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| NOW THAT’S A BIG REGATTA |
DUBLIN, IRELAND (July 12-15) -- 3000 sailors in 522 boats from 12 countries sailing in 25 classes on 9 race courses raced on Dublin Bay in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta. The biennial regatta is similar in size to Cork Week and runs in the opposite year. UK-Halsey Sailmakers’ customers won 11 classes as well as the Volvo Trophy for best boat overall.
The Impala 28 WHISTLIN’ DIXIE owned by O’Sullivan/Keelan of the Royal St.George YC took the Volvo trophy by winning the 23-boat Class 3. Roy Dickson was a popular winner of Class 0 (IRC) after good last day performances. Dickson was probably the oldest skipper in the fleet. His red Corby 36 ROSIE is pictured above. The following are the class winner with UK-Halsey sails.
Class 0 IRC "Rosie" Corby 36 Roy Dixon, Howth Yacht Club
Class 1 ECHO "Rocky" First 34.7 Paul McGlinchey, Lough Swilly Yacht Club
Class 2 IRC "Kinetic" Corby 25 Murphy & Colwell, Lough Ree Yacht Club
Class 3 IRC "Whistlin' Dixie" Impala 28 O'Sullivan & Keelan, RStGYC
Class 3 ECHO "Whistlin' Dixie" Impala 28 O'Sullivan & Keelan, RStGYC
Class 5A IRC "Orna" Grand Soleil 40C Philip Dilworth, NYC
Class 5A ECHO "Xerxes" IMX38 Dan O'Neill, RIYC
Class 5B IRC "Mac Magic" First 32s5 Peter & Declan McCabe, Howth Yacht Club
Mermaid Class "Tiller Girl" Jonathan O'Rourke NYC
Beneteau First 31.7 Class "Tigger" Cassidy & Mulhall, HYC
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| Around Long Island Race |
UK-Halsey customers romped in the 180-mile Around Long Island Race sailed on the last weekend of July. Most of the race was sailed in an eight to twelve knot southerly with some periods of no winds. Mark Hansen’s J/145 SWEET LORRAINE reveled in the medium breezes and flat water. In her first race under Hansen’s ownership, SWEET LORRAINE took all the top prizes save first to finish. She won first in IRC Division 1, First in IRC Overall, First in PHRF Division 10 and First in PHRF Overall. They even won the Foredeck Award to recognize the bowman on the winning boat.
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Part of the crew of SWEET LORRAINE: Left to Right: Kerry Klingler of UK-Halsey New York, Rick Lyall, HL DeVore and the happiest guy of all, Mark Hansen.
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Hansen credits his new UK-Halsey jumbo spinnaker for launching them on the first long leg of the race from Coney Island east along the south shore of Long Island out to Montauk Point, the most easterly point on the island. When they made the turn at Montauk, the wind dropped zero so the crew dropped the anchor in 70 feet of water to hold their position. Once the southerly returned 30 minutes later, they made it through Plum Gut just before the 3-4 knot current turned against them.
“We flew back down Long Island Sound jib reaching at 9.5 knots. We were just flying,” said Hansen. “We made up a lot of time on the bigger boats in front of us as we sailed down the North Shore of Long Island.”
Julian Dougherty’s Beneteau 36.7 TENACIOUS finished first in IRC 2 and third overall in
IRC. She missed winning PHRF 7 by 25 seconds to the Beneteau 36.7 SURFACE TENSION.
Division 7 was a pretty narrow rating spread and included five 36.7s. “SURFACE
TENSION,proved to be very competitive and gave us a good run for our money,” said tactician
Jeff Tyrrel. “They were 20 minutes ahead of us as we rounded Montauk and held that lead
until they made the mistake of not playing the foul current well going through Plum Gut. We
stayed to shallow water behind Gardner's Island and again at Plum Gut Light and quickly
reeled them in to pull up abeam and to weather by a couple hundred yards. The race was on
to see who could get to the finish first. Numerous headsail changes between our VMG
spinnaker and FST AP #1 in a steadily building breeze that oscillated a good 20 degrees
every half hour or so. We finally got ahead of them for the last time at Old Field Point. We
were having an awful time picking up the necessary distance to correct out but then we got
the break we needed as the wind shut down at the change of tide about at about 10:30 pm.
We must have passed a couple of dozen bigger boats in the light and fluky stuff from Eaton's
Neck down to the finish. Went around Matinecock Point in route to the finish in very, very
light conditions finally crossing the finish line at 3:37 in the morning on Saturday (after
starting the Thursday before).”
