Gunboat 68 Atlantic Crossing

This is the first in our Gunboat Atlantic Ocean crossing series. Shayne shares with us an insider’s view into what crossing oceans is like for a professional Gunboat crew. These videos are a real treat as Shayne takes the time to share his experience sailing a Gunboat 68 from Antigua in the Caribbean to Toulon in France.

There was a real mixed bag of conditions for this particular Atlantic Crossing and the Gunboat handled itself superbly. In this particular video, we focus on the performance of Gunboat 68 in very light conditions.

As we already mentioned, this video also covers the J0, which is the large headsail used in very light conditions. There is of course an ideal sail shape for the JO to be most effective.

Sail shape on the J0 is indicated with blue lines. Shayne uses sail design software to analyse sail shape and forestay sag.

This Doyle sail has glow in the dark stripes at these points to allow the crew to trim the sail correctly at night.

The Gunboat also has a rotating rig. It is slightly different from the one we have on Paikea. The main differenc being that the section is much more rounded on the Gunboat. For a performance cruiser, this is the perfect shape as it is quite tolerant. Paikea’s rig, on the other hand, is a much finer section and therefore we do have to be quite vigilant in ensuring correct rotation. This is not surprising as it was after all built for top-end racing in the America’s Cup regatta.

Gunboat 68 mast section vs the mast section on Paikea

2 thoughts on “Gunboat 68 Atlantic Crossing”

  1. Shayne,
    Really enjoyed the video and the sail and mast trimming tips. In fact we always enjoy all your videos. I have a somewhat unrelated question. I am wondering if you know the blue color on this Gunboat 68. We are looking for a blue for our new cat and this would be great.
    Cheers,
    Joe

    1. Hi Joe! thanks for the great feedback. Awesome to hear you are enjoying the videos and that you get some real value out of our content. I think the paint was a custom job but next time I see the guys I’ll see if I can get the colour code for you.

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