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DAVID
AND GOLIATH – ALMOST
Shown above is the unexpected pair of first and second
place winners in the 530-mile Roma X Tutti. The course
is a long triangle off the west coast of Italy. The
huge Swan 100 FANTASTICAA dominated the fleet on the
water and easily saved her time, but the Beneteau 40.7
ALBA BLU’ from Division Three corrected to second in
fleet. Only one Division Two boat finished in the top
five. Both the Swan and the Beneteau had UK-Halsey sails.
The sail plan of the Swan is so mammoth that our two
lofts in Italy (Florence and Verona) had to join forces
to get the sails made. |
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CLICK HERE TO SAVE A LIFE |
 In
an effort to promote safe sailing, UK-Halsey will be running
a number of streaming video clips with instructional text
on safety at sea techniques on our web site. The first
episode has already been posted. It shows the perfect
technique for doing a Quick Stop man overboard recovery
while the spinnaker is flying. In the future we will show
how to do the Quick Stop while sailing upwind, how to
right and climb into a life raft as well as how to use
and set up storm sails -- along with other lessons. Not
all of the footage will be of perfect technique; some
will also show common mistakes from which viewers can
learn. To see the first video, click
here.
Most of our video was shot
during the US Merchant Marine Academy's first-ever "Hands
On" Safety at Sea Seminar held in early April at
Kings Point, N.Y. This was an historic event, at which
over 200 people had a chance to light flares, extinguish
fires, climb in a floating life raft, use storm sails
and sail a man overboard drill with a real person in the
water. The hands-on format played to rave reviews. It
is a much better way to learn offshore safety techniques.
In the past, such day-long events were classroom affairs,
and students reported suffering from information overload.
UK-Halsey was a proud sponsor of the event which proved
to be the best way to teach safety at sea.
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THE ULTIMATE BOX RULE
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INBOX--the prototype for the Far Harbour 39 -- was test-loaded into its container at Schooner Creek Boat Works in Portland (Ore.) in late April. In this photo the boat's exterior surface had not been finished. INBOX is slated for launching in August and will debut at the Newport (R.I.) International Boat Show in September, followed by the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis in October. PHOTO: Courtesy of Container Yachts
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The
Far Harbour 39
(FH39) is the first cruising yacht
designed to be container-shipped, which means the 39-foot
motorsailor can be transported economically to cruising
destinations around the
world. The yacht was designed for today's boaters, who
are long on cruising dreams and short on time: Far Harbour
owners will be able to cruise in faraway places without
uprooting their lives. Designed by Robert H. Perry, the
FH 39 prototype is being built by Schooner Creek Boat
Works (Portland, Ore.) and will debut at the fall 2006
boat shows. The first production models will be available
in early 2007. UK-Halsey's Mark Wood of our Miami loft
worked closely with the boat's creators to come up with
the right set of sails. The sails were built for durability
and designed for all the world's oceans since these boats
can be shipped to cruising grounds around the world is
a simple 40-foot shipping container.
CONTAINER SHIPPING: The cost of shipping a container is
a fraction of what it costs to ship a yacht of similar
size. The boat is designed to load into a standard high
cube container that measures 40 feet by 8 feet, and the
FH 39 can be loaded and unloaded using standard boatyard
equipment. Because the FH 39's hull effectively utilizes
the container's space, the need for bracing and support
is minimal.
FH 39 DESIGN: The Far Harbour 39 is a motorsailer designed
for a cruising couple. World cruisers want their yachts
to be seaworthy, comfortable, and capable of performing
well in all conditions-but in the case of the Far Harbour
39, the yacht also had to fit into a standard shipping
container. Container Yachts tapped the design talent of
Robert H. Perry to execute the concept.
CONTAINER CRUISING: Because the FH 39 can be container-shipped,
owners will be able to cruise in the destinations of their
choosing without uprooting their lives. There is no need
to take weeks off to do long offshore passages: after
a two-, three-, or four-week cruise in one cruising ground,
owners can have the boat hauled and shipped to their next
destination.
| LOA |
38.9
ft / 11.9 m |
| LWL |
38.0
ft / 11.6 m |
| Beam |
7.4
ft / 2.3 m |
| Draft |
5.5
ft / 1.7 m |
| Sail
Area |
582
sq ft / 51 sq m |
| Disp |
12,500
lbs / 5.7 mt |
FOR MORE INFORMATION on the Far Harbour 39 to their web
site:
www.containeryachts.com
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NEWS FROM ARGENTINA |
 The
Tape-Drive sails on Cesar Diaz's Magic 33 ENIGMA look
terrific on the cover of BARCOS magazine. According
to UK-Halsey Argentina's Henry Busch, "This is the most
important sailing magazine in Argentina. The sails shown
are the P2HX laminate with carbon tapes." The Javier
Soto design is light and fast and sister ships with
UK-Halsey sails do well in the IMS classes in the Buenos
Aires area.