“Our new UK-Halsey sails made a huge difference,” said Dougherty. “This is the third time
I’ve done this race and the first two times we were always in the back of the pack. With the
new sails we ended up with a bunch of trophies – you think the new sails had something to
do with it?”
Paul Guttamn also noticed the difference in his boat’s performance by adding a new UK-Halsey genoa to his C&C 110 MUSIC. “This years ALIR was particularly exciting because of the light winds and my new UK-Halsey jib. After a late start we were able to capture most of the boats that got ahead. MUSIC was able to point higher and go faster than she ever did before. Our second place in division and third place overall in the Non-Spinnaker class was a direct result of our boat, our crew and our new genoa. I will be ordering my new main this fall,” said Guttmann. |
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| 130-FOOT SHAMROCK SAILS AGAIN WITH UK-HALSEY IN HER CORNER |
 After an extensive refit, the classic 1930 America’s Cup challenger, SHAMROCK V, sailed for the first time in Genova, Italy. She sported her new wardrobe from UK-Halsey Sailmakers in Hamble, England. Testing of the new sails in Genova was a complete success.
Her skipper Nick Ryan said, “This main is the easiest main to handle on any J Boat, ever!"
"The old main was 1100 kgs (2425 lbs.) and impossible. This main is just so easy because its half the weight,” said former first mate Marty McNary, who helped out on the initial shake down.
For more information on these sails, contact UK-Halsey Hamble. SHAMROCK’s sails are probably the lightest and most manageable sails ever to be supplied to a yacht of this size (130 feet).
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| FAMILY TEAMS WIN PHRF OVERALL AND MORE AT BLOCK ISLAND RACE WEEK |
One-hundred eighty-seven boats, arrayed in 18 divisions, competed at this year’s at Block Island Race Week run by the Storm Trysail Club. UK-Halsey came close to pulling off a “family trifecta”: John Storck, Jr. won the PHRF overall award with his J/80 RUMOR; Randall Baldwin’s Taylor 42 CABADY IRC 5 almost won the IRC overall and Rick Lyall sailing with his brother Andrew finished second in the J/109 class by a whisker, which means they just missed winning best one-design finisher in the regatta.
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The Storck family sailing their J/80 RUMOR upwind.
Bow to stern: Ian, Erik, John III, John Storck, Jr., and Kaity at the helm.
www.photoboat.com |
The biggest (well, in family members) winning family of Block Island was the Storcks sailing their J/80 RUMOR. John Storck, Jr. sailed with his daughter and three sons. “I sailed Block Island with my father in the 60s. Sailing with my kids is the fulfillment of every sailor’s dream, where your kids love sailing as much as you do,” said Storck.
It was his daughter Kaity’s turn to be the driver at a major regatta since his son Erik (22) drove at Key West two years ago and at the J/80 Worlds last year and his son John III (24) drove at Key West this year. The youngest Storck, Optimist sailor Ian (13) was the go-fer for his older siblings. Kaity turned 21 in the middle of the week and her first birthday present was a new wrist band allowing her to legally enjoy adult beverages under the regatta tent.
“My kids deserve all the credit for the win. They’ve done a lot of Block Island Race Weeks. The three older kids, all graduated from or attend colleges with top sailing teams (Hobart-William Smith, Dartmouth and Tufts). “The other person who contributes to our long chain of successes is our sailmaker Kerry Klingler of UK-Halsey. Kerry has patiently spent a lot of time teaching us how to tune and sail the boat in all conditions. The UK sails are fast and stay fast. Our main is three years old and has a lot of windy regattas on it.”
Even though their PHRF rating band was very tight (only six second a mile separating the fastest from the slowest boats), the boat types were varied. Along with the four J/80s, there were five mid-thirty foot cruiser-racers. According to Storck, the only time the J/80 was disadvantaged was in when the wind blew 10-14. In those conditions they got waterlined downwind and the overlapping genoas helped the bigger boats upwind. In heavier air the J/80 could sail faster downwind, and in lighter air the big boats had to sail the same tight wind angle with their chutes. For the first three days of the regatta, Rumor led, but on Thursday, two races were sailed in the dreaded 10-14 knot range: Rumor gave away four points of her lead by scoring two thirds as the Sabre 36 CYMOTHOE took two firsts. But, a satisfied John Stock concluded, “We got CYMOTHOE on the last day by getting her buried at the start.
