 Your
racing program was meant to be enjoyable, weekend fun with your
family and friends. But too often you struggle to organize enough
crew and equipment to be effective on the racecourse and your
team never seems to develop and gel. When race day arrives,
it ends up being hectic and chaotic. Your goal is to win yet
most programs fail before they leave the dock due to faulty
communication and preparation.
UK-Halsey in conjunction with
software developer 1bigthink
puts the fun back in your sailing while organizing all the little
details for you and your crew and sail inventory in one central
location with UK-Halsey SailTeam
Builder. The program provides management tools
to keep the entire team involved and informed. With a couple
of clicks you can select needed crew from your database, check
their combined weight and then send out an e-mail blast to everyone
with the dock time and what if anything they need to bring.
This is a much simpler way to put together a crew.
UK-Halsey
SailTeam Builder effectively offers two products
in one. It provides a crew management database coupled with
a powerful sail inventory management system all in one web-based
system, which means you can access your boat’s site from
any computer that can get online. UK-Halsey
SailTeam Builder is an entry-level version of
1bigthink's popular SailTeam and SailSystem manager software,
which you can upgrade to after the free 60-day trial expires.
UK-Halsey
SailTeam Builder is not your typical web site;
it’s a management tool developed specifically for serious
sailing programs. You can share contact information, manage
the crew roster and positions, logistical details for events
and practices, assign and track crew responsibilities, and manage
the sailing schedule. More advanced tools enable you to manage
and track your sail inventory in great detail as well. You can
even schedule re-cuts and repairs though your local UK Halsey
loft with a single click.
Check it out by clicking
here. We'll ask you to provide your contact information,
but rest assured that UK-Halsey and 1bigthink will not share
or sell this information with anyone else. You will not receive
SPAM as a result of signing up.
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Featured
Loft of the Month
UK-Halsey Spain
Andy Longerela's loft in Malaga,
Spain, is very close to the Strait of Gibraltar, which makes
it strategically located to give service and assistance to the
boats arriving or leaving the Mediterranean. It is also key
in UK-Halsey’s America's Cup work now that the Cup will
be battled for in Spain.
The loft has 600 sq/m of clear-span
floor and all the modern tools for sailmaking. Production is
divided in three departments: Cruising sails, Racing sails and
One Design.
Currently they are doing the sails
for the TP-52 BALEARIA that is skippered by Antonio Gorostegui,
one of the most important helmsman in Spain. His resume includes
an Olympic silver-medal. The European Transpac 52 fleet has
truly taken off this year with 17 boats competing in the Copa
del Rey.
In the 2005 seasson, the Dehler
36 CARD & OIL had a great success with UK-Halsey sails in
the IMS-670 class on the Mediterranean circuit, thanks to a
closer relation between the loft and the crew to achieve a better
rating with the better sails.
In the cruising market, UK Spain
dressed up the Swan 77 SAYONARA with a complete set of UK
sails with taffeta on both sides of the laminate. Even in the
light-air sea trial the boat was noticebly quick. In December,
look for the loft’s sails on two top-end cruisers doing
the Cadiz to Santo Domingo race. In that trans-Atlantic race,
the loft will have sails on an Oyster 65 and a Shipman 55.
In the One Design department,
the loft is still working to keep its winning Opti sails at
the front of the class. UK-powered kids have won many first
places around Europe. In the last Olympics for disabled sailors,
UK-Halsey Spain made the sails for the two 2.4’s used
by the Spanish team, which took gold and bronze.
Over the last three months, loft
has been working with the UK-Halsey team doing sails for the
China America’s Cup team. The loft has recut some of the
sails and will become more involved in designs and construction
in the next few months.
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QUARTER TON CUP WINNER POWERED BY TAPE-DRIVE
 After
going through a three-year refit, the brightly finished Quarter
Tonner, PURPLE HAZE won the 14-boat Quarter Ton Cup last June
and two days later went out and won the 555-boat IRC division
in the Around the Isle of Wight race. Neither was an easy feat.
Built in 1978 PURPLE HAZE was
designed by the renowned David Thomas. Tony Dodd has owned the
boat for three years, during which time he has carried out an
extensive refit, including new veneers over the entire hull.
A varnished boat, she is an amazing credit to their efforts
and looked absolutely stunning on the water. Making her refit
complete was full set of Tape-Drive sails.
The Quarter Ton Cup was revived
after a nearly long hiatus brought on by the death of the IOR
Rule. Designer Ron Holland presented the prizes for the regatta
and spoke about the vital role that the Quarter Ton Class had
played in the education of so many of today's great yacht designers.
