How well do the boats sail and how good is their windward performance?
The Norfolk Urchin, Oyster, Gypsy and Smuggler are designed with a rig to provide exceptionally good sailing performance. The high peaked gunter rig has the advantage of providing a mainsail which is almost Bermudan in shape. We take great care in cutting the mainsails reasonably flat and owners are constantly commenting about the extremely impressive set of the sails. Together with our sailmaker we have spent a lot of time perfecting the sail cut of these boats to provide outstanding performance, particularly to windward. A lot of our local sailing in Blakeney Harbour involves tacking up narrow creeks against the tide and it is therefore vitally important that the boat points well. Bearing in mind that these boats are reasonably of heavy displacement it is very satisfying sailing them to windward even in light airs because they will carry their way sufficiently well to overcome a situation of overpointing in order to get round the corner or moored boat for example. It is true to say t
