Elvstrøm gennaker powers Zao across the Atlantic. John and Caroline Charnley’s beautiful Discovery Bluewater 50 catamaran, has recently arrived in St Lucia, under the command of Distant Shores TV sailing adventurers Sheryl and Paul Shard.
The Shards are well known blue water sailors having completed 1000’s of sea miles on board their previous yacht Distant Shores, where they put their sails and equipment through the full range of conditions.
Paul comments, “All the participants had a very slow crossing in the ARC+ and ARC rallies this year due to consistent light wind conditions. So it was a great test of the sails for this! We used the Elvstrom Sails gennaker almost constantly, flying it day and night, from the bowsprit as a proper gennaker. Plus, we flew it as a spinnaker from the pontoons, which worked brilliantly giving us the benefit of a direct downwind course.
When there was slightly more wind, we “goose-winged" both headsails. We used the mainsail just a few times and each time it was a beautiful sail to fly. We were very impressed with Elvstrom Sails so were glad we had the opportunity to try them out on the Bluewater 50.”
Zao was fitted out with an Elvstrom Sails EPEX Fatfurl mainsail, staysail, genoa and gennaker (asymmetric).
