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AMERICA'S CUP SAILS BY UK-HALSEY
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UK-Halsey
Sailmakers has been building sails for the China Team’s America’s
Cup challenge since the spring, and these sails have been a
true group effort. Sylvain Barrielle of our loft in San Francisco
is the UK-H coordinator of the project. He has almost 20 years
of America’s
Cup experience; this is his fifth campaign with French teams.The China Team represents the Qingdao International Yacht
Club and was established in March 2005 as a joint-venture between
China Equity Investment (a leading Chinese venture capital
fund) and the French organization, Le Défi.
The UK-Halsey lofts involved in the program so far are Mystic,
where most of the sails have been built and designed, Hong Kong, where two spinnakers
were built in three days, Spain where sails have been re-cut, and many other
lofts have consulted.
As a trimmer on the boat and the team’s sail coordinator, Sylvain is in a perfect position to see the sails and help develop new ones.
For more about UK-Halsey's America's Cup efforts, see John Fries's comments in the article below about our Mystic loft.
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UK-HALSEY CANADA AND THE LIDGARD LOFTS IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST CONSOLIDATE
To better serve sailors in the Pacific Northwest, UK-Halsey Sailmakers in Sydney, B.C., and the Lidgard lofts in Seattle and Anacortes, have formed one company. This is great news for all sailors in the Seattle area who dealt long distance with the UK-Halsey loft on Vancouver Island. Now, with local service and support, UK-Halsey’s business in the Northwest will flourish.
In Seattle, the new team of sailmakers are:
Karl Funk, loft manager of the
Seattle loft
Doug Christie, sail consultant
and Sail Design Coordinator for the whole UK-Halsey group
Gary Stuntz, Sail Consultant
Matt Loft, service manager.
In Anacortes, the team is:
Gray Hawken staying on as a Sail Consultant and his wife Margot as the Loft Manager.
The loft in Sidney, B.C., will focus on building its Canadian client base by redirecting efforts into supporting our many Canadian Dealers and service lofts. Loft Owner and General Manager Tim Knight said, “I’m extremely pleased that Karl, Doug, Gray and Margot are going to be working with our team. I’ve held these great people in high esteem for a long time because they are sailmakers who share the same values in customer service and are dedicated to building the best sails they can.
“It is with great pleasure that I embark on this new phase of sailmaking in the UK-Halsey group. I want to personally thank all the people in the group who helped this combination happen and especially to Gray Hawken whose patience and understanding went a long way to making this come together.”
Watch our website and the UK-Halsey newsletter for more news form this great group of sailmakers.
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UK-HALSEY
CONTINUTES TO EXPAND: LEFEBVRE SAILS IN BELGIUM JOINS THE
GROUP
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| The Lefebre family team. Marielle, Michel, Jr., Yannick and Michel. |
Michel
Lefebvre has run Lefebvre Sails in Oostende, Belgium, for the
last 32 years with a lot of dynamism and know-how. He is assisted
by his son Michel Lefebvre, Jr., and a professional team. Michel
Lefebvre sailed Olympic classes and continued in bigger boats.
Michel had a lot of national and international victories in
classes such as Formule 40, Mumm 36, B25, Dragon, Half Tonner
and more. Michel was also coach for the Belgian Olympic Team
in Sydney in 2000.
His son Michel, Jr., specializes in offshore boats
and is a regular in events such as the Fastnest Race, Round Europe Race,
RORC-regattas, and more. Yannick, Michel’s second son, is currently
sailing an Olypmpic Laser campaign; he has taken a second in the Splash Worlds
and a third in the Cadet Europeans.
The rest of the UK-Halsey Belgium team is loaded
with sailing experience and sailmaking knowhow. These people understand boats,
sails, sailing and service..
Their loft is 1500 sq. meters, which is big enough
to make all kind of sails, as well as sail covers, canvas work and bags.
UK-Halsey Belgium also sells the biggest names in
furlingsystems, masts, and rigging. Our store can take care of the needs
of cruising sailors as well as racing sailors.
