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| Greg Petrat's 1974 Swan 48 Constellation taking a pounding at the start of the 2012 Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race. "It was our first time doing the race and we learned a lot; I'm looking forward to doing the race again." About his Tape-Drive® sails, "I love them. The loads on this boat are tremendous, but we now have a tough set of sails that we can depend on." John Payne Photo |
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| UK-HALSEY INVOLVED AGAIN IN THE AMERICA'S CUP |
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| The China Team's AC 45 sailing with her MatriX Titanium Code Zero in San Diego. Pierre Contin photo. |
Sylvain Barrielle, owner of UK-Halsey San Francisco, is the sail coordinator for China Team's latest America's Cup challenge. This is his second campaign with China Team and his sixth consecutive America's Cup campaign. As he says, "This may seem like another day at the office, but the difference between all the previous monohulls and the new winged multihulls is totally different." Here's how he sums up the program so far:
The AC 45 one-design was an interesting process that we started in end of December 2010. We only had one month to come up with a set of practice/racing sails. We never planned a large R&D budget for the AC 45 because, at the end of the day, we are not going to race the 45 in the America's Cup. For a team without a "sky is the limit" budget it doesn't make sense to spend a lot on the AC 45; instead we are saving resources to develop the sails for the AC 72 that we will be racing for the Cup shortly.
The main objective for the first set of sails was to validate the MatriX Titanium product, which are proprietary membrane sails made with continuous yarns by UK-Halsey Sailmakers. Next we had to make sure the communication flowed between the all the different parties of the sailing team and design team. Finally, we needed to validate some of the design tools. An interesting point is that we all live in different parts of the world, which has the advantage that the project can keep moving 24 hours a day. The one problem with the 24-hour workday is that you end up with a fractional night.
We achieved what we intended, which was to find out right away where we were right and wrong. After one year we did not validate 100% of our upwind sail inventory, but we ended up with a clear view on where we stand in terms of boat speed for 2012 events in Italy.
While that work was for the AC 45; work on sails for the much bigger and more complex AC 72 as been going on since December 2010 on a parallel track. On the AC 45 we have mainly worked with UK-Halsey France in Mandelieu as well as with UK-Halsey Hong Kong. Stay tuned for more stories and photos as our efforts to win the Cup continue.
UK Sailmakers' French loft has recognized the environmental problem posed by used sails. They have initiated a program to develop the world's first bio-degradable sails using Cellulose Acetate PET films issue from tree biomass. The transparency of the film is good but UK-Halsey still needs to improve moisture resistance. Today, price remains an issue but steps are being taken to seriously increase the production, hence reducing its cost. The rate of degradation is such that it will not cause the sails to fail during their useful life.
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| AVOID WIND SHADOWS, ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT AIR |
The following article is from Speed and Smarts, a racing newsletter written and published by Dave Dellenbaugh -- a name that needs no introduction in the sailing world. I am pleased to announce that Dave will be a regular contributor to our email newsletter. For those of you who are serious students of the game, I strongly recommend subscribing to Speed and Smarts. Each issue is packed tactical and strategic information, pictures and diagrams that will help you become a better racer. Welcome aboard Dave!
Sincerely,
Charles "Butch" Ulmer
 When you're looking for good speed on a light-air run, the more wind you have the faster you will go. That's why you should avoid the bad air of other boats. Here's an interesting way to think of wind shadows: Areas of bad air are like the lulls on a puffy day. Areas of clear air are like puffs. If you sail in bad air or lulls, you will have less wind which means you will be sailing slower through the water and higher than the other boats. Neither is good if you want to beat them.
Light-air flow is turbulent longer
Whenever the wind blows up against an impenetrable object (like a spinnaker), it bends around that object, breaks into eddies and eventually re-establishes flow as it was before the wind was disturbed. For racing sailors, the key question is how long the wind takes to return to its uninterrupted flow. This determines the length of wind shadows that exist to leeward of every racing boat. In simple terms, the slower the air is travelling before it meets the object, the longer it will take to return to normal flow. When a strong flow is interrupted, it has enough energy to come back together quickly. But a weak flow takes longer to re-establish. That's one reason why you can feel the effects of bad air much farther away on light-air days.