He closed with the comment, “I couldn't have done MIRABELLA
(the largest sloop in the world) without the Quarter Ton Cup!”
The Quarter Ton Cup went right
down to wire with PURPLE HAZE tied with SUPER Q at 11 points
after six races over two days, which produced white-knuckle
conditions. The final three races were sailed in a more sedate
6-12 knots.
"Thrashing 23-foot boats
around in approaching 30 knots of breeze was terrific. We laid
them on their sides, tipped them over and had great fun. It
was a brilliant day's sailing and you realize just how good
Grand Prix rules are when the boats are so different in shape
but finish only seconds apart after such tough racing,"
said Peter Morton, skipper SUPER Q.
PURPLE HAZE revelled in the lighter
airs and went on to win from Chris & Sue Flewitt's OLIVIA
ANNE VI and Roger & Liz Swinney's AYANAMI, while SUPER Q
finished 10th. A little bit of rig tweaking between races put
SUPER Q back on track and she prevailed in a humdinger of a
dog fight. A last race thriller did not materialize because
PURPLE HAZE got a cracking start and sailed a textbook race
to win both the race and the 2005 Quarter Ton Cup.
For Tony Dodd, winning the Gold
Roman Bowl, the most prestigious trophy award amongst the 1692-boat
in the Round the Island Race, was the absolute icing on the
cake: “We were delighted to win the newly resurrected
Quarter Ton Cup earlier in the week. We never imagined we'd
do so well in the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island
Race too.”
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SPECTRA
TAPE-DRIVE: A BARGIN IN THE LONG RUN
 Nine
years ago, New York-based cruising sailor Larry Rouen needed
to replace his 10-year-old Dacron sails. His Frers-designed
Dawn 41 was not sailing well and constant sail repairs were
becoming a bother. As a long-time sailor who has raced and cruised
on many boats, he wanted performance oriented sails, but he
needed sails that would last eight years since he was just about
to put second and third kids through college.
UK-Halsey's answer was Tape-Drive
sails with a Spectra base-fabric. The Spectra base laminate
is reinforced with Kevlar or carbon fiber reinforced tapes.
Not only have his sails lasted nine years so far, but he also
won Huguenot Yacht Club's 2005 championship with his fully battened
main and roller furling genoa (shown left). Larry's boat NEPENTHE
goes out to race every Thursday night and daysails or cruises
each weekend of the summer. His sails' extended life is not
a result of light use.
"My genoa still has great
shape and I've never had a large tear in either of the sails",
said Rouen. "My new (nine-year-old) sails are working well
for their age but winning is really making it difficult for
me to convince my one and only first mate, Lynn, that newer
sails could be even better."
Larry is not alone in singing
the praises of UK-Halsey's Spectra Tape-Drive sails. Many sailors
are getting similar long-lasting results from these sails. Spectra
Tape-Drive sails do cost a lot more than Dacron sails, but they
hold their shape better and are significantly lighter. Both
lightness and shape holding are attributes that lead to faster
and more comfortable sailing.
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CIRCUMNAVIGATOR'S COMMENTS ON A CRUISING SAIL INVENTORY
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Laurie and Carole Pane on the deck of their Mason 53 DOLPHIN SPIRIT which carried the Pane family 40,000 miles while they visited 56 countries.
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In
last month's newsletter, we reviewed Laurie Pane's book CHASING
SUBNSETS: A PRACTING DEVOUT COWARD'S CIRCUMNAVIGATION. The book
is a great read for armchair sailors and potential world cruisers
looking for information from someone who has “" been
there and done that".
Laurie writes about the sails he used in the following article
exclusively for the UK-Halsey Online Newsletter.
We circumnavigated on DOLPHIN
SPIRIT, a Mason 53, driven by UK-Halsey sails, traveling over
40,000 miles in six-and-a-half years. Not once, at sea, did
we strike sustained winds over 35 knots.
That meant that we never even
brought on deck our storm trysail and storm jib. Many cruisers
obsess with preparations for heavy weather and neglect, or do
not give proper attention to, the needs of light-air sailing
— a much more common requirement.
DOLPHIN SPIRIT is cutter rigged,
in my opinion absolutely the best cruising arrangement. We carried
a 715 square foot main (in-mast roller furling), an 882 square
foot 130% genoa (roller furled) and a 282 square foot 90% high
aspect staysail (roller furled). Completing our active inventory
was our 1,800 square foot cruising spinnaker.