Henry Busch also reported,
"In early May, UK-Halsey Argentina's customers dominated
the ORC Club Class in the Armada Argentina Regatta.
The event was a harbor-to-harbor regatta with 30-mile
legs. Classes A and B were won by UKH customers: RECKLESS
TOO won A and DON LISANDRO won B as well as finished
first overall. NEBLI finished second in Class B." |
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BOAT OF THE WEEK |
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Photo:
Sean Downey - www.insideyachting.com |
Above is Steve Harris's
J/120 TAMA JAMA on her way to winning the nine-boat
J/120 class and Boat of Week honors in the San Diego
Yachting Cup. This regatta is the largest big boat event
in San Diego. TAMA JAMA tied for first on points in
the five-race no-throwout regatta, but her two firsts
and two seconds ensured that her sixth place finish
in the first race did not hold her back. Other UK-Halsey
notables were Ron and Bev Coalson's Beneteau 44.7 FRENCH
BRED that won Division 4 and Doug and Tom Jorgensen's
J/133 PICANTE, which finished third after losing the
tie-breaker for second in the same division.
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LAKE
SUPERIOR CREW PROVES UP TO THE LAKE'S NAME IN THE CARIBBEAN
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On the left the crew of CHIPPEWA takes the second-place prize at the BVI Spring regatta. On the right, the crew got all the glory at the Heineken Regatta at Culebra.
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Congratulations to UK-Halsey customers Dave and Kim West for having such a winning season with their Farr 395 CHIPPEWA. After dominating in the Apostle Islands last summer with a 1st in the season championship, 1st in Mount Gay's Bayfield Race Week, 1st both the summer and fall series, 1st in the Thunder Bay International, 1st in the Duluth Triangle, and 1st in the Lake Superior Offshore Series, Dave and Kim escaped the frozen tundra that is Bayfield, Wisc., and sent the boat to the Caribbean for the winter racing season.
With a team of over 30
different Bayfield sailors, they put on a very impressive
showing: 1st at St. Croix International, 4th at the
Heineken at St. Maarten, 1st in the Heineken at Culebra,
4th in the Rolex at St. Thomas, 2nd in the BVI Spring
Regatta at Nanny Kay, and 4th in Antigua Race Week.
Highlights of season included winning the heaviest crewmember's
weight in Cruzan Rum (9 cases) at St. Croix, and beating
a professional Italian Swan 45 team in the BVI Spring
Regatta. UK-Halsey Sailmakers and the Superior Sail
Loft are proud to have them as customers. |
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“IT
WAS THE MOST FUN I’VE HAD…IN A LONG TIME”
As reported by UK-Halsey Hamble’s John Brinkers |
 I
now know why I love sailing; it’s for weekends like
this. This was the best fun I’ve had with my clothes
on for a long time!! I was racing on the Farr 45 EXABYTE
4 in the first of the Big Boat Weekends on the Solent.
The courses were short windward-leewards, with 18 to 35
knots of wind for both days. The fleet consisted of Farr
45’s, DK 46’s and Swan 45’s. This made
for very challenging boat handling, in close quarters,
and a lot of incidents--to say nothing about being a test
for the inventory of sails UKH made for the boat.
After the first day’s three races we were one point out of first. On Sunday morning the Solent was covered with white horses, as the breeze gusted to 40 knots. Only one race was sailed.
We came down the last run in first place, but still had to execute a gybe to make it to the finish. The breeze had built to 30 knots solid and we had the masthead kite up. Boatspeed was topping out at 24 knots — everything at max load.
Just as we were setting up for the gybe, a 38-knot puff hit and we executed one of the most spectacular crashes I have ever had the pleasure of being involved in. It was a mast-in-the-water, keel-out-of-the-water, carbon-spinnaker-pole-busting, all-standing crash-gybe. To recover, we blew the spinnaker halyard, took the kite down, put the jib up and still managed to win the race. From crash to recovery took no more than a minute. It’s a testament to the seasoned quality of the E4 crew that it took so little time to recover.
EXABYTE 4 is part of a 10-boat Farr 45 one-design fleet here on the Solent. These 1996 Farr-designed boats were originally known as the Corel 45. They offered some excellent big boat racing 10 years ago when they were first launched, and then the class gradually ‘died’ until the last three years when it seems many of the boats have been bought by English sailors. The boats are attracting some of the best sailors and the racing is fast and furious.
