We pulled the boat a little early this year to get it ready for the 3 month trip to the Bahamas. That meant bottom painting, cleaning and waxing the hulls and trying to unload Freebird as much as possible for the inevitable extra cruising weight she would have to carry. This boat was meant to sail light and fast, and we hate the extra weight needed for serious cruising - more water, gas, bigger dinghy and dinghy motor, extra anchor, etc. The weight doesn't affect top speed as much as it does acceleration and response to wind gusts, but that could be serious if overweighted. Anyway, she is probably a few hundred pounds more than we normally cruise at. We will just have to live with it.
This is what the rig looks like when we are all hitched up. We bought this 2004 Titan truck ( our first truck) just to pull the boat, and it does a good job of it. The overall length of truck and boat is over 50 feet - about the length of a semi. It's big. We get lots of comments - "is that an airplane?". Close. Our departure date is now 12/17/09.