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“You know you’re in the hunt for something big, when something big hunts you,” said Matt Baldwin about the last race of the week when BLUE YANKEE (the custom built IRC R/P 66) tacked on top of his family’s red Taylor 42 CABADY during the final race of Block Island Race Week, which pushed them out of contention for the IRC overall award. Getting tacked on may have cost them a Rolex watch, but they still won their class, IRC 5. Matt’s father Randy traded in his Express 37 for the Taylor 42 in May of last year. “We made the decision to find a good platform for the Newport Bermuda Race in 2008,” said Randy.
This class victory follows CABADY’s first in class in the 180-mile Around Block Island Race sailed over Memorial Day weekend. From here, CABADY will concentrate on distance racing in an effort to tune up for next year’s Bermuda Race.
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Rick Lyall’s J/109 STORM leading the pack to a weather mark.
Dave Dunigan photo: www.davedunigan.com |
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| ALICE II COMFORTABLY WINS IRM NATIONALS |
HAMBLE, England (July 20-22) -- The 2007 IRM National Championship was hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club. After 10 races over three days in a mixed bag of wind and weather, Simon Henning’s Farr 45 ALICE II came out on top. The following story was written by Hemming’s son Mike who drove the boat. Mike also works for UK-Halsey Hamble.
Day 1 saw heavy squalls hitting the fleet and with winds ranging from 20 to 25 knots; crew-work was tested. I was very fortunate to have a solid crew to rely on involving some excellent trimming and great boat-handling. Coming off the start lines we found great height from our carbon jibs whilst maintaining good speed giving us the advantage to pull away and stay consistently at the business end of the fleet. We knew that in such a tight competitive fleet that if we sailed consistently we would be there or thereabouts come the final day of the regatta. It was this approach that gave us the lead at the end of the first day. We picked up a third, first and a second giving us top spot by 3 points.
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Thanks to Principle Race Officer Peter Bateson for the photo of ALICE II |
Race 2 was the most exciting as we rounded the final top mark in 4th place. As the breeze increased, we found a significant speed advantage with our 0.6oz Max Size Runner. With it we flew down the right hand side of the run taking all the boats ahead of us to reach the bottom mark in 1st place which we held to the finish.
Day 2 saw similar conditions, we knew there was a long way to go and needed another consistent day so we avoided taking any risks and sailed cleanly. We managed to do this well and collected a third and three seconds. With discards coming into play at the end of the second day, the positions tightened up but we still held the lead by one point over WEREWOLF.
On the final day, the lead was still in play. The conditions were lighter than the previous two days, so we changed gears by taking six turns off the forestay. The softer rig setup gave us more power in the lighter conditions. Moving to our carbon Code 1 genoa we found that the performance was excellent and that we could sail our way through the fleet even with one bad start. However, in the first race of the day we were held out at the bottom mark by ATOMIC, which cost us two places, this resulted in scoring our worst race of the series, a fifth. The pressure was on for the second race of the day. We bounced back from this disappointing result with excellent sailing and crew-work and finished first, making it virtually impossible for us to lose the lead overall. In the final race of the regatta we needed to finish within four places of EXCEL to win, so I started safely in the middle of the line just to windward of them. This put us in a controlling position on EXCEL and we managed to control the right hand side of the beat getting us to the top mark in second with EXCEL rounding in fourth. We crossed the finish line in second, and held EXCEL to third to win the regatta.
After winning the IRM Nationals by a clear margin of 5 points in a regatta where 5 of the 7 boats got a first place, the owner of ALICE II Simon Henning was ecstatic with the performance of his team and the UK-Halsey sails.
This win is even more impressive when you look at the caliber of the competing crews. Even though there was no limit on Pro Sailors on the boats, I was the only Pro Sailor on ALICE II making our win that much more notable. Some of the big names sailing on the other boats included: Mike Richards, Jeremy Robinson, Simon Clarke, Pete Selby, and Shane Hughes to name a few! |
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| Airbattens: A New Option for Roller Furling Mains |
 UK-Halsey customer Robert Henderson was a racing sailor before buying a 40-foot pilothouse cruising so that he could take off for ocean passagemaking . The boat came with an in-mast furling mainsail, which he liked from a safety point of view, but hated from a performance point of view. The sail had no shape and negative roach. All the sail’s performance characteristics were traded away so that it would roll into the mast easily. As a result he developed and patented the AirBatten system that has battens that can be individually inflated after the sail rolls out of the mast and deflated in order to roll the sail back into the mast. By being able to inflate and deflate the battens individually, the sail can be reefed by deflating some of the battens and keeping others stiff. The Airbattens are stiff enough to support a mainsail with enough roach to overlap the backstay, while keeping the leech of the sail straight. Roach and a flat leech give a main sail great power when going to windward and increased sail area for sailing downwind. In fact, Henderson has won some singlehanded races with his boat after replacing his shapeless underpowered sail with a full-sized main equipped with Airbattens. The system can work with a mainsail made out of any material and construction layout. Mark Wood’s UK-Halsey loft in Miami has worked with Henderson and builds these sails for our group. For more information, contact Mark at our Miami, Florida loft: miami@ukhalsey.com or 305-858-3000.