A big “thank you” to Pat Considine of UK-Halsey Chicago for designing the fastest spinnakers in the fleet, and a big thank you to UK-Halsey Italy for their DryCarbontastic Millenium sails. |
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DAVE
CALVERT REPORTS FROM THE CORSAIR NATIONALS |
This year's Corsair Nationals held in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, did not have the largest fleet, but the top competitors were all present.
The UK-Halsey Calvert loft,
designed and built their first set of prototype sails
for the new Corsair 31 One Design, CONDOR, which sailed
the regatta. The 31 One Design is the hottest class in
the Corsair fleet. With a PHRF rating of-51, the speed
potential is obvious. There have been three top boats
in this class; they’re ROCKETEER 3, skippered by
multihull champion Randy Smyth; LEILOE, with a full set
of North Sails, a team from North, and a professional
skipper, and the third contender was CONDOR, skippered
by Todd Hudgins and Peter Frendenberg. CONDOR replaced
their inventory of Ullman sails UK-Halseys. CONDOR, the
only non-profession team, had the speed to finish the
eight-race series tied with Randy Smyth and his ROCKETEER
team. Unfortunately they came out on the short end of
the tie-breaker.
Todd Hudgins said, “We are much happier with our new UK-Halsey sails compared to our last sails. I feel we have better speed on all points of sail than Randy Smyth on ROCKETEER."
The three 31 One-Designs sailed with the F31s and F31Rs. The top three regular F31s to finish all had UK-Halsey sails: Glenn Howell's ADIOS, Rex Bristo's WINGED IMPULSE, and Sam Showalter's TRILOBYTE.
The new Corsair Sprint 750 class, raced with the older F24 MK2 boats. UK-Halsey Calvert sails were on the second placing Sprint 750, TRI ME. Bob Gleason’s TRI ME corrected out to third overall in the 33 boat fleet.
The first Corsair 24 MK2
FARFALLA, skippered by Bruce Kuerten, was sailing with
UK-Halsey Calvert sails as well.
In the Open Class there
was a tight battle for first between Tony Hammer on PANTHER
from Canada, and Richard Stevens on TREVELYAN from New
York. Richard Stevens, with UK-Halsey Calvert sails, ended
up second. |
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NEW
CHALLENGER SETS SAIL |
 Here
is Philip Wood’s Grand Soleil 43R SIMPLY THE BEST
on her first sail. Initial impressions are that the boat
is fast, and sails easily to its polars. Her all-carbon
UK-Halsey inventory fitS perfectly. Woody and his crew
have a very full race programme lined up, including the
RORC offshores. |
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UK-HALSEY’S J/24 SAILS: “AT THE NATIONALS, THE SAILS WERE FAST.” |
UK-Halsey Texas has been developing a fast set of J/24 sails for over three years and the sails are starting to make inroads on the active Texas circuit. Doug Weakly, the owner of RED STRIPE, switched from another major label to UKH and reports a huge increase in speed. In fact he won the first race at the J/24 Nationals. The following are Doug’s comments: “The UK-Halsey sails are a truly innovative design that works. We used these sails at the Beasley Cup in Houston and the Nationals and were very pleased. We’ve seen the sails in every condition between 3 to 18 knots, and through all of it, boatspeed was on. Setup straight out of the tuning guide gave us great results. This main and genoa really show their strength as the breeze builds. They maintain a perfect shape in choppy, windy conditions and respond nicely to all the adjustments. We feel the UK-Halsey brand has made a considerable improvement to the boat over our last brand of sails. I highly recommend anyone give these sails a try!
“At the Nationals,
the sails were fast. We held them back with some bad starting
and seriously bad tactical decisions, and being 80 pounds
light hurt us a lot. The crew is now 13 lbs. heavy for
the Ft. Worth regatta, and we’ll get right down
to max weight by race time; so no more excuses. The UK's
should do the job.
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LITTLE RED HUNTER HAS PLENTY OF PEP |
UK-Halsey's
Don Stagg has been working closely with Steve Pettengill
and the crew at Hunter Marine to develop the new Hunter
27x, which has been winning a lot of races. Recently Don
sailed on the fire-engine red prototype named PEPE for
the Miami to Key Largo race. The boat not only won PHRF
4, but was second overall in the 25-boat PHRF fleet. Rating
186, the only boat to save its time on PEPE for the overall
fleet award was the scratch-rated Dufour 44 at 63 PHRF.
Boats we corrected over
were notably two C&C 99s, five Melges 24's, a J/29,
J/27, Tripp 33, Swan 40, as well as the other scratch
boat, an SR 33 with a huge square top main. Most interesting
to me was that we finished about 40 minutes ahead of the
brand new Beneteau 30, which rated even with PEPE.
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