(© 2007 www.HeikeSchwab.com)

Being part of the 2007 America’s Cup has been an incredible experience. On every level this year’s event is a sight to see. The number of spectators coming through the gates on race days is nothing short of amazing. Port America’s Cup is the perfect place to experience the event. Huge crowds gather at the Foredeck Club to see the teams tow out, and then move to the big screens to watch the day’s races.
     The China Team's base was a favorite for many because we had less secrecy than the others. The construction of our base used clear walls so all of the activities inside were visible to the public. The Dragon Bar on the roof of our base was also open to the public. It was surprising to see how many people would gather on the stairs to watch us working on the sails on their way up to the bar. Once on the roof they had a one of the best views of the harbor.
     UK-HALSEY is very proud to have worked with the China Team in their first America’s Cup challenge. We used an international approach to provide the highest quality grand prix sails possible. Project management was provided by UKH San Francisco, construction by UKH Hong Kong and sail design by UKH Mystic. The group approach that combined all of our assets allowed us to compete at a very high level right out of the box. UKH supplied 100% of the China Team’s sail inventory. The sails proved to be both fast and reliable, and after countless hours of testing and racing we didn’t have a single failure with the sails. Our customers can be confident in the fact that the lessons learned through this America’s Cup campaign will trickle to all of our products.

Twenty years ago we developed a revolutionary system where we laid tapes from corner-to-corner over a base membrane and we called those sails TAPE-DRIVE. These sails have gone through constant development for more than two decades and are known worldwide to thousands of satisfied customers. TITANIUM is a development of that technology.
     The difference between TAPE-DRIVE and TITANIUM is that TAPE-DRIVE sails have the load-bearing fibers stuck to the outside of the membrane, while the load-bearing yarns are laminated between two films in TITANIUM.
     Laminating the load-bearing yarns inside the sail allows greater coverage thoughout the sail. Instead of having tapes every few inches, the yarns in a string sail are very close together. This gives the sail a smoother shape. String sails are lighter because the amount of glue needed in the finished sails is

Titanium for all sizes of boats. Top: the RP 77 JELIK. Left: A Mumm 30 in the Tour de France. Right: A Najad 440 with a boom-furling main and roller-furling genoa.

radically reduced.
     TITANIUM sails can be as light as the sailor wants them to be. We can make them lighter by putting in less load bearing yarns. While these sails are light and fast, they generally won’t last. When durability is a requirement, we can load up the sail with extra yarns. In a direct comparison with other sailmakers' sails, we usually come out about the same weight or lighter than comparable products. That said, if you want a really light sail we can do that.
     TITANIUM sails use aramid and carbon fiber yarns – either separately or in combination. If the sail is to be used solely for top-end racing we will build an all carbon sail. If it is to be used for club racing, we use mostly aramid yarns.
     TITANIUM sails are not just for racing. TITANIUM is perfectly suited to performance cruising boats over 50 feet as it produces sails that are relatively light (easy to handle and store), very strong and durable. We also build them with a taffeta option.
     Taffeta is a finely woven, light-weight polyester fabric that is laminated to the outside of one or both sides of the membrane. This protects the sail from abrasion and UV light. It makes the whole sail heavier, but for long distance performance cruising, it adds many miles to your sail’s life.
     UV attacks everything on a boat, from the halyards to the seat cushions, to the sails. It is why having taffeta on cruising sails is so important. Racing sails, used for short bursts on the race course, don’t get nearly as much exposure to the sun’s ultra violet rays. Cruising sails, especially mainsails, can be up all day long.
     TITANIUM sails even utilize special yarn layouts for roller-furling genoas; therefore; cruising sailors can enjoy the benefits of lighter weight, performance sails.
     Just as TITANIUM can be used across the racing and cruising spectrum, it can be used across the size spectrum. Sails have been made for maxi cruisers through Mumm 30s.
     TITANIUM sails are only made at our French loft in Cannes. The TITANIUM techology has been developed over 4 years. Membranes are shipped to other UK-Halsey lofts where the finishing is done locally. This involves applying corner patches, edge tapes, hardware, draft stripes, sail numbers, batten pockets and so on. Your local loft designs the sails so that the finished product will meet your boat’s requirements.
     Titanium vs 3DL and other String Sails: There is not a lot of difference between TITANIUM and North Sails’ 3DL, except, we believe we have some distinct advantages. Our first priority when developing TITANIUM was to end up with a lamination second to none, and we believe we have achieved that. While the typical TITANIUM sail is heavier than a 3DL sail, the weight trade-off provides much geater durability. Other than that, TITANIUM sails are very similar to 3DL sails in appearance. Barring 3DL, TITANIUM is the only sailmaking system that offers continuous yarns from corner-to-corner.

