Flying new colours

Last year, we used our spinnaker for the first time while cruising.  Although it's a symmetrical spinnaker which should be flown with a spinnaker pole (sounds complicated), we used it as an asymmetrical, by attaching one corner to the headsail.  Over the winter, Ed acquired a real asymmetrical spinnaker - somewhat larger than the last one, and with a different colour scheme.

With a flat lake and light wind on Saturday, we thought we'd try it out.  We wisely tried raising it at the dock before we left.  This spinnaker came with a snuffer - a sort of sock that slides over the sail to make it easier to raise and drop the sail.

We experimented a little to find how best to fly the sail, and discovered we could easily fly it on a beam reach, and somewhat downwind, but to go far downwind, we had to drop the main.  It'll be fun to take this sail along with us on our annual cruise.