Nineteen knots true in the Bay of Palma, and 7.5–8 knots upwind at 55–60 degrees. How the 444 behaves when the wind actually fills in.
The morning began deceptively calm in the Bay of Palma, but as often happens in the summer, the wind soon freshened from the east, building to a healthy 19 knots true — Force 5, and perfect conditions to properly evaluate the Vision 444 aboard Jubilee.
With the wind building to 14 knots, we put Jubilee through her paces upwind. She rewarded us with 7.5–8 knots at 55–60 degrees to the true wind, delivered with a smooth, balanced ride. The fully-battened, slab-reefing mainsail features a Hayrack boom that makes sail handling easier, while the mainsheet bridle system provides power and safety.
Forward, the self-tacking jib makes life easy for short-handed sailors, and the bowsprit opens up options for asymmetric spinnakers, Code sails or gennakers. After gybing and heading back across the bay, we unfurled the asymmetric and cruised back to Palma on a broad reach.
What distinguishes the Vision 444 are the incremental improvements that come from owner feedback. The extended nets run all the way to the end of the bowsprit, making light-wind sail handling safer. Multiple cleats along the crossbeam and forward gunwales help with everything from picking up mooring balls to fine-tuning position at anchor in current.