     Designed in 1984, the Express 37 was way ahead of her time in construction as well as in design. The boats have been very competitive under an assortment of rules including PHRF, IMS, Americap and now IRC because they were not designed to any rule. After 22 years of hard racing, the boats are still tough as nails. In fact, Richard duMoulin’s LORA ANN was one of only three boats to finish the 2006 Stamford-Vineyard race, which was sailed in the remnants of hurricane.
     DuMoulin breathed new life into his Express 37 this winter by installing a J/Boat style sprit. DuMoulin said that he made the change to make his boat even more fun to sail. The sprit is six feet long and his biggest new spinnaker has 20% more area than his symmetrical spinnakers. His IRC rating only changed from 1.035 to 1.039, which is about 3 seconds a mile. He is still waiting to see what the local PHRF committee will do to his rating. “No matter what they do the boat is just plain more fun to sail,” said duMoulin.
     "Sprit boats are simple and fun. I got tired of all the mess in the cockpit from the lines needed to handle a symmetrical spinnaker. We have gotten rid of the topping lift, double-ended foreguy, and the two spinnaker guys – these lines made the cockpit a tangled mess.”
     He feels the boat is safer not having the pole swinging around in jibes or tripping crewmembers when it’s on deck. And he’ll never have to set his reaching strut (jockey pole), which is always heavily loaded when it is being rigged.
     Not only does a sprit boat have a cleaner cockpit, but it takes less crew to sail the boat. “With symmetrical spinnakers we sailed with 10 people and now it only takes 7-8 people to handle all the jobs. It is also easier to train new crewmembers to handle asymmetrical spinnakers than symmetrical ones.” Another bonus of the sprit is that duMoulin no longer needs different spinnakers for buoy racing and distance racing. Four asymmetricals cover all the racing he does.”
     Not only has duMoulin had a distinguished racing career going back four decades, but he works to improve the sport. He is the past commodore of The Storm Trysail Club and is currently chairman of the US-IRC owners committee. In his letter to the PHRF Committee on Long Island Sound, he wrote that the committee should encourage— not discourage — owners from making the change to a sprit. “There is an opportunity to get more conventional boats racing if more people follow suit. While being fair to all competitors, this should be encouraged, or at least not punished.”
     DuMoulin’s main reason for making the change was to simplify the boat for double-handed racing. In fact, he has won the double-handed division of the 630-mile Newport to Bermuda race three times in a row. Getting rid of the spinnaker pole and all its dedicated control lines will make his boat that much easier to sail with just two people. “I think we will be equally competitive in distance and doublehanded racing, perhaps a bit less competitive in windward-leewards, but will have more fun all around. This change wasn't done for race results as much as fun sailing in a variety of different types of racing,” said duMoulin.

     The cost of the modification was about $10k, which broke down as $5000 for the pole and launching tube and another $5000 for the installation. Plus he did have to buy all new spinnakers, but he was long overdue. Jeff Udell’s Custom Offshore designed and installed the sprit, while Jeff Kent at Composite Solutions built the sprit and garage tube and also assisted in the engineering.

     Overall this was my first time driving a 40-footer and I had a great time. Our starts could have been better and doing a 720 isn’t fast but it was amazing at how the J/122 let us get right back into the game. In our division was another J/122 (Andrew Weiss’s CHRISTOPHER DRAGON), Express 37’s, X-35’s, Ben. 40.7 and some other boats. Between DRAGON and RAGTIME, we won seven of the eight races. They won four and we won three.
     The average race ran about 50-60 minutes. In every race we usually finished in the top end of the J/120 fleet starting five minutes ahead of us. I love the boat.
     We compared notes with CHRISTOPHER DRAGON after racing and were both pleased to see that tactics and clean sailing determined the winner. These boats were quite even and clearly a great choice for IRC racing. In two of the races we got ourselves pretty far behind and came right back through the fleet.
     Tuning: I started out the series with very light rig tension. I added some tension each day and I was surprised to see that the added rig tension in the light-air sixth race didn’t seem to effect our light air performance. Having two boats out there helped both of us speed up the learning curve.
     Upwind: In 18 knots of wind, boatspeed upwind was 7.1 to 7.3. This was my target speed. Once we got over seven knots the keel starts to work better. Over 7.4, I felt like we were giving up too much point.
     Downwind: The spinnaker size of 155 square meters on the large A-sail is perfect. We are not giving anything away downwind. Any bigger would hurt our rating and reduced our ease of handling.
     Stability: After sailing the boat in wind from 3 to 20 knots, I am not one bit concerned on how this boat will perform in a blow. In 20 knots of wind we saw the max on our light headsail but we had a full main (granted it was flattened out). We also were carrying a No. 3 that would have been more appropriate for 18 and higher, but the stability of the boat didn’t force the fact. In light air if you look at our scores you will see we did quite well, so we have enough sail area for the light stuff too. This is normally a big compromise in any design and a reason why you see a lot of boats specialize in certain conditions
     Crew: We experimented a little with this. We sailed with 8, 9 and 10 crew on different days and didn’t notice any particular sailing difference in the performance. We also didn’t need the hands. The only difference would be the added weight on the rail. We sailed with a driver, main trimmer, two cockpit and three on the bow area including pit and mast. The other crew rode the middle of the boat.
     Overall: We were very comfortable delivering the boat to and from Newport and New York but can’t wait to really test out the J/122’s cruising capabilities. Racing the boat was just a complete treat. Crew work was easy and the crews of both J/122s had a hard time coming up with any improvements. Our only issue is that J/Europe can’t build them quickly enough. It would be nice to have more boats available to sell.

The single and double-handed scene has exploded in recent years, particularly in Europe, due in large part to the development of a number of classes that lead upwards towards the mighty Open 60. The Mini 6.50, Figaro Beneteau, Class 40, Open 50... it's a nearly perfect trail from the affordable for amateurs to the state of the art in transoceanic sailing. While many sailors find a class and stay with it for their entire careers, many move upwards, catching the eyes of sponsors from a good year in the Mini or Figaro to get a 40, 50 or Open 60 buy or build. And just as healthy for the sport and classes, some of the 'giants' often compete in the classes where they first cut their teeth.

Much of the action takes place in France, and there are few places where English-only speakers can follow the developments. One of them is the Scuttlebutt Europe newsletter, edited by David McCreary, the ISAF's first webmaster and the man who brought much of the sailing world online. It's a free newsletter in text-only format, a fast read over your morning cup, with excerpts and translations from across the spectrum of European sailing news.

Published five times a week, you can subscribe at http://scuttlebutteurope.com