Bad air goes farther in light wind
One reason why you have to be very careful about bad air when you're racing in light breeze is that wind shadows extend farther than most sailors think. How far from another boat (directly in line with their wind shadow) do you have to be before you feel completely comfortable that you are not being affected by them? In heavy air, your answer might be 4 or 5 boatlengths. In other words, you can be that close to them and not be slowed at all by their bad air. In light air, however, the answer might be 8 or 10 lengths! That's why, on a crowded light-air run, there is a much smaller area where you can find clear air.
Sail Faster & Smarter!
Speed & Smarts is a bi-monthly newsletter packed with tips to improve your racing performance. It's written by winning AC tactician David Dellenbaugh, and each issue has 16 pages full of instructional advice on tactics, strategy, speed, boathandling and rules (plus there's no advertising!). To subscribe, go to:
https://www.speedandsmarts.com/Order/Subscribe |
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| A TICK FOR THE BUCKET LIST |
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| OPTIMUS PRIME making tracks south after getting out of Sydney Harbor. |
The 600-mile Sydey to Hobart race is considered one of the three classic ocean races in the world. The following is report from Lynnath Beckley, the navigator on the Martin 49 OPTIMUS PRIME. As Ms. Beckley says, "No matter how many oceans you have sailed across, one is not really regarded as a serious offshore sailor in Australia until you have done a Sydney to Hobart race. However, living on the west coast of the continent does make it slightly more of a challenge as one has to get the boat to Sydney first!"
More than a year out, Western Australian skipper, Trevor Taylor, committed to doing the 2011 Sydney to Hobart race on OPTIMUS PRIME, his Reichel Pugh designed Marten 49. Although irreverently dubbed the "carbon caravan" (3 staterooms and 2 heads!) it is very competitive and by far the most consistently performing IRC boat on the west coast. In the lead-up to the event, OPTIMUS PRIME competed in every offshore race on the west coast, improved the crew's expertise, completed the required sea safety and survival courses, did extensive boat maintenance and upgraded their UK-Halsey sail inventory. The following is Taylor's report:
Our qualifying race for the Sydney to Hobart was the Fremantle to Geraldton return race which we won overall - the 200 mile beat back to Fremantle in a strong southerly wind was to stand OPTIMUS PRIME in good stead for the Hobart race.
In early December, the boat set off together with arch rival KNEE DEEP (Farr 49) on the 2,500 mile delivery voyage across the Great Australian Bight bound for Sydney. Needless to the say, the high pressure system typically located in the Bight in summer provided the obligatory easterly headwinds but the boat arrived in Sydney no too worse for wear. Boxing Day dawned with a final pre-race weather briefing indicating good running conditions to Hobart in a moderate north-easterly before a southerly change. The East Australian Current was heading offshore north of Sydney but an isolated eddy located along the southern New South Wales shelf edge promised some good squirt into Bass Strait.
Click here to read the full article...
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| UK-HALSEY ADDS ANOTHER NEW LOFT: MERIPURJE SAILMAKERS IN FINLAND |
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| Tom Lindström |
In the last two months, the UK-Halsey group has added three new lofts including Ireland and Melbourne, Australia.The latest addition to the UK-Halsey network is Meripurje Sailmakers in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1976, Meripurje is popular among offshore sailors; no wonder, the name means Bluewater Sails.
The loft is on island just off downtown Helsinki, which is a great place to serve sailors who keep their boats in the harbor. This means fast repairs and better fit on new sails. Over the years the loft has made a wide variety of sails, from dinghies to tall ships and from bluewater cruisers to grand prix racers. They manufacture sails from all materials and service sails made by any sailmaker.
