One of the nicer stories from Key West was the J/80 class victory of the Storck family: dad, sons John and Erik, daughter Kaity and family friend Mandi Markee kicked butt in a 19-boat one-design class. They beat three-time KWRW and three-time NA winner Kerry Klingler (also World Champion), who came in second behind them. The third UK-Halsey boat in the top five was Al Minella’s RELENTLESS. The Storcks blew away the fleet with six firsts and a second, while they threw out a third. UK-Halsey’s Klingler was 11 points back; he was eight points ahead of the third place finisher.

“We had a lot of depth at each position with four College Sailing All Americans who could do any position on the boat,” said Stork. “In addition, this event represented our sixth KWRW with this boat and much of the crew.” The following is John Storck, Jr.’s report.

“Even though we’ve all sailed together a lot, we practiced until after dark on the Saturday before the regatta to get in some light air work. On the Sunday before the regatta, when it was too windy to sail, we sat in the condo, and each one of us went through what we do in each step of the race while the others added their critiques. It was a great way to get our heads in the game. Normally you come to a week-long regatta and improve every day as you re-learn to work together as a team. We didn’t want to sacrifice the first few races to experience; we wanted to make every race a good one. Later in the day when the wind moderated to 30 knots, we went out to practice. We were one of the only boats out. We put up the small chute and did some jibes. This gave us a lot of confidence. On Monday we went out to the course and were the only J/80 to put up the chute for the five-mile run to the starting line. On that wild ride we hit 17.4 knots. We even practiced a jibe and takedown. When racing for the day was abandoned, we were one of the last boats to head in because we couldn’t hear the radio over the flogging of the new crispy main. But in the five-mile bash to windward, on the way back to Stock Island, we passed almost all the other J/80s. That was just one more confidence builder.

"The first day of racing was Tuesday. It blew 18 knots and that felt like light air. We finished third, first, and first in the three races. The third was our worst race all week. The sails were great! We had unbelievable boat speed upwind. But downwind had always been a problem. This week that wasn’t the case. The new five-section chute that Kerry made is blazing fast. We could sail lower and just as fast as anyone. I just wish I had bought it before last fall’s North Americans.

"I would like to thank Kerry [Klingler] for his mentoring with our J/80 over the past six years. We have followed his sound advice on rig tune and boat set up almost exactly. The UK sails have been excellent and durable. The jib we used at Key West was used last year at Key West as well. In 35 years of buying Race boat sails, I have never had better service or attention to our needs."

The next regatta for the Storcks is the St. Petersburg NOOD and it will be Kaity’s turn to drive.

Billy Black photo

In the J/105s, Damian Emery sailing ECLIPSE, all but bested the 34-boat fleet by finishing second. Damian has been racing against J/105s with UK-Halsey sails for a long time and for the first time flew one of our sails – a class spinnaker (pictured). “We had great downwind speed and could sail deep. This gave us the option of passing or controlling other boats. I really like that it has a predicable break. Some chutes just lose it when you sail too deep. This sail gave us a warning. In the windy conditions we passed boats because we never overstood. We’d jibe early and end up sailing deep with speed to make the mark while others end up sailing farther. In fact one of our competitors said that we ‘got our mojo back,’” said Damien. Just behind him in third place was Joerg Esdorn’s KINSCEM.

Look a the top draft stripes to see both of these genoas are luffing in the top third of the sails, while the bottom half is drawing well.

Above: A well positioned lead block. Below: Reef points on a roller-reefing genoa.

What you are trying to do when trimming the sail is to strike a balance with the lead position that gives the proper trim on the upper and lower parts of the sail. To get close to finding the right spot for the genoa lead block, trim the genoa tight for going upwind and then move the lead block so that the leech and foot touch the shrouds at the same time. To fine tune the position of the lead block, you will need to look up at the sail to make sure that the top and bottom of the sail are trimmed evenly. If the top of the sail is luffing, move the lead forward a few inches. If the upper leech is hitting the shrouds and the foot of the sail is more than a foot off the shrouds, move the lead back several inches.

The best way to find the right position of the lead block is to use all three sets of telltales on your sail. They indicate how the wind is flowing across the sail at three different heights. You want to get all three flowing in the same direction.

Moving the lead block when the sail is trimmed is difficult because there is a lot of load on the sheet. Without a special block and tackle system installed to move the lead block, move the lead on the opposite side of the boat to the new position you want to try and then tack and look to see how the sail sets. If this position is right, move the original lead to the same position on the track. Another way is to roll up the genoa and then move the lead. Once you’ve moved it, unroll the genoa and check how the sail sets.

This may sound like a lot of work, but you won’t have to do this every time you go sailing. Once you find the right spot, put a mark on the track so that you can move the lead back to the same place easily in similar conditions.

