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This is a report from the owner of the extended Eagle, built in Germany
I report on the maiden journey of my Eagle catamaran "Über-Winden". It was my first trip at sea on a multihull.
In brief. I started in Bremerhaven, Germany and sailed non stop nearly 300 miles to Farsund, near Lista, the southwestern corner of Norway.
For the first 50 miles I sailed upwind in force 2-3. The next 250 miles was downwind in force 3-6. The Eagle sailed very comfortably. Easy on the helm under any conditions. No tendency to pitchpole when I sailed between 13,5 and 14,5 knots in a force 5-6 down steep waves. On a broad reach it would be faster of course. But I didn`t change direction, as the tillerpilot was not working well.
The last seven hours I reduced the sails, as I wished to reach the rocky coast in daylight. So I took 42 hours for the trip. All the way it sailed very easily and the structure seems to be very strong.
The potential top speed I'll try for, when I have more experience and when I have an autopilot that works reliably, rather than sometimes, as on this trip - I'm always sailing solo.
The potential of the Eagle shines, when I surfed downwind in gusts of more than 25 knots. The weather forecast predicted 2,5 to 3 m waves. I overtook waves in gusts for several hours. Under these conditions I heard the noise not only from waves, but sometimes vibrations from the hull and rudder dominated. But no spray on deck!
The speed? I don´t know. Far more than 15 knots. My instrument shows only windspeed and direction. Although the speed was probably more then 20 knots, that says nothing. More important is the control of the boat. I could steer it anytime with my fingers.
The way back was, as I expected, not a joy. The first 11 hours I hand steered and for 30 hours mostly in the direction of Great Britain rather than Bremen. The trip back lasted round about 55 hours. More than 50% at the helm. ( Late in autumn I got a new tillerpilot from Simrad. But I'll not take it in future. I decided to take a outsized system with extra computer, compass etc.)
Ulrich Welke