Olympic Gold, Super Yacht and America's Cup Experience added to UK- Halsey Group

Dede De Luca

The Farr 95 Dhbolina on her shake down off Cape Town, South Africa.

     UK-Halsey is pleased to announce a major new addition to the UK Halsey group. Dede De Luca of Halsey Italy, whose sails won the Olympic Gold medal in Star Class signed up while in the USA sailing in the Melges 24 Worlds. De Luca’s loft in Verona, Italy not only has a strong one-design program, but also makes sails for boats from super yachts and America's Class boats to small offshore cruisers.
The Verona loft is the newest addition to our group of over 50 lofts and service centers around the world.
     "It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I welcome the De Luca family, Umberto Righi and their loft into the UK-Halsey group,” said Andy Halsey. “Halsey Italy has had a relationship with UK-Halsey Mystic for over ten years; I have the greatest respect for their design technology and product. Their loft and its 25 employees have a proven track record of superior sails and service, which adds to existing strength of the UK-Halsey group."
     The De Luca’s loft excels in many parts of the sport. In the Star class, Torbin Grael won an Olympic Gold medal in 2004 and finished second the 2005 Worlds, using Halsey Italy’s sails. In the Melges 24, their sails have won many top level events. In fact, Dede is currently driving ALE ALI at the 2005 Melges 24 Worlds in Key Largo, Florida. He won the first race in the 98-boat fleet. Earlier this year, the loft built sails for a brand new 95-foot performance cruiser.
     Marco Holm of UK-Halsey Firenze (Florence) said, “Their loft has an astonishingly good group of sailors that will be a major plus for our group. We have already started collaborating to win an order for a brand new 100-foot super yacht.
     Dede was the sail coordinator for the Italian America’s Cup team Plus 39 and is now a tailer on the Mascalzone Latino America’s Cup team. Between 1977-1981 Dede won four Italian championships and two European titles. His America’s Cup experience goes back to 1987 when he was a tailer on the Italian 12-Meter challenge. For more information about UK-Halsey Verona, go to www.halsey.it

THUNDERBIRD INTERNATIONALS WON WITH UK-HALSEY

     Vidas Stukas of Victoria, Canada, won the Thunderbird Internationals in Boston this summer using a full inventory of UK-Halsey Northwest sails. Sailing a chartered boat, Vidas and his crew won 5 of 11 races. This regatta win was the culmination of more than 20 years of racing and fine-tuning in the T-Bird class.
     Normally Vidas sails his immaculately prepared #642 OWL in Victoria. He’s won numerous fleet and regional championships with this boat. BLEW BIRD, his charter boat, had a good bottom but needed some serious rig tuning. Fortunately Vidas had diligently recorded OWL’s rig set up and duplicated it on BLEW BIRD. Much to his delight they were fast from the first race which they won, holding the regatta lead right through. Upwind and downwind boat speed was always great. Vidas noted that downwind the Matrix spinnaker design seemed to give them a noticeable edge.
     A long-term customer, Vidas has worked with Alex Fox to develop these latest sails. I say latest, because Vidas first bought sails from UK-Halsey Northwest’s owner Tim Knight back in 1987 when Tim was trimmer and tactician on the Worlds winning crew. Congratulations to Vidas and his crew on a well deserved victory. UK-Halsey Northwest is proud to be part of it.

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