One last point about genoa lead positioning: When roller-reefing, you will have to move your lead block forward. Reefing moves the clew of the genoa forward, which means the lead also has to move forward or you will not be putting enough tension on the upper leech when you trim in. If you don’t move the lead block forward when reefing, the top of the sail will flutter violently in a stiff breeze. Since most sailmakers put reef marks on the foot of their sails, take some time one windy day to reef to the reef point on your sail, find the correct lead block position, AND THEN MARK that spot.

CRUISING AROUND THE WORLD WITH UK-HALSEY

Adventurer Mike Harker has completed his circumnavigation with his Hunter Mariner 49 WANDERLUST 3 in Miami. Harker succeeded in meeting his goal of going around the world in 11 months. “Everything about the new 49 has exceeded my expectations,” said Harker, “and my expectations were high after sailing my Hunter 46. Glenn Henderson and his team, especially Steve Pettengill with his deck layout experience, contributed to building a fantastic sailing boat."

UK-Halsey worked with Hunter and Mike to provide the sails for the trip. During the circumnavigation, Harker did not have one sail failure with his Dacron UK-Halsey bluewater inventory. “My UK-Halsey Sails performed flawlessly,” said Mike. I have some chafe issues, but who doesn't after 26,000 rough sea miles on a boat with swept back spreaders? I did reef early, especially with the big, fully battened main. But all that reefing and unreefing didn’t hurt the sail one bit.”

WANDERLUST 3 was built in 2007. Hunter Marine provided Harker with some support during the trip. Hunter’s Director of Sales and Marketing, John Peterson, said, “We are working hard to dispel the perception and myth that our new models are not suitable for long range ’bluewater’ cruising. Over the last eight years, our engineering team, led by Glenn Henderson, has designed a completely new line of cruisers, and reinvented our production process. Our boats are stronger, more stable, more maneuverable, easier to sail, and more comfortable than ever before. Providing all that at an affordable price has always been the mission of Hunter Marine. We build boats for achievable dreams and back them up with the best warranty and customer service program in the industry. We are proud to be a part of Mike’s story, and anxious for the sailing community to appreciate the effort we’ve put into improving our products.”

WANDERLUST 3 is a standard Hunter 49 with the taller mast (68') and deep keel options. Mike’s boat has the standard full-batten main with a lot of roach instead of a roller/furling main option. Instead of a roller/furling main, Mike went with the standard full-batten main with a lot of roach. The Dacron main had three reefs — which all got used. The rest of the upwind inventory was a forestaysail and a 120% genoa. Both the genoa and the staysails were equipped with UV furling covers and foam luffs for better roller/reefing. For off-the-wind sailing, Harker carried a reaching Flasher. When running at deep wind angles, he polled out the genoa with a carbon fiber spinnaker pole.

"I was a little reluctant to sail with the tall mast. I was used to the in-boom furling with just one line to pull the sail up and one line to pull it down or stop at any reef point along the way down. Selden has made all the reefing lines easy to manage with the single line reef system. The Lazy Cradle sail control cover from UK-Halsey makes it much easier to manage the downed mainsail," said Harker.

In typical conditions, WANDERLUST 3 was able to average speeds of 7.5 - 8.5 knots. Mike said, “I have had more than a dozen 200 mile days, which allowed me to progress very quickly across the oceans. Sailing fast gave me more time than planned in the locations I enjoy."

In future newsletters we will be running articles with sailing lessons learned by Mike. But if you can’t wait, go to Mike’s web site to read his daily reports from the ocean at: http://www.h-tv.com/

NEW UK-HALSEY LOFT IN DENMARK

In the last newsletter we mentioned that UK-Halsey Denmark had moved and expanded. Here are pictures of Morten Ullmann’s new loft.





Morten’s contact information is:
UK-Halsey Denmark
Bakkegaardsvej 307
3050 Humlebaek
DENMARK
Tel: +45 4586 6820
e-mail: denmark@ukhalsey.com

UK-Halsey Cowes to build complete Inventory for 30m Superyacht

Formula Spars has contracted the UK-Halsey Sailmakers loft in Cowes, England, to design and build a complete inventory for a 30-metre (98-foot) steel sloop weighing in at 160 tons for a European client. The inventory is a Mainsail, a Genoa, a Staysail, and a Spinnaker.
The design work is being carried out by our special projects manager Tom McWilliam in consultation with the rig specialists at Formula Spars.
The UK-Halsey sails for this project will be made from Dimension Polyant GXLD Carbon Spectra. The upwind sail area is just shy of a whopping 500m2, which is entirely eclipsed by the spinnaker area of 650m2.
To find out more about Formula Spars visit www.formulaspars.co.uk and for more information about UK-Halsey in Cowes and our other projects visit www.ukhalsey.co.uk

After seven races, Townsend and crew finished one point ahead of MATILDA, even though they had four firsts. For more information on the sails KAITO used, contact Geoff Bishop at UK-Halsey Sailmakers in Fremantle, Australia.

