I first met Lothar Weber, the manufacturer of "Wingaker" sails, in October 2014 when he had flown from Salzburg in Austria to Cape Town to assist in the delivery of a new Leopard 48 from Cape Town to the Caribbean.
On a breezy day in Table Bay we took "Cataya" out for a test sail and I was introduced to a Wingaker sail for the first time. It was love at first sight.
Essentially it is a symmetrical spinnaker with a small para-glider wing sewn into the sail halfway up. Simplicity personified.... One spinnaker halyard, two lines on port side and two lines on starboard side and a continuous loop line to control the sock when deploying or retrieving the sail. That's it !!!
The sail tracks through the sky, flying itself, and it is quiet and easy to manage. No genoa and no main up. Just one sail for wind anywhere aft of the beam.
On the delivery of "Cataya" to the Caribbean, Lothar and the crew flew the Wingaker for 1405 nautical miles and for over 8 days non-stop.
We have stayed in contact and developed a great friendship with Lothar during the last two years and since buying Lady Roslyn, Lothar has been on-board helping us to set the boat up exactly the way we want it. Part of that set-up is preparation for the purchase of a Wingaker. As Catherine & I are planning to sail Lady Roslyn short handed for much of the time, a Wingaker is a dream addition to our sail wardrobe. We have already mounted Harken 100 stand-up blocks onto both bows in preparation and we tried two different sizes (165sqm and 190sqm) of Wingaker during a trip we made from Italy to Montenegro and back in June of this year.
Now all that is to be decided is what colour the sail should be.
