Since the cover catches the sail as it comes down, the person on the helm can't get blinded by drapes of sailcloth while entering a harbor or narrow channel. No longer will you have to search for the sail cover or battle with it in a breeze. Just drop and zip. In moments your mainsail is neatly put away and protected from the sun.

Because many sailors are too tired at the end of the day to wrestle with their sail covers, they leave their sails exposed to the sun’s harmful UV rays. The lazy cradle is more apt to be used because it is easier to use, and that will make your sail last longer.

The cover holds a nice clean shape and looks as neat as it performs. The full length battens that run parallel to the zipper hold the cover open when lowering the sail and give the cover a smooth shape when zipped closed. Made from Sunbrella, the same material as your existing protective canvas, you can have your lazy Cradle match your dodger, bimini and roller furling cover.

When sailing, just roll the cover up; it has built in buckles that holds the rolled up cover next to the boom. See the photo to the left of the schooner JAKATRAN sailing. The rolled up cover is hardly noticeable.

The Lazy Cradle is one more example of UK-Halsey's Easy Passage line of cruising sails. Our goal is to make sailing more enjoyable and dependable. Click here to see a short video the Lazy Cradle in action.

Another example of our Easy Passages cruising line is the AirBatten system that gives sailors with roller furling masts the ability to have a full sized mainsail with battens. AirBattens are inflated after the sail is rolled out of the mast and then deflated before rolling the sail back into the mast. If you want to reef the main, just deflate a batten or two. The battens that remain inflated give the sail a well-shaped aerodynamic shape. Click her to see a short video on AirBattens.

For a month this summer, Zac Sunderland was the youngest solo circumnavigator until Mike Perrin, who is a few months younger than Zac, grabbed the title of youngest. But nothing can take away from Zac’s achievement; he will always be the first circumnavigator younger than 18. And now Zac’s 15-year-old sister Abby has the record setting bug. She is planning to become the youngest solo, unassisted circumnavigator. Both have sent correspondences to the UK-Halsey Newsletter.

From Zac Sunderland
It is strange being home after a year of sailing and being in some of the most remote parts of the world; going to Hollywood where everything needs to be done yesterday. Not a bad thing, just extremely different.
     One of the most important lessons I learned out there was how little people need to be happy. People seemed so happy with the simplest of lifestyles. When I was stuck on St. Helena Island, the second most remote place in the world, with steering and engine trouble I got so much help it was amazing.
     I also learned how far I could push myself when I was pushed beyond what I knew. When I was in the Indian Ocean, my forestay with the roller furler and 150% genoa on it, all came free from the deck. I charged through the Indian Ocean with a broken forestay in 15 foot seas and 30 knots of wind until I could get the forestay secured again. That was a long three days as the mast was compromised and could easily have snapped. It was only braced with my spinnaker halyards run forward.
     Besides having the time of my life, I hope that this trip will inspire more people to get out there and sail and also to just follow their dreams.
     Thanks again to everyone at UK-Halsey for helping to make my trip possible and such a success. One final point I want to make since I’m writing for the UK-Halsey newsletter. I got a new mainsail for my final leg from the Panama Canal back home to Marina Del Rey. This 3000-mile leg was all upwind so I needed all the performance INTREPID could give me. I opted for a new main because my current sail was beat. Singlehanded sailing took its toll on the sail and I must admit it was not treated perfectly for the first 24,000 miles of my trip. When I did put up the new UK-Halsey main I could tell the difference right away; what a difference a crisp sail makes. The old sail was stretched out of shape and did not drive the boat upwind – instead INTREPID just seemed to wallow to windward.

From Abby Sunderland
I have wanted to sail around the world alone since I was 13-years-old. At 13 I had been single-handing boats on a regular basis, but my parents weren’t ready to let me go. As disappointing as it was to be told that I was too young, I did understand their reasoning, and so, I kept on working towards my goal.
     When I was 14, Zac launched his campaign to sail around the world alone. It was a bit of a shock at first to hear that he was now doing it, but it was great being able to help out with his campaign. Watching Zac’s trip, we have all learned loads, and now after almost three years of dreaming and planning I’m finally pulling together my own campaign.
     What am I going to do? Sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world alone. The plans, if every thing goes according to plan, (how often does that happen!) are to leave this November from Marina del Rey and to return in April, six months later.
     My route will take me down around all the major capes. Yes, it’s a scary thought, alone in some of the roughest places there are, but I have been doing this sort of thing my whole life. Right now I’m in training. I’m also trying to keep up with my classes that have started. Sponsorships have been coming in and we are searching for just the right boat to make my dream a reality.