Brad Skeggs sailed his first Sydney - Hobart race this year on his Beneteau 34.7 PALANDRI WINES MINDS EYE. His whole crew were first-timers, except for UK-Halsey Sailmakers' Geoff Bishop, who owns the Fremantle loft. Skeggs’ boat was the first entrant in the race’s 63 year history to represent Geographe Bay Yacht Club. Brad sent us the following report about the race experience.

I have jotted down some of my thoughts below, which I’m written in two seconds. The first is about the sailing itself and the second section is about the experience of doing the race.

The Race
     Getting your head around the start is BIG ! Lots of media, lots of aircraft, thousands of spectators, etc, etc. We really wanted a good start to enable us to work the right side of the course in order to get clear air. As it turned out we got a good start .....ahhh in fact a little too good! We were right on the front row and gybed into a nice hole but the 1.5 knot current running down the harbour pushed us (and about 10 others) over early. What still has me gazumped is how we were spotted as we had bigger boats advanced on us on both sides. Anyhow, my older son Tom guarantees me that we were a metre over .... bugger!
     What then ensued was chaos! The race committee called the wrong sail number i.e. GBR347 not GB347. Con was massively in the hot seat and confirmed by radio three times it was GBR not GB which the race committee confirmed. In the end they called us by name, admitted their error and confirmed we were over early. We went back hence the 39 minutes redress we were granted. We did, however, suffer via both missing out on 39 mins running down the NSW coast and by having to get out of the harbour with 45 gazillion spectator craft heading back in. I am comfortable with the outcome and fully accept that people (including us) make mistakes and that is what sport is about.
     Finally out of the Sydney Harbor Heads we started an afternoon and nights hard running. Not our forte as a displacement boat, but we slowly (up to 16.7 knots slowly!) picked off the opposition and by the second night we were well in contention overall on IRC . Rumour even had it that someone who arose to check at 4am (you know who you are and you need a life J ) saw us momentarily in the lead.
     Off Gabo Island most of the fleet parked! The shame of this was that all our gains were lost as the boats behind us came up and parked next to us.
     A soft dead downwind run across Bass Strait then ensued. Yep we had the big red COSOL chute up almost all the way! [So much for the stormy strait – eds. note.]
     Realistically, about 80 miles from Tasman Island the race had been won. The wind turned south just as the TP52s had rounded and the fast 40s (like CHUTZPAH) were rounding. The slower boats had to beat the 80 miles to Tasman and then, you guessed it, parked again for eight hours ..... ahhhhhhhhhhh.
     Once again, we saw boats come up fron behind and park close. Storm Bay and the Derwent River proved to not deliver the hype for us .... apart from some fluky 180-degree shifts. We cruised in on an afternoon sea breeze for a 6 pm finish on the 30th.
     Where did we end up?? Over the line we finished a fantastic 58th out of 82! No one was ahead of us that shouldn’t have been. In fact we beat boats like a Beneteau 40.7, a C&C 115 and a Sydney 38 on elapsed time. Unfortunately, under IRC, the big fellas were too far in front and the back markers too close, leaving us 42nd out of 64 and seventh out of 12 in Class E.
     From a personal perspective I thought we all sailed really well and just lacked a bit of weather luck.

The Experience
     The hype and lead up is BIG ! As the smallest boat we got some extra also. Sitting between Mark Richards (WILD OATS) and the LEOPARD owner (Mike Slade) at a press conference in Martin Place was the start.
     The start is awesome. The trick is very much to keep focus with helicopters buzzing around, media boats following and a million spectator boats was not easy! People ask how I got into a position to break in a 630nm race. Well the answer is simple — our strategy was to go hard and fast the whole way and that mindset was there at the start and didn’t quite come off.
     The race is LONG — minimal sleep and a lot of concentration. Fortunately our crew was great; all blokes I would do this with again (of course you would have to ask them if they would do it with me).
     The finish — well what can you say? When we crossed the line there were tears rolling down the cheeks of the first timers!
     Coming into Constitution Dock is a truly humbling experience. Hundreds of people clapped for the 58th boat across the line as enthusiastically as they did the first boat — a credit to Hobart people (whatever you call them!).
     Seeing family and friends who have made the trip there is also unbelievable. The slab of Cascade tasted great followed by very long hours at the Customs House pub (I think you can fill in the gaps here!)