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ANDY HALSEY REPORTS ON SAILING A 140-FOOTER IN THE SUPER YACHT CUP
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| The 140-foot ketch REBECCA sailing under a cloud of nylon. |
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Sailing
and/or racing on a super yacht is just like sailing on any
other boat - only bigger: everything is much, much bigger.
On REBECCA, a 140' Frers ketch I recently raced on in Palma de Majorca for the Super Yacht Cup, the head reinforcement patch on the mainsail is the same size as a J-24 mainsail. The front mast asymmetric spinnaker is 11,789 sq feet. It seems that not so long ago an 80' maxi boat was a really big boat, but the mizzen on REBECCA is bigger than the maxi class mainsails.
Remarkably, the most important body part to exercise
in order to trim most sails on a super yacht is one's index finger and/or big
toe. The sheet loads generated on a super yacht require mostly captive winches
that live hidden below deck. On REBECCA the sheet winches stop turning when the
load gets to eight tons. That means the full main can’t be sheeted in when
the wind is blowing more than 25 knots. The calculated load on the main sheet
is 11,000 lbs. when the wind gets to 30 knots. When trimming the sails on a super
yacht one has to consider what the sails are being asked to propel – 164
tons of boat through the water.
The boat may not accelerate, but once you get something that big and heavy moving, it keeps moving. After sailing on REBECCA for the first time, UK-Halsey Mystic’s sail designer commented, “It is so strange to be sailing along at nine knots and then sail into a hole. The boat stands up and stops heeling, but it keeps moving at nine knots.
Racing these big boats is great fun and taken quite seriously, but some of the logistics are a bit different than your average weekend or weeknight race.
For practical and for fun reasons, most super yacht regattas
are a series of pursuit races. Each yacht is given its starting time and, if
the handicaps are done correctly, the finishes are very close, particularly by
the last race. This also keeps these monsters from getting too close to each
other in a crowded situation; only one boat starts at a time, unless two boats
have the same rating. Also, unlike most sail boat races, in a super yacht regatta
the engine is required until each individual's start – just in case maneuvering
help is needed. This system takes quite a great deal of pressure off the brain
trust at the start.
While helmsmen, tacticians, trimmers, and bowmen are the crew members usually associated with the "important" roles of any crew, on a super yacht the one person that carries the most critical role is the engineer because all the sail handling power comes from hydraulic systems. If a pump or a gasket fail, there is not enough human muscle to tame the boat’s mammoth sails. This does happen occasionally, and it is a bit unnerving to be heading towards an obstruction at high speed without the ability to tack or gybe.
For the regatta we delivered a new No. 2 genoa. This
is the only headsail, and it needs to be roller-reefed when the breeze comes
on. The sail is 4300 square feet, or the same area as two America’s Cup
Class mains. Even made out of Cuben Fibre, it weighted over 1000 pounds. Of the
25 crew on the boat, it takes 15 people to get the 11,789 square foot spinnaker
up and down – and
that’s with a dousing sock.
Assuming that the systems all work, racing these big boats is very much the same as any other boat. Well, most "normal" race boats don't include a chef to make the lunches and snacks, and a crew to serve lunch and drinks. But, hey, pushing buttons can work up quite an appetite and thirst.
A serious challenge when racing these boats is the ability to concentrate. It is always tempting to watch the other yachts in the regatta. It is not that often that these boats get together; spectating while racing is difficult to avoid. However, because your only "feel" is a button, if you are trimming, you must keep a vigilant eye on what your button controls. If you are trimming the main and look at another boat and momentarily space out, you can overload the sheet and break the sail, battens, or pull something seriously large out of the deck -- a sure way not to be invited back.
Crossings situations and close finishes are quite a challenge,
especially on windy days. Super yachts are not quite as responsive and have a
slightly larger turning radius than most boats. On a close port/starboard crossing,
all things such as easing sails, having the leeward runner off, and judging relative
speeds is as important (maybe more important) when racing a super yacht. Considering
you have a combined tonnage of over 300 tons aiming at one another at 12 knots,
a collision would be disastrous. While racing REBECCA during the America’s
Cup Jubilee in England, Lawrie Smith, who was helming, crossed one foot behind
a 110' yacht and jibed three feet in front of a maxi boat at the leeward mark.