Tom Lindström, the loft's owner, has 30 years experience in all stages of sailmaking. Along with making cruising sails, the loft has specialized in racing sails for meter class boats. The majority of classic eight, six and five meter boats in the Helsinki area race with Meripurje sails. In 2003, their sails won the 6 Meter World Cup and then won the Six Meter European Championship in 2004. In the 1980s Tom was several times champion in 505 and also has been racing in Flying Dutchman, Dragons, Star, Six Meter and offshore boats. His loft partner, Jari Immanen, is a naval architect and has over 15 years of experience as a sailmaker.
"Joining UK-Halsey is a big step forward for us and we are really happy to be a part of such a talented group of sailmakers," said Tom. "We are now able to serve sailors better and offer many more premium quality cruising and racing sails."
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| COPA GALPAGOS REGATTA |
 Every three years the Salinas Yacht Club in conjunction with the Ecuadorian Navy and the Ecuadorian Federation of Yachting runs the Copa Galapagos Regatta that includes a 600-mile race to the Galapagos Islands. The islands are a World Heritage Site made famous by Charles Darwin. These islands inspired him to write his seminal work "The Origin of Species," that put forward the theory on natural selection. UK-Halsey Miami's Mark Wood sailed the race on the newly refurbished FUGA. a Hunter 54 owned by Sandro Navas of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The following is Mark's race report and travel log:
The day after a buoy tune up race we started with the 40-boat fleet in a 12-knot south easterly. Just as predicted, the breeze hardly ever varied, veering and backing only 5 degrees and never building to over 18 knots.
"We settled in for a close white sail reach, which was good for us. FUGA is good reaching boat with a lot of waterline; it was a speed race, easing and trimming for almost 600 miles. In three days we never changed sails or took any water on deck, and we averaged 8 to 10 knots all the way there. But for the last 50 miles the wind went aft and lightened. The more modern boats pulled away. But who cared? We made one of the best landfalls in the world.
"The finish was off Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz. Even though we were on the equator for more than 10 days, we hardly saw any sun. Everyday we had low clouds, mist and light rain which is apparently is normal for this time of year.
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| FUGA sailed for hundreds of miles to the Galapogos Islands jib reaching. |
"We had 40 mile race to the biggest island, Isabela. The turning mark was a sea level volcano rim! It was extraordinarily beautiful in very rugged rocky way. Though it is the biggest island, it is one of the least populated with no paved roads and definitely no Hilton Hotels. There are a few Eco-hotels where you can spend some time off the boat while exploring. This is the only island with Equatorial penguins and it is also the island with the famous blue footed bobbies and marine iguanas.
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| A marine iguana makes its way through the surf unfazed by me, even when I was right next to it. All the animals are surprisingly unperturbed by our presence. |
A couple days later we had the third and final race of the regatta, another easy-going reach for 80 miles to San Cristobal. It was a fast sail in more mist and light. This is the island that hosted the awards at the Naval base. The Equadorian Navy's barque was anchored offshore. She escorted the fleet for all the races.
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| FUGA on her mooring before the race. |
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| SIDEWAYS ACROSS THE LINE |
John Storck, Jr., and his family have won their share of J/80 regattas over the years. This year at Key West they had their ups and downs -- literally. While jibing before crossing the finish line of the first race of the week, they broached. In the midst of being knocked down, the masthead crossed the finish line and the race committee gave them a finishing whistle. Even in this unconventional position, they beat Mikael Lindqvist whose Rocad Racing ended up finishing second in the regatta, also with UK-Halsey sails.
Editor's Note: The definition of Finishing is, "A boat finishes when any part of her hull, or crew or equipment in normal position, crosses the finishing line in the direction of the course from the last mark…" In heavy air, boats broach, so being on their side is considered a "normal position."
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| UK-Halsey International, 175 City Ave., City Island NY 10464 |
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