Those UK-Halsey sails took us around the world without a hitch.
All we had to do was to replace the sun-shield cloth once and
to have two seams re-sewn after four years or constant use.
The roller-furled staysail was permanently in place. It did
require use to partially roll up the genoa when tacking, but
that was no real concern. Remember that a cruiser does not tack
more than once a day, and then only after hours of contemplation
and consideration.
A lot of our ocean passages were
done under double-reefed main and staysail in 25 to 30 knot
winds. This set-up gave us a steady 160+ miles every day, minimized
heel (very important for the preservation of good marital relationships)
and made the auto-pilot's work very easy.
We reefed the genoa a lot, with little to no deterioration in
our sailing performance off the wind. With a partially rolled
genoa, we certainly could not point as high into the wind, but
that was one of the reasons we had a motor. Ask yourself whether
you would rather spend several hours under sail pounding into
head winds and seas, or halve that time by using the motor to
assist the sails.
Why did we pick UK-Halsey to supply our sails? They were price
competitive, but certainly not the cheapest quote we received.
What carried the day was that rarely found commodity –
professionalism. The sales people listened, made suggestions,
listened again, and said they didn't know if they didn’t.
The end result was a set of sails that did exactly what it was
supposed to do flawlessly. Sure we spent a little more, but
how much did we save in security, performance and longevity?
Lawrence Pane The
book is annotated with comments from Laurie's wife Carole
their young son Ryan. An example of the he said, she said
style follows while talking about part of their northbound
bash up the Red Sea:
After six days of being sand-blasted
and dust-coated, the wind dropped to 15 knots so we took off.
It immediately went back to 25 knots, and we pointed into
head-seas all day. This meant we would reach the anchorage
at Wadi Gimal after dark, and we never, never enter a new
anchorage at night by choice. I spoke on the VHF with LADY
KATHRYN who had just left that anchorage, and got the way
points and directions. We took a deep breath and headed in
- a very scary business, even under those conditions.
To make matters more interesting,
after we had threaded our way through the reefs into position,
the anchor chain jammed on the way down. Here was the situation;
pitch black night; 25 knots of wind; island in front of us
we could see only on radar; reef all around us that we could
not see by eye, or on radar; me upside down in the anchor
locker trying to unsnarl chain; Carole driving, trying to
stay in the one spot; Ryan calling depths; some anxiety all
around.
Then I got stuck getting out
of the anchor locker, lost some skin and gained some bruises.
The anchor finally went down, and we had lamb chops for dinner.
The wind was again blowing at 30 knots, all the way up to
Suez, so we stayed for two days, but were 60 miles closer
to the Canal.
Carole: It was nerve-wracking. Laurie just said, "Keep
the boat in the same position, there are reefs all around
us," and disappeared below to untangle the anchor chain.
How do I do that, when there were no points of reference,
the night was pitch black, and I had no idea if there was
a current running? Was there a reef just in front of us? Behind
us? I just used the compass to keep pointing in the right
direction, applied power when I thought we had moved, and
hoped for the best. Laurie FINALLY re-appeared and the anchor
went down. Then he had the audacity to ask for dinner!
To buy the book and find more information about the Panes,
go to www.chasingsunsetsthebook.com
The cost of the 448-page paperback with color photos is $19.96.
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| DEDICATION
TO EXCELLENCE WINS ONE-DESIGN LOYALTY  UK-Halsey
Texas's Pedro Gianotti was copied on a letter one of his Soling
customers sent to another Soling owner. The letter speaks
volumes for the attention to detail made by UK-Halsey. This
letter is reproduced with permission.
Dear
Scot,
I am happy to give you the feedback
you request. I sail at club level among a fleet of 20 Solings
(Cercle de la Voile de Paris). Most of the guys are using
Doyle sails and some North sails. My boat is by far the quickest
of our fleet. She is a '94 Borensens Soling built for team
"Dennis Conner". I'm real fast but this may be due
to the boat as well! I have been using North, Doyle, Elvström
(jib only), Sobstad (kite only) and UK-Halsey Sails from Pedro.
First let me speak about the
kite. Pedro's kite is fabulous - really fast in light air
and easy to tune. The kite fills up immediately and holds
up far beyond any other kite on the water. In comparison,
the North kite I used before is a pain in the ass... actually
I sold it. I am also using a Sobstad kite while training and
I reckon Pedro's kite is better.