Pong’s first class event was the Malcesine Cup on Italy’s Lake Garda. The following report is from UK-Halsey Hong Kong’s Barry Hayes who sails with Frank: “The first half of the regatta was match racing, another first for Frank Pong and his team sailing KIKI, who are more used to racing Maxis. After two days and little wind the matches didn’t get fully finished, so highest points were taken, which gave Dean Baker the win. Frank Pong did a massive job, learning every step of the way. He proved that an owner driver can compete against some of the very best match races in the world: Russell Coutts, Dean Baker, Sebastien Col and Ray Davies.

click here to see the full article

Lou Jacob, the owner of the Tartan 10 SKIDMARKS sent in the following report on winning the 33-boat one-design division at the Verve Cup. The Tartan 10’s division was more than twice as big as any other division in the 160-boat regatta.

     “SKIDMARKS had a great Verve Cup this year and ended up winning first place in the T-10 section by seven points. We really had some great results – three bullets, a second, a fourth, a seventh and an eleventh (we were over early in that race but still managed to claw our way back). In addition to our regular crew, we had Seth Morrell with us all weekend. He’s been racing with us for almost ten years and he can just step on the boat and hit the ground running with the rest of us.
     “On Friday and Saturday (in the lighter air) we found that our loosened rig was the key to keeping us fast, and this is something we’ve been experimenting with all summer. The combination of that and our brand new jib definitely gave us the ability to power up the boat and really get going quickly. Of course, winning our starts and getting clean air right away gave us the early leads we needed to separate from folks and from there it was all about good tactics, great boat handling and keeping the boat dialed-in at all times. Boatspeed on these two days was phenomenal and I’d have to say the new headsail had to have helped us – check out the two photo finishes we had in these videos from Friday! http://bit.ly/fII8q
     “Sunday was another story, of course. It was really just about keeping the boat flat and up to speed coming out of the tacks, being careful in the waves and hoping that nothing broke! We had a spectacular round-up in race two (the one that was abandoned) but we were still in a good position when they pulled the plug.”

The first step in avoiding these problems is to have these parts of your sails checked and repaired on a regular basis by your sailmaker. Think of it as changing the oil in your car! In the early years of your sails, this will just mean re-stitching the webbing. However, after three or four years the webbing should be completely replaced.

Another point to remember is that the further south you live, the stronger the sun is and the stronger the sun is, the faster this can happen. So if you're in Florida or the south coast of Spain, you can expect these problems to occur a lot sooner than in Maine or the Scandinavia.

Given the upcoming change of season, it's a perfect time to have your sails checked. If you have a roller furling genoa and/or a roller furling mainsail, assume the worst and have the stitching and webbing gone over and repaired. You'll be glad you did!

The regatta is sailed under two handicap systems for all divisions, YAH as well as IRC. As this is the first event for the new sailing year, some sailor's get caught out with not having an up-to-date IRC certificate. UK-Halsey customer Peter Kennington on TRAFFIC JAM was one sailor who really paid for this error this year. Unfortunately he did not get his new IRC rating in time for race 1. If he had, he would of easily won both YAH and IRC in Division 2.

Terry Posma chose to race his Runnalls 39JAFFA without an IRC rating for this series as the owner wanted to test new configurations; he planned to renew his IRC certificate once he’s happy that the changes where in the right direction and used the Valmadre series to measure their success.

This year’s event was sailed in very light winds. Race 3 was abandoned with no re-sail due to too much wind. Going into the last race there where about three boats in each division that could have won the series.

Congratulations to the series winners, AQUILA (YAH DIV 1), TRAFFIC JAM (YAH DIV 2), ANASTASIA (YAH DIV 3) and TOPAZ (YAH DIV 4)