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| MEDITERRANEAN TROPHY: NEW BOAT FOR THREE TIME WINNER |
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Jean-Claude Bertrand's new Archambault 35 TCHIN-TCHIN.
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Jean-Claude Bertrand won the 2007 Mediterranean Trophy, which is a week of racing five different port-to-port races between Corsica and Sardenia. This is his third time winning the event and he did it with his new Archambault 35 (A35). His previous boat was the Beneteau 36.7 VAGABOND.
His new boat TCHIN-TCHIN won overall both IRC and IMS divisions over a fleet of 34 boats, which included the Brenta 55 IMAGINE, the X41 MAGICIAN 3, an Anteros 36 EASY a carbon prototype designed by Andrej Justin who is now collaborating with Russell Coutts, many IMX40s, X35s, A35s, J109s, also notable a Baltic 51, Hanse 460, Beneteau 44.7 and 47.7, Grand Soleil 40 etc.
It took couple months for Jean-Claude Bertrand to learn and refine the sail trimming on the new boat. Now with his new light genoa, a Titanium protype (a test sail) and a new code zero, TCHIN-TCHIN was simply unbeatable.
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| GREAT STORIES FROM CHICAGO NOOD |
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WOMBAT setting down after leading the fleet around a windward mark. J.H.Peterson photo |
Rick Strilky, the top T-10 sailor in Chicago, returned from his sabbatical racing Lasers for a one-shot regatta at the Chicago NOOD. Using his old UK-Halsey inventory, he and the crew of WOMBAT came together to win the NOOD’s biggest (33-boat) class and took Best-in-NOOD. UK-Halsey’s Mike Considine helped on tactics, but the easy to-set-up sails helped the crew find the groove and return to glory. UK-Halsey also powered the J/105 class winner, Dorin Candea’s MESSY JESSY, which dominated the second-biggest class (23 boats). Both Albert MacDonald’s “Obsession” (PHRF-3) and Tom Neill’s NITEMARE (GL70) won their classes with UK-Halsey sails: each had 4 bullets a piece. NITEMARE won all her races boat-for-boat even though all the other Great Lakes 70s owe her time on handicap. NITEMARE also went on to win the Great Lakes 70 class in the Chicago Mackinac race. |
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| BETTER SEX DRIVE WITH UK-HALSEY SAILS |
In late 2005, SEX DRIVE, a Contention 30, came under new ownership. Twelve months later she was ready to grace the waters of Hong Kong once more, having done so for almost 30 years.
Rob Berkley, her new co-owner, reflects:
“Even after a year of working on the boat, we still ran out of time to finish everything before our first race; we set off for the start line having only had the chance to look at half of our sails. Hoisting the 150% genoa was a shock. It had been cut down to a reacher and was missing more sail area than I care to remember. And, as with every other sail on board, it dated back to 1992!
“The China Coast Regatta, three days of autumnal racing in Hong Kong, was twelve days away and it was clear that we needed new sails — fast. SEX DRIVE was my first boat, and although I knew something about sails, having crewed and chartered for several years, I really did not know where to begin when it came to actually buying them.
“The day after that first race, Barry Hayes of UK-Halsey Hong Kong, had a quotation in my in-box. The following day, having already had measurements taken, sail material samples were under scrutiny. Only 11 days after that initial hoist of a saggy old reacher and shapeless mainsail, and a new Tape-Drive mainsail and genoa were being unpacked and readied for the next day’s start to a busy regatta weekend.
“Working with Barry and UK-Halsey Sailmakers has been easy; never any pressure to buy despite parting with endless amounts of information over the months. I must admit, when analogies are made between sails for America’s Cup challengers and SEX DRIVE I get a little lost in the technical detail, but as a customer it is nice to feel valued, regardless of the size of boat or budget.
“One of the great things about SEX DRIVE is her history in Hong Kong and the number of seasoned sailors who have sailed on her in her early years, in particular Willy Roberts who raced her from Hong Kong to the Philippines in the early 90’s. We wanted to take an old boat and bring her back to life. She has performed well under HKPN but the next challenge will be to see how she races under her new IRC rating.
