Interested?

Send resumes to Loft General Manager Kevin Crouchley at: kevin@uksailmakers.com

Interested?

Send resumes to Emmett Dickheiser of UK Sailmakers New York at: emmett@uksailmakers.com

WIZARD was scratch boat in ORC and the only boat that was close to us in speed was the Judel Vrolijk 66 DENALI, to which we owed about 20 minutes on the course. There was a TP52 in our class, also, but since we owed her about two hours, there was no reason to be close to her.

At the starting line we did our best to get away from DENALI. Stu Bannatyne did a masterful job of winning the start and closed out DENALI at the signal boat, forcing her to go around and start again (see the previous post for a video of the start) . But after sailing half of the seven-mile leg out the harbor, we let DENALI split and sail to the west. Sure enough, she was ahead of us at the first mark. If you don’t have a good reason to split with your competition, do as my mother told me in 1977 after she watched me lose a race in the last 100 yards by not covering. She said, “Cover, cover, cover!” Yes, Mom.

Being faster, we sailed through the lee of DENALI on the 16-mile downwind leg to the Buzzard’s Bay Tower. We recovered from our first mistake. After rounding the tower we had a 45-mile beat with Block Island in the middle of the leg’s rhumbline. Because we had not tacked right away after rounding the Buzzards Bay Tower, we could not pass to the north of Block Island without bearing off. Bearing off would have put us behind DENALI, which had tacked immediately after rounding the tower. Our loose cover didn’t pay off. They used Block Island as a pick and we had to tack and go to down the east side of the Island in order to get around the south end of the Island. Denali kept going straight and passed the north side of Block. As a result, she rounded the mark off of Montauk 10 minutes in front of us. Our second mistake of not covering.

We used our superior downwind speed to close the gap to a minute or two the second time we rounded the Buzzards Bay Tower. Once again we had to beat in order to go around the south side of Block Island before making the turn to go back to Newport. As the wind went a little lighter, we were quicker going upwind. Not wanting to let us go, DENALI tacked with us each time we tried to get out from under her. Just before passing the southeast corner of Block Island, we sailed through DENALI’s lee to take the lead. On the south side of Block, we tacked on DENALI at least five time to try to drive them back. As they say, “Fool me once…”

The final leg of the race was a run from the north end of Block Island into Newport Harbor and the wind was dropping. Even in 10 knots of wind, we were making 10 knots of speed. When we were halfway home, we had to head up to sail at our target angles. This was bringing us into the Rhode Island shore, west of Newport. Our navigator checked all the weather stations along that shore and found that they all had little to no wind. At that point we split with DENALI and jibed back out into Rhode Island Sound to stay in 8-10 knots of wind. That was the last we saw of DENALI, which kept going to the shore.

We were keenly aware that we were running out of time to finish the race before the wind shut off and before helpful flood current changed to an ebb that would make it that harder to sail up into Newport harbor. That’s exactly what happened to DENALI. They got caught in the dying wind and foul current. In the 16 miles from Block Island to the finish they went from being even with WIZARD to finishing one-hour-and-a-half behind. WIZARD corrected to first in class by over one hour. Here, the better call was to NOT cover the competitor…but it was based on hard data and sound navigation.

So once again, you have to know when to cover and when to sail your own race.

When Henson ordered his boat from JPK in Lorient, France, his plan was always to sail it back to Australia. The delivery date had been fluid – going backwards – due to Covid, however it suddenly jumped forward necessitating making sails in a hurry.

Henson immediately contacted Geoff Bishop at UK Sailmakers Australia in Freemantle to see if Geoff could help. Short answer: a resounding yes! The boat had a largely stock rig which was fortunate as no one could travel to France to measure the boat due to Covid. But building a full inventory of sails from scratch when nobody, including the owner, has set foot on the boat was a challenge. The mast was from Romania and the furlers were from Italy which added to the challenge.

Geoff looped into the conversation UK Sailmaker’s head designer Pat Considine in Chicago. Together, Pat, Geoff and Bill developed a plan for the extent of the inventory needed. Then Pat brought in his “special sauce.” Pat has become keenly adept at optimizing sail design using BSG Development’s FSI 3-D sail flying shape simulator. More than a digital wind tunnel, FSI allowed Pat to set-up the specs for the boat and rig, input the range of sailing conditions Henson would likely encounter, and a budget range he was willing to spend. From there, it was an enlightening blend of art and science. Bill commented that Geoff wasn’t so much as selling sails but providing a service, including advice on fullers and deck layout, to enable him to achieve his sailing objectives.

Mid-summer 2021, Bill arrived in France finding his boat and sails ready to go. The sails fit the boat like a glove and were ready to race and cruise immediately. And the sail tuning guide proved invaluable from the very first test sail. Bill sailed the boat from Lorient, France to the Italian island of Sardinia with his son Alexander.

