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Nicola Celon drove Ezio Amadori’s BETE (above) to victory in the 62-boat Melges 24 fleet at the Volvo Cup on Lake Garda. According to Mafio De Luca of UK-Halsey Verona wrote, “BETE was absolutely the fastest boat upwind and downwind in all wind conditions.”
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Latest UK-Halsey Rules Quiz Posted |
 Quiz 21 presents three variations of the “slam dunk” maneuver that brings out a better understanding of the rules covering tacking, luffing and more. These are common situations and each is just ticklish enough to pull you into “the room.” Play them on-line or if you have version three of our Rules Quiz CD, you can use the update button to download this latest quiz. Just click here to see the latest quiz, or click here to buy the UK-Halsey Real Time Racing Rules Quiz CD. The cost is $45, or $25 to upgrade from a previous version. We also offer a bundle of the Quiz CD along with Dave Perry’s book, “Understanding the Rules of Sailing Through 2008” for $65. |
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UK-Halsey America's Cup Report |
 The following article was written by Sylvain Barrielle of UK-Halsey San Francisco who is the head of the sail program for the China Team. He is also a trimmer on the boat; this is Sylvain’s fifth America’s Cup effort.
Action in the America’s Cup is all behind the scenes currently. There’s no official racing scheduled until next year, but that doesn’t mean the syndicates are not busy. Now’s the time for testing, modifying and building new boats, and a little bit of rest (not much).
When racing restarts in April of 2007, all the teams will have new Version 5 boats and I suspect things are going to get even closer. The China Team is in the process of building their new boat in China; our team will have only one boat this time around.
Work at UK-Halsey Sailmakers is moving along on for the third generation of sails. After two years we are now finally starting to work on the very small details, which is a lot of fun. When we started the program at UK Halsey San Francisco we expected some surprises because getting a new America’s Cup sailmaking team together is always a challenge. I guess we made the right choices because so far and we had very few problems. Besides problems with shipping the sails from the USA and Hong Kong to Spain, we’ve hit all our targets. So I guess life could have been worse.
Special thanks to a few of our guys at UK-Halsey who stepped up to the plate:
John Fries our lead designer, Andy Longarella in Spain who always gives us last minute finishing and modifications. The work done on his loft floor was key for testing a new sail plan geometry. I would also like to thank Brad Stephens and John Gluek at Dimension/Polyant for working with crazy people like me and the team at UK-Halsey Hong Kong.
There is a lot of work to be done yet. Expect a beautiful and amazing new boat for the Chinese team. I will keep you updated, but I will have to keep the juicy and technical stuff quiet until the Cup is over. To follow the efforts of the China Team, go to the website: www.china-team.org
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Brian Chapman Named Design Coordinator for UK-Halsey Group |
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To help coordinate sail design and to ensure the smooth flow of information between the 50 UK-Halsey lofts and service centers, Brian Chapman has been hired as Design Coordinator. “This is a big job and very important position,” said UK-Halsey President, Charles “Butch” Ulmer. There is a lot of talent in our expanding group and we need someone to keep track of the group’s strong efforts around the world. Brian is the perfect person for the job. He has worked for a lot of sailmakers in the past, including UK.”
Chapman has over 40 years of competitive sailing as well as three decades of sailmaking under his belt. He has served as both a sail designer and sailmaker for Quantum, Hood, UK Sailmakers and Horizon. “My loft experiences have exposed me to a variety of computer design programs (starting with the original Accucut in 1976) and sail construction techniques (from stick and spike to the latest CAD/CAM cutters),” said Chapman.
“The Design Coordinator appointment gives me direct contact with an extraordinarily versatile and experienced team of sailmakers and designers. My main responsibilities will be to orchestrate sail designs and construction techniques. Due to the wonders of the internet, this position allows me to remain in Toronto [Canada] (a fact that pleases me to no end) as I have spent the last 30 years earning the trust and respect or local sailors.”
Chapman’s most recent position was with the Quantum Sail Design Group where from 2000 to 2003 he was responsible for all the design, construction and fabrics for Quantum Toronto. During that time he often designed sails for other Quantum lofts. In 2004 he moved to Spain to design and develop sails for Quantum Spain for the all-important Mediterranean IMS and IRC racing fleet. “I’m eager to share my knowledge and experience with all of the UK-Halsey owners and designers,” says Chapman.
His dedication to the sport and industry has proven itself in many sailing campaigns not only as sail designer/sailmaker but also as team player, coach and rigging specialist. Having spent most of his sailing career in the Toronto market, there is arguably no better person to start UK-Halsey Sailmakers Toronto, which he plans to do in January 2007.
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BACK TO BACK TOUR DE FRANCE WINS |
 "Ile Maurice - Naïade Resorts", sporting UK-Halsey sails, won the 2006 Tour de France amateur division. Sylvain Chtounder led his young and talented crew to victory. "Ile Maurice - Naïade Resorts - EBSCO" won two offshore races overall, one in the Channel and one on the Atlantic coast. The boat and the crew showed remarkable consistancy and tenacity during the 30-day racing saga.
Sylvain opted for Titanium Carbon Code 1 and Code 2 genoas and Titanium Twaron Code 3 genoa along with a Cuben Carbon main. "The speed of the sails made up for the crew's lack of grand prix experience," reported Sylvain. This is the second consecutive year that sails made by UK-Halsey France won the amateur division of the Tour de France. |
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1,2 IN CANADIAN MARITIMES SLEIGH RIDE |
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Not all of the 358 miles was sailed in the fog! But after the first eight miles it was all downwind from Halifax to St. Pierre. Top the Beneteau 36.7 CIAO. Photo by Damien Manu – St.Pierre. Above: Larry Cohen’s Swan 48 DAWN TREADER.