Lawrie seemed to know what he was doing. The other boats were a little less sure,
at least judging by the size of their eyes and the length of their open jaws.
At the end of the day, racing on a super yacht is an
experience, if offered, that should be taken up.
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| UK-HALSEY SAILS DOMINATE IN J/109'S |
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| Al Minella (center) receiving the Thompson Trophy from John Thompson and PRO Sue Miller. Andrea Watson photo. |
UK-Halsey
continued to dominate the J/109 class on Long Island Sound
by taking all the trophies in the J/109 one-design class at
the windy Manhasset Bay Fall Series. UK-Halsey customers swept
the awards in the J/109 class at the American YC Fall Series
earlier in the month. At the Manhasset Fall Series, Al Minella
sailing RELENTLESS won with four bullets and also was awarded
the John Thompson trophy for best performance in a one-design
class. In the American YC Fall Series, Rick Lyall sailing STORM
topped the J/109 class. At the Larchmont NOOD regatta, Minella
finished second and Lyall finished third. Another UK-Halsey
boat, Barry Gold and Peter Carpenter’s SUNDARI, finished
third at American and second at Manhasset. “UK-Halsey’s
sails are in another league compared to other sailmakers’ sails,” said
Rick Lyall.
Other UK-Halsey winners at the Manhasset Fall Series were Iris Vogel sailing her Soverel 33 DEVIATION, Adam Loory sailing his Express 37 SOULMATES and John Storck sailing his J/80 Rumor.
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| 10 YEARS AND 31,000 MILES: TIME FOR NEW SAILS |
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| Lynn and Larry Pardey are synonymous with circumnavigating on simple boats. Learn more about the Pardeys at www.landlpardey.com |
Circumnavigators Lynn and Larry Pardey are steady customers of UK-Halsey in Cork, Ireland. They bought their last set of Dacron sails in 1996; after 10 years those sails carried the Pardey’s 31,00 miles. The following is a message to the loft from Lynn Pardey.
Sails have about 31,000 miles on them; the main going the majority of that except when we hove to or during the ten days of beating past Cape Horn when the trysail took over. Our meanderings with those sails included, five race weeks from Brest to Douranez (First in class) to Falmouth Week, Fowey Week and Beaulie classics regatta. Then Falmouth, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, first in class at Sonne long distance race, only boat to finish ahead of us, Saga, the King’s maxi, then south to complete a circumnavigation of Britain. South and west to Bermuda and Maine. Two years cruising US east coast, then from the Chesapeake Bay to the Azores, Azores to Cape Verdes, Brazil, Argentina, round Cape Horn to Chile, north to Juan Fernandez archipelago, Marquesas, Hawaii, Victoria, Canada. Cruising and regattas in Canadian and American Pacific Northwest waters last two seasons. That’s it, and that's why sails are now ready for replacement. Estimate about 65 percent of strength left, but shape is starting to move aft. Zipper on jib needed replacing, otherwise just some chafed stitching needed care. Grand suit of sails. Let us know prices for three working sails, main, staysail and jib. By the way we did use the reef in the storm Trysail off Cape Horn and needed it!
