started to turn rapidly towards the wind, the rudder weight at minimum, but the speed was such that an autopilot was absolutely out of question. As if the sails would be lifted too high. Hmm, well, at the wind speed of three knots?

I still could not have figured it out if something was wrong with Ariki or were it really the sails? The sailmaker said back then that the mast should stand 30 cm forwards. The constructor of the catamaran really blew it when saying that sail manufacturers did not stick to the project and modified the sails.

Jure Šterk said to me that I should fill the empty space between skegs and the hulls. This solution was clearly pointed to according to the sailmaker’s calculation. Although I was afraid that the awkward catamaran would become even “clumsier”, we went back to work.

I suffered from stage fright when Ariki went back to water a week later. First I was afraid how that glued board (see pics) will work out on the bands of the lift. But there was no problem!