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Of the 28 boat boats racing in the 358-mile Halifax to St. Pierre race, only two had UK-Halsey sails — they finished first and second. Larry Cohen’s Swan 48 DAWN TREADER was first and Philippe Paturel’s Beneteau 36.7 CIAO was second. After rounding the MOA buoy seven miles out of Halifax harbor, it was a downhill slide in 20-25 knots to the finish. DAWN TREADER was first to finish and corrected to first overall. Philippe Paturel, owner and skipper of the Beneteau 36.7 CIAO! out of Halifax wrote the following story about the race.
This summer we again signed up for the Route Halifax—St. Pierre. For those of you that have not done this race you are missing an absolute gem. Organized out of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (North America’s oldest Yacht Club and one of only seven Squadrons in the world). The start is downtown, for maximum spectator viewing. The finish line is at the French island of St. Pierre, just south of Newfoundland. This quirk of history is every bit French, with baguettes, fine wines and policemen with kepi hats.
We had a near perfect start and headed south, out of the harbour and into thick fog. While in the fog we fell into our own personal windless hole. Having been at the front of the pack we rounded the only mark at the entrance of the Halifax harbour with the last boats of our class. Frustrating to say the least. We had a very definite strategy worked out with the weather forecast that was 25 knots plus, south-southwest for the next two to three days.
Our bright red 0.5 oz spinnaker went up and when it came down some 49 hours later the crew thought it looked a little pinker. For two days and two nights the crew trimmed that kite and swallowed Ibuprofen. What a run, we got bored calling out 10 or 11 knots and only got excited when we surfed over 14. Four times we were well into the 16’s. The last night out the wind slowly built, but we lost our light on the speed dial and could only feel the surges without blinding the helmsman with a flashlight to see the speed. A friend, who was having a sleepless night on shore, decided to watch our progress on the internet, told us at one point we were flying at 18 knots !!!
At the start of the last night, leaving the coast of Cape Breton, we had our only close sighting of another boat it was Larry Cohen’s DAWN TREADER, a Swan 48 MKII. We knew if she was that close we had to be doing well. We then made the classic mistake and split tacks. At the time, we had our strategy worked out and we went for the wind. In hindsight, looking at the racetrack we should have followed… but it was also nice to dream about the honour of first to finish! Oh well, another “what if” to record in the log. We arrived in St Pierre just 40 minutes behind DAWN TREADER on corrected time. We were second for the third time. But what a run!
The Route Halifax-St.Pierre’s arrival is legendary. Boats full of photographers and cameramen and one boat with the Mayoress onboard speed out to greet us and followed us over the finish line. Another boat then guided us to the yacht club wharf where we were handed not one, but two bottles of Champagne. The locals, who had been following the race on TV, came down to wave us in. We felt as if you had finished an around the world race.
As a foot note, CIAO! Did win the Premier Class trophy, beat the other identical Beneteau 36.7s by five hours, won the Grand Prix race in St Pierre by one full second and is already signed up for the next race in 2008.
We hope to see you their too. For more information and pictures log on to www.route-hsp.com . |
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Singlehanded Transpac 2006 |
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Top: Synthia Petroka going to weather by the Golden Gate bridge on the Hawkfarm 28 EYRIE. Above: Phil MacFarlane’s Ericson 35 SAIL A VIE. Both boats won their divisions in the Singlehanded Transpac.
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This year’s 14th biennial singlehanded race from San Francisco to Hanalei Bay, Kauai drew 16 solo sailors in boats ranging in size from a Kirby 23 to an Open 60. After racing the 2120-mile course, UK-Halsey customers won two of the four divisions. With unusually light air off the California coast, the race split into two divisions, the boats that made it out to the system breeze quickly, and those that did not. Synthia Petroka, Textile Engineer for UK-Halsey San Francisco and one of the two women racers, sailing a Hawkfarm 28 won the ‘Small Plastic Classics’ division and actually finished ahead of all the boats in the next faster division of ‘Rhumbliners’. On corrected time she finished 6th, trailing the first-to-finish Open 60 by only 58 minutes on corrected. Another UK-Halsey San Francisco customer, Phil MacFarlane, racing his Ericson 35 SAIL A VIE was first-to-finsh and corrected out 1st in the ‘Rhumbliners’ division. An interesting note about Phil’s Polyester Taffeta / Carbon inventory: He used the same sails to win this race overall in 2004 and delivered his boat back to San Francisco using his racing inventory. He used his racing sails for the return trip this year — under double reef most of the time — and he says that there is no notable degradation to the sails after almost 10,000 miles of singlehanded sailing. Well that’s not quite true, the sail numbers are a bit faded!
Editor’s note: UK-H’s Synthia Petroka has been doublehanding the Hawkfarm 28 EYRIE since 2003 with the boat’s owner Sylvia Seaberg. They developed a successful racing formula and won the season championship after competing in a dozen races. In 2004, Synthia and Sylvia won the doublehanded division of the Pacific Cup. “Getting ready for my first SH Transpac was not that daunting as EYRIE was so well prepared for the Pacific Cup with the help and advice of so many good friends and sailors. All I really needed to do was replace Sylvia with a good autopilot, which I named “Leona Helms-a-lee.”
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New Screen Saver Update
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If you liked our screen saver and were disappointed when it timed out, we’ve re-programmed things so that the update will download. Now you can get back the incredible photos, including images from some of the world’s top photographers. It has colorful racing and cruising action scenes. Juice up your PC and amaze your friends and business associates. It’s free for downloading. And when you’re on our site, take the latest animated rules quiz or check out some useful software for crew management and sail evaluation. Nice part: it won’t cost you a dime. Check it out. www.ukhalsey.com and click on the “downloads” link.
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