Best, Lin
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UK FRANCE REPORTS AWESOME SEASON FOR THREE BENETEAUS
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New to racing in 2001, Cyril Baillie, owner of SAYANN has shown amazing tenacity and focus. His talent was fully revealed during the 2005 IMS/IRC season. The first serious race Cyril and his crew won this year was Porquerolles Week, which was soon followed by many top results. SAYANN just won the French Mediterranean Beneteau Cup at Voiles de St Tropez but also scored 1st Beneteau 40.7 at Rolex Giraglia and Alassio Week. When the racing is over, atmosphere is relaxed and good local rosé wine flows. SAYANN races Millenium and Cuben Fiber sails |
| First 40.7 Sayann |
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VAGABOND won the 2005 IRC Mediterranean Challenge composed of five major races, led by owner Jean-Claude Bertrand. Next month the top two winners of the Atlantic IRC circuit will challenge their counterparts from Southern France. For the second year in a row, VAGABOND also won the Mediterranean Trophy between Corsica and Sardinia. She is well tuned and skilfully raced by her owner and crew. The boat, sporting a new set of Millenium carbon sails, has been racing higher and faster than all the other boats. |
| First 36.7 Vagabond |
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First 36.7 KALINKA is a true sailing saga. After winning every possible race in Marseille in 2004, KALINKA caught fire and was nearly destroyed. Owner Walter Radulic and a group of close friends spent all their evenings and weekends restoring her, hoping to be ready for the famous Marseille International Race Week. She was back in the water the night before the race. Of the thirty-three boats racing in her division and thirteen First 36.7s, KALINKA won the prestigous Easter race. She then scored 4th overall at the IMS European in Croatia.
Fully fitted with Millenium sails,
KALINKA is just top gun.
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| First 36.7 Kalinka–Marseille Grand Littoral |
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FEATURED LOFT: ANDY HALSEY’S OWN LOFT
UK-HALSEY MYSTIC, CONNECTICUT
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| The
China Team sailing with a UK-Halsey asymmetrical in
Malmö, Sweden, during Act 4. |
It
has been a busy year for UK-Halsey’s Mystic (CT) loft.
In January the loft’s designer, John Fries, won his PHRF
division at Key West Race Week and then followed up with a
class win at Block Island Race Week sailing his Evelyn 32 REMEDY.
His boat is an on-going test platform for new sail designs.
At Block Island, the boat’s asymmetrical spinnakers proved
to be race winners.
Not that the shapes were exactly the same, but the time John spent on the small boat’s spinnakers proved invaluable when he designed a handful of asymmetricals for the China Team’s America’s Cup challenger. Those sails were so well accepted that the loft made another handful of working sails for the boat including a massive square-topped mainsail that was completed in record time. Both Andy Halsey and John Fries traveled to Valencia, Spain, for Act 4 to watch the China Team sail with her new spinnakers. John helped the team out with trimming tips so that the chutes would achieve their designed shapes.
“Being able to design sails that incorporate incremental changes from informed feedback is priceless,” says Fries. “The Cup is one of the few places a sailmaker can learn and progress this way.”
Working on the AC sails helped Mystic become a close part of the UK group. Sailmakers from two different UK lofts came to help build sails over the summer. San Francisco sent sailmakers to help with the Cup sails and Rhode Island’s Dave Simmons helped on the massive No. 2 genoa for REBECCA, a 140-ketch. That sail ended up weighing over 1000 pounds of Cuben Fibre and has the area of two America’s Cup Class mainsails.
Both John and Andy went to Spain to sail on REBECCA. See Andy’s article in this newsletter.
In June, Robert Towbin’s SUMURUN won the Classic Division of the Rolex Trans Atlantic Challenge. Mystic made a full inventory of cream-colored classic Dacron sails for the 1914-built Fife-designed 94-foot ketch.
The loft is so busy that it is actively looking for an experienced sailmaker to be the new floor manager. This is a big job considering how big the floor is and how big the sails are they run through the loft.
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STORE ITEMS ON SALE |
Great Discounts On UK Logo Gear just in time for the holidays. UK Sailmakers is putting many of the items in our online store on sale. Check out these discounts:
Striped UK Polo shirts:
list price $36, sale price $22 |
While supplies last, solid polo shirts:
list price $32 reduced to $20 |
UK Hats:
List price $12, sale price $6 |
Fleece Pullovers:
List price $60, sale price $45 |
Kevlar duffel bags:
List price $60, sale price $45 |
Carry all bags:
List price $50, sale price $35 |
Cruising Spinnaker A to Z CD-ROMs:
List price $20, sale price $12
shipping in North America included. |
Cruising Spinnaker A to Z DVDs
and Video cassettes:
List price $35, sale price $20. |
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