SIRENE was designed as a cruiser-racer, so the first big step was to race the stormy Rolex Middle Sea Race that is sailed in late October. The 600-mile race, starts and finishes in Malta. The first time they put up a spinnaker was two days before the race. About the race, Bill wrote, “The 2021 Middle Sea Race was, as they say, ‘full on’ with winds up to 30 knots, gusting into the high 30’s – but there were three separate points in the race where the winds totally shut-down! We didn’t push the boat or ourselves excessively hard finishing mid-fleet, roughly at the back of the pure racer boats but at the front of the racer/cruiser boats. Fortunately, nothing on the boat was broken and there was no sail damage. That was particularly gratifying considering how a couple of rigs were lost plus a lot of sail damage through the rest of the fleet.”

After the race, they sailed to Tunisia, Greece, Egypt and then through the Suez Canal followed by cruising and diving the northern part of the Red Sea. After that they sped south to Djibouti and then the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. From there it was on to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, through the Strait of Malacca to Indonesia and then to Darwin. From there, the headed west across the top of Australia and then made a turn to head south along the west coast of Australia down to Fremantle. Father and son have finished an epic journey and lived their dream.

Now SIRENE will be the newest boat in the Fremantle fleet.

This is the 12th boat the Weiss family has named CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, which is an Italia 11.98 that the team first sailed in January 2022.

The team had two standout finishes in this year’s NORT competition. In May’s Block Island Race, CHRISTOPHER DRAGON finished first in class, first overall in ORC, and they were presented the trophy for best overall performance. In the Bermuda Race, they won their class and finished fourth overall in the 105-boat St. David’s Lighthouse Division.

One of the “weapons” UK Sailmakers made for the boat is a small reaching spinnaker, “The A3 that UK Sailmakers’ lead designer Pat Considine created for the us does everything! It can sail down to 155° TWA in 22-26 knots, and it can reach well, too.” In the 180-mile Block Island Race, Weiss found the A3 could close reach well with a reef in the main. “I’m really glad Butch Ulmer talked me into making the sail completely out of .9 oz spinnaker cloth instead of having half the sail made out of a lighter material. We knocked down a handful of times and I was never concerned with damaging the sail. “

About the Italia, Weiss said, “This boat is fun to sail. We have not found a weakness of it yet.” He has used it for day races, coastal races, and the Bermuda Race and had done well in all courses and wind conditions.

Weiss sails his boat with an all-Corinthian crew except for the times when he brings someone from UK Sailmakers to join the team. That’s because Weiss prefers to sail with long-time friends, including Larry Fox who has been sailing with Andrew since 1973.

Photos used with permission: © 2022, courtesy of Rick Bannerot & Stamford Y.C., Ontheflyphoto.net

Cover photo: Maureen Koeppel photo.

As the article explains, when it comes to designing and manufacturing sails, it’s much more than the just having high-tech design tools at your disposal; it’s knowing how to use them. One of the most important tools, and one that requires a curated blend of technological skill and sailmaking artistry, is BSG’s SailPack FSI. According to BSG’s software Development Manager Laurent Guillaume, UK Sailmakers’ Lead Designer Pat Considine “is one of the few who really know how to make the FSI product sing!”

Click on the link below to read a full-length article in Seahorse Magazine that provides an insiders look at FSI, how Pat uses it, and how it has benefited UK Sailmakers’ customers around the world. Click here to read the whole SEAHORSE article.

Andrew and Linda Weiss’ Italia 11.98 CHRISTOPHER DRAGON finished first in Class 12 (14 boats) and fourth overall in St. Davids Lighthouse (Corinthian) division of this year’s 635-mile Newport-to-Bermuda Race.

From the very start, Andrew was in control of his race. With a committee end favored starting line, and everyone trying to get an advantage from the get-go, Andrew controlled the start and caught nearly half the fleet barging. With much of the division having to peel off and approach the starting line again, DRAGON was off cleanly and reached R2 off Brenton Reef at the head of his group. They had started with a jib up for maneuverability, but after about 30 minutes the wind swung around to the northwest and they set their new UK Sailmakers A2. They only saw a jib again for a short time in the Gulf Stream. The sleigh ride had begun.

With his life-long friend and navigator Larry Fox’s council, they went east of rhumbline most of the race. Weather forecasters Chelsea Carlson and Jennifer Clark both gave similar points to enter the Gulf Stream, but Andrew said they ended up 50 miles west of that point not able to easily get that far east. When they did get to the Stream, a line of strong squalls came through. They took down the A2 and went to the J3, a prudent move, as the wind quickly increased to 25-30 knots with big waves.

Once the squalls passed and the crew got settled, they set their UK Sailmakers A3, a very flat reaching sail, the performance of which they largely credit their overall win in this year’s Block Island Race. DRAGON sailed under the A3 for the next 26 hours, passing boat after boat that had jibs up in the Gulf Stream. Weiss and crew were doing 16 knots with the A3 while the competition with jibs were still doing single digit speeds.