Sails are very nicely made and
hold their shape very well. If I had to rate them against
the other sails I used, I would rank them 5 out of 5. The
depth of the sail is a good compromise and similar to the
Doyle shape - I found the North shapes different from sail
to sail (with one deeper than Doyle and another one really
flatter).
Pedro's sails are very easy
to tune - easier than North or Doyle. There are only three
car positions instead of 5. The rest of the tuning parameters
are pretty similar.
Bear in mind that I am also
a keen 505 sailor - (Actually President for France of this
International Dinghy class and International Vice President)
- The 505 is a very competitive two-person dinghy with trapeze.
I sail the 505 at club, regional, European levels mostly and
I rank third out of 100 helmsmen France. If you've ever sailed
such a dinghy you would know how tricky it is to tune this
boat (much more complicated than the Soling). I have been
using many sails made in American, UK, Denmark, Australian
and France. Among sailmakers, American ones give the best
finish (real good care at details) and Pedro's sails are of
that standard.
Pedro delivers right on time
- no issue with delivery. I simply regret I did not have them
sent rolled instead of folded - I am a bit of a perfectionist
I reckon. Pedro was also keen to figure out how I was doing
with his sails and he did address all my questions regarding
his sails and tuning tips. Frankly my next set will be from
Pedro - not simply for the price, but for the speed and quality.
I am sure you will like the sails too.
One thing I would like to mention
is UK's sail measurement tool called AccuMeasure. Simply take
some shots from under the sail (at boom level) and load them
on to your PC and then measure draft position. You can download
the program for free from their web site (www.ukhalsey.com/download.asp).
Playing with this tool is very useful to know what is going
on up there better...It's fun too.
Best regards,
Jean-Baptiste
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MUMM
30 EUROPEANS
Following up some great finishes
in the Tour de France a Voile, which was sailed in Mumm 30s,
the only Mumm 30 with UK-Halsey Sails finished second at the
Mumm 30 European Championships sailed in Italy. The wind blew
10-14 knots mostly, with a few light and heavy air races to
keep the fleet honest.
The regatta was a good test for
boatspeed and consequently a good test of sail performance.
The comments of all the rock stars was that the one boat with
UK-Halsey sails (LA MARACHELLA DI DRI DRI) was the fastest in
winds between 11 and 14 knots true.
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FASTER
THAN A SPEEDING BULLET – NOT REALLY
BUT AN F31 TRIMARAN WAS FASTER THAN A SANTA CRUZ 70
 Juan
Hussong of Ensenada Mexico sailing his Corsair 31 DREI in the
Newport Beach to San Diego ended up sailing the 65-mile course
11 minutes and 45 seconds faster than the Santa Cruz 70 MILUSKA.
The little boat was truly a dragon slayer.
Luis Gianotti of UK-Halsey San
Diego sailed on the boat and wrote the following story: It was
very light at the start so we reached out with the screacher
and main. About half way though the race the wind started to
increase so we hoisted the asymmetric spinnaker and jumped up
the speedo to 14-15 knots; at this point we had passed most
of the boats that started in front of us. The one boat that
we were after was the Santa Cruz 70 that started 15 minutes
before us. For a long time she was a very small sail on the
horizon, but thanks to the stronger wind she was getting bigger
by the minute. The wind went light just before the finish, so
we never did pass the biggest boat in the fleet, but we did
sail the course in less time than they did.
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DON'T
ARGUE WITH IDIOTS BECAUSE THEY WILL DRAG YOU DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL
AND THEN BEAT YOU WITH EXPERIENCE.
That's just the lesson the skipper
of a Farr 395 used while sailing in the Larchmont NOOD regatta
last weekend. He was sailing to round the leeward mark that
was 50 yards to windward of the finish line. J/109s were in
the same water sailing toward the finish line. The Farr was
the leeward boat sailing a higher course as he converged with
a slower J/109. The skipper of the Farr hailed, "Leeward
boat". ”And the skipper of the J/109 responded that
the Farr had established an overlap from astern and could not
sail above his proper course. I could hear the frustration in
the Farr boat's skipper's voice when he yelled, "The leeward
boat determines the proper course." And he was right. But
instead of being dragged down to the level of the guy who didn't
have a clew, the Farr boat luffed it's chute and went behind
the J-boat. In the end it was easier and quicker to not push
the case.
For the easiest way to learn the
racing rules of sailing, click here to go the UK-Halsey free
rules
quizzes. You can buy a CD with the enhanced version of the
quizzes at the UK-Halsey
online store. Our quizzes deal with common racing situations,
not brain teasers.
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scene
from quiz 7 |
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