Boss Boat

Happening to be on the Ryde sea front the other day, we happened to see what appeared to be a sloop rigged yacht, with what looked like a tall mast and black sails, heading west across Stokes Bay, a little to the west of Portsmouth. Heading west at what looked like a terrific clip for a sailing boat. My guess at the wind would say that it was reaching across the wind, which I believe to be the fastest point for a sailing boat.

Whipping out the trusty monocular, I ascertained that the word 'Boss' had been painted big in white on the main sail.

Talking to Bing, I was put onto reference 1, which has the video and has the pictures, including the one above, but is a bit short on technical detail. Perhaps secrets of that sort are kept in the racing world. Notwithstanding, it looks entirely likely that if it was the yacht above, it would indeed be able to head west at a terrific clip.

PS: Wikipedia suggests that Nokia is still alive and well after the sale of its then troubled mobile phone division to Microsoft in 2014, subsequently written off by this last. That is to say after I had bought my Microsoft mobile phone. So this picture is not necessarily that old.

Reference 1: https://www.alexthomsonracing.com/. The home page.

Reference 2: https://www.alexthomsonracing.com/the-hub/gallery/hugo-boss-sailing/. The pictures.