While entering and sailing through the Stream, DRAGON found itself in a pack of boats sailing closely together. “It was like a traffic jam,” Weiss noted, “with a lot of chatter on VHF 16 about boats being out of control. With the A3 up, several crew members kept hitting higher and higher speeds until we set the high for the race at 19 knots at one point while I was at the wheel.” In doing his homework before purchasing the Italia 11.98 last winter, he never thought the boat could go so fast. He went on to compare these conditions encountered in the Stream to those of the 2017 Sydney Hobart Race, where it blew 22-28 knots from astern. (Weiss had shipped a previous Christopher Dragon, a Sydney 43, to Australia for that iconic race.) As in the Hobart Race, all crew on deck were tethered to the boat, even in day light.

Throughout the maelstrom the Gulf Stream presented the fleet this week, Weiss’ boat and crew performed well. Importantly, they didn’t break anything and we nor rip any sails…a claim many competitors wish they could make.

By Sunday, still sailing under spinnaker, DRAGON was among bigger boats from “faster” classes. Again, with the input from Fox, they caught an advantageous current ring south of the Gulf Stream. “Anyone who was west of this eddy was out of luck!” Weiss continued. “We worked hard to sail our target angles on the long run. This helped us to stay east of the rhumbline so that we could have a good angle coming into the finish.”

They didn’t set their new UK Sailmakers’ lighter and bigger A-2 until Monday morning when wind dropped below 12 knots. “It’s a great sail, it’s bigger then the original A-2, it’s also lighter and we can run lower. That A2 is well worth the rating hit we took for it.

One aspect of racing that makes it more fun is when you have a friend’s boat in proximity of you. DRAGON was having a good boat-for-boat race with fellow Larchmont Yacht Club and Storm Trysail Club member Peter McWinnie sailing his JPK 10.80 IN THEORY, also sailing in Class 12. “In the big breeze, they planed away from us,” Andrew noted, “but they sailed higher angles whereas we sailed deeper ones. That allowed us to hold our southerly course. We went from being close to them to having 19 miles of easterly separation in the last part of the race.” McWhinnie finished second in Class 12 behind Weiss.

Weiss continued, “The wind went right the whole race, which meant if you were to the east of the rhumb line, you got knocked the whole way to Bermuda. That helped us tremendously. Sure enough, we corrected over IN THEORY by over three hours. In fact, only two boats in the next two faster classes (classes 13 and 14 including J/122s, J/44s, and J/120s) had faster elapsed times, and one of those was by less than a minute. DRAGON even had a faster elapsed time than all but three of the boats in Class 15.

The A3 that Weiss had UK Sailmakers’ lead designer Pat Considine design for the boat “does everything. It can sail down to 155° TWA in 22-26 knots, and it can reach well.” In the 180-mile Block Island Race, Weiss found the A3 could close reach well with a reef in the main. “I’m really glad Butch Ulmer talked me into making the sail completely out of .9 oz spinnaker cloth instead of having half the sail made out of a lighter material,” he explained. “We rolled out a handful of times and I was never concerned with damaging the sail.“

As for his take on the Italia 11.98 now that he has a number of regattas (and wins) under his belt, Andrew concluded, “This boat is fun to sail. We have not found a weakness of it yet. Even though we did not take first in fleet, fourth in a 108-boat fleet is pretty good!”

Weiss said the boat’s designer, Matteo Polli, recommended not having a Code Zero to race under ORC because of the penalty Code Zeros incurs. The smallest, non-penalized spinnaker allowed in ORC has an 85% mid-girth. That is why Weiss went with a small A3 instead of a Code Zero.

A3 INSTEAD OF CODE ZERO

After the Block Island Race, where CHRISTOPHER DRAGON won in her class as well as took First Overall in ORC, Weiss wrote, “We worked with the boat’s yacht designer and UK Sailmakers to build a relatively small and flat A-3. It is as small you can go without incurring a penalty under ORC; the mid-girth is little over 85 percent. We built the sail out of .9-ounce material at the suggestion of UK’s Butch Ulmer. I’m glad we listened; the sail stood up well while loaded-up.

“We didn’t see any other boats flying A-3s at the beginning of the Block Race. They all had code sails or jibs. We used the sail on and off for about 60 percent of the race and it’s the reason we think we won.”

“At times we realized we were overpowered and thought about taking the sail down. The main was flogging, which isn’t productive nor good for the main. The crew discussed what we could do. We decided to try putting in reef in the main. When we did, the boat was back under control. The main didn’t flog anymore and we thought we were about one-third of knot faster. On the way out, we were having hard time keeping up with the Sunfast 33, which are great reaching boats. Reefed, we were about equal to them; whenever the wind dropped couple of knots, we were faster. We eventually passed all of them going out the Gut [Plum Island Gut].

CHRISTOPHER DRAGON is currently racing in the 630-mile Newport to Bermuda Race.

Interested?

Send resumes to Geoff Bishop, owner of the UK Fremantle loft, at: fremantle@uksailmakers.com