“I think the bottom line is that we have had a much better SEX DRIVE since we started using Tape-Drives. Thanks to Barry Hayes and UK-Halsey Sailmakers Hong Kong.”
SEX DRIVE’s Results After Her Re-fit
China Coast regatta 2006 1st Overall HKPN
Round the Island 2006 1st HKPN Division B
HKRNVR Pursuit Race 2007 1st
RHKYC Top Dog Trophy 6th 2006/07...highest placed cruiser
RHKYC Spring Regatta 1st overall HKPN cruiser
ABC Singlehanded Race 2007 1st
HHYC Singlehanded Race 2007 1st
Chinese New Years Macau Race 1st overall HKPN div B
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| TOUR DE FRANCE A LA VOILE |
Sylvain Chtounder finished second in the Amateur Division the grueling Tour de France a la Voile. His Mumm 30 was called BRED Banque Populaire and her sail inventory was all Tape-Drive Titanium made by UK-Halsey France. Chtounder almost repeated his 2006 win of the Amateur Division, but he had to mount a come back after suffering a broken shroud and stolen computer early on in the event. This photo above was taken after the crew of BRED won the race at Royan.
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| TAPE-DRIVE SAILS POWER CIAO! TO VICTORY IN MARBLEHEAD TO HALIFAX RACE |
CIAO! The Beneteau 36.7, skippered by Philippe Paturel his Aigle Sailing Team won PHRF Division3 in this year’s Marblehead-Halifax Race, taking home the Wright Trophy.
 After sailing the 360nm course in 76 hours CIAO! was the first Canadian yacht to cross the line. In doing so, she was also winner of the Premiere Class and received the Sunny Brook Trophy (See picture of trophy on the dock).
It has to be said that the crew of eight fought hard to keep this small 36 footer ahead of the rest of the fleet, including some of the larger yachts from other fleets! Larry Cohen’s DAWN TREADER, a Swan 48, which beat CIAO! in the last Route Halifax Saint-Pierre, finished only 2 minutes ahead. CIAO! truly pulled out all the stops to get the most out of herself and her UK-Halsey sails.
Close to 130 yachts participated in this 102-year-old race, which unfortunately turned out to be a beat in miserable fog and rain –undeniably hard on any crew’s moral since shortly before the race the weather forecast was for a windy downwind ride.
It is the long hours of continuous hiking and the nights spent clipped to the rail that paid off in the final results. Also the upwind Tape-Drive sails produced by Paturel’s friend Sylvain Barrielle of UK-Halsey San Francisco paid off powering the boat in the light winds where sail shape is so important.
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Philippe Paturel (holding the big trophy) and
the rest of his Aigle sailing team.
Derek Mason Photo: www.justthat.ca |
Philippe Paturel and his crew also play the role of ambassadors, promoting the Route Halifax Saint-Pierre Race. The 4th edition of this event starts in Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 14 2008, and finishes in the renowned and uniquely French owned islands of North America.
Here is hoping that CIAO! and the Aigle sailing team will get to take home the silver this time instead of being the bridesmaid again, having come in second three years in a row!!! –Next year’s challenge. |
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| BUENOS AIRES SAILOR HAS A LONG HISTORY OF WINNING WITH UK-HALSEY IN HIS CORNER |
Hector Trajtenberg, a veteran blue water sailor of more than 50 years, continues to race his 20 year-old Frers 44 ketch CAMILA successfully in the very competitive Argentine fleet. His long term commitment to yacht racing includes several Buenos Aires-Rio races, World IOR championships, Columbus Transatlantic race of 1992, Newport-Bermuda of 1994 and 1996 and innumerable races in the River Plate and South Atlantic.
He received the prestigious Gold Medal of the Yacht Club Argentino twice for his overall racing accomplishments of 2001 and 2002. His most recent racing performances have been boosted with a complete inventory of UK-Halsey sails. Recent CAMILA honors included first place finishes in the 220 mile Buenos Aires-Mar del Plata races of 2006 and 2007, and first places in the Buenos Aires - Panela Lighthouse race and Fall Championship of Buenos Aires, both in 2007.
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| RELIVE THE ACTION! |
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See UK-Halsey sails and their owners looking good at www.PhotoBoat.com. PhotoBoat had a busy spring and early summer, covering many events near and far, including Charleston Race Week, Annapolis NOOD, AYC Spring Series, Greenwich Cup, CPYC One Design, Block Island Race Week, and more, including JSA action. Ask about bringing PhotoBoat to your next event. www.PhotoBoat.com or 203.216.5548. |
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