We previously owned a Gemini 105M catamaran, renamed Fishcake, and were used to taking the better part of day to sail from Benicia to San Francisco. The boat was always under control and on a broad reach we’d get to 9 or 10 knots in twenty knots or more of wind. But when the winds died away, as they always did near Pinole Point or Point Richmond, Fishcake’s velocity made good would vanish and we’d motor.

But last year near the end of the season, yacht broker Gary Helms made it possible for us to trade Fishcake for Dulcinea, a new Corsair Sprint 750, which is a 24-foot foldable trimaran that flies across the water — five knots now seems as though we’re not moving — even in light winds.

So now we’re in the habit of going to San Francisco and back or up the Napa River and back when in the past we’d end up sleeping over at our destination and sailing back the next day. And this last weekend we went again to Angel Island, taking about three hours to get there and two and a half to get back. Dulcinea may have little space to overnight, but she’s a blast, and when it’s rough, which it always seems to get, we get soaked. This never happened in Fishcake, for the ride was always high and dry, but somehow we seem to be adjusting to salt spray flying everywhere and 15 knots on a beam reach, 20 knots if we dare deploy our spinnaker in a sock, but we’re not there yet.