How We Sail the World’s Fastest Cruising Multihulls
Professional delivery experience on Gunboat 68s and 62s, and racing a Chris White Atlantic 72 — real footage covering apparent wind at speed, self-tacking jib systems, mainsheet trim, and what actually happens crossing an ocean when things go wrong. This is large multihull sailing at the professional level, not a walkthrough.
Apparent Wind and Upwind Trim
- Apparent Wind, True Wind, and Wind Speed Boats — Settling one of sailing’s most persistent points of confusion, and what it actually means to be a true wind speed boat.
- How to Sail a Gunboat 68 Upwind: Mastering Apparent Wind — Why true wind angle drops as boat speed builds, and why jib car position — not sail trim — is what actually limits how high a multihull can point.
Sail Systems and Trim
- The Truth About Self-Tacking Jibs: Design & Compromises — The engineering trade-offs behind self-tacking jib systems, and why some setups work beautifully while others fight the helm.
- How to Trim the Mainsheet on a Gunboat 68 — Controlling twist and power independently with a track-and-traveller system, and why it beats a twin-bridle A-frame setup.
- Mainsheet Systems Compared: Why Paikea’s A-Frame Doesn’t Hold Up — Real demonstrations of why Paikea’s own A-frame system struggles to depower in a gust or trim accurately, set directly against the Gunboat’s traveller.
Transatlantic on a Gunboat 68
A full delivery, told in four parts — from a light-air start averaging 200-mile days, through a mid-ocean impact and a rudder lost far from land, to the final leg through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean.
- Part 1: Light Air, Big Miles
- Part 2: Losing a Rudder Mid-Ocean
- Part 3: From the Azores to Toulon
- Debrief: Rudders, Boards, and Cockpit Systems
Other Deliveries
- Gunboat 62: A Straight Comparison With the 68 — The same Azores-to-Toulon route on an earlier-generation Gunboat, back to back with the 68.
Boat Design and Systems
- Boat Door Design: What a Gunboat 68 Gets Right — Why properly engineered hull stiffness means doors and lockers should never jam underway, even in genuinely rough conditions.
Additional Information on our Members Page
In the Members Library, the full systems breakdown for the Gunboat 68 covers clutch arrays and deck padeye layout in far more technical depth than fits here.