Further to my post a few weeks ago about how good a sea boat the Gull is. Not going to guess or exaggerate the wind. It was wind against tide and the waves / swell a fair size.

If I tried this in standard setup I am confident I would have been swimming. The very experienced skipper of a bigger boat with a ballasted board later said ‘wow, that was lumpy’.

She is heavily laden, full over night kit, anchors etc. I’m sitting on my extra thwart which is half way along the rear benches, doesn’t look as far back as it feels. I’m bang in the middle and well braced in.

I’m dead down wind, using my dangly pole to goose wing. I have shroud streamers that I watch like a hawk to keep dead downwind.

Tiller movements are light, the tiller is right in my back so l‘m steering behind my back. I’m using a lot of upper body movements to react to the rolling.

The massive trough midships is very clear and I believe this could lead to instability if you’re not back and immersing the stern.

What a boat.