Innholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2015 i Sailing World

I NEVER THOUGH I’D THANK my four-yearold for her middle-of-the-night stirrings. Yet, on behalf of the skipper, the watch captain, the navigator, and the bow team of Team Sailing World in the Virtual Volvo Ocean Race, I thank you for kicking your covers off and waking me in the freezing dead of winter so I can launch the App and check my true-wind angle and boatspeed as I careen, bleary eyed, across the virtual Southern Ocean at 25.4 knots. It’s true. I’m addicted to The Game. With my Laser buried in two feet of snow and the harbor frozen across, it’s been my competitive sailing outlet. My biological clock is now in rhythm with its 12-hour wind updates—at 2 p.m. and 2 a.m. While I’m standing in line, and often…

IN THIS MOMENT they were no longer the young ones. Technically, yes, Team Alvimedica were the Volvo Ocean Race’s youngest eightman squad, even with the Leg 5 guest appearance of 43-year-old six-timer Stu Bannatyne skewing the average. It was this moment, as they reached past Cape Horn at 20 knots, that they were no longer the young hot shots. They were Southern Ocean champs, and they finally were hitting their stride. Plus, the team’s boyish-looking skipper, Charlie Enright had matured a few years himself in those brutal, beautiful, and harrowing miles between Auckland and the big rock. As Enright, 30, crouched under the coach roof of the Volvo 65, ducking sheets of water and answering questions from a live stream interview with race headquarters, in the background, his teammates high-fived,…

THE U.S. SAILING TEAM’S performance at the past several Olympic games has been less than stellar, prompting the question, what needs to change? It’s apparent that the team is missing something—our sailors are just not getting to the podium. The answer may lie with youth sailing, namely the U.S. Sailing Olympic Development team. “Our performance in London reinforced that we need to take a harder look at what successful national teams are doing to develop their talent,” says Josh Adams, Managing Director of U.S. Olympic Sailing. “We need to take a more systematic approach to developing skills.” U.S. Sailing is looking directly towards its Development Team. [Full disclosure: I was on the team for two years. I experienced its shortcomings and its noisy absence in my sailing career. What I…

AFTER FINISHING A speaking engagement recently, a young and unfamiliar couple approaches me for an autograph. While I sign a copy of Championship Sailing, the woman says to me, “You are responsible for us getting together.” She’s got my attention. “Really?” I ask. She explains: “We were at a party, watching your show on the America’s Cup, and we started talking about sailing. That led to dating, and eventually buying a boat.” That was a first. I’d never before considered the romantic implications of my Cup shows. I was happy to have sparked their courtship, and like this couple, many of you have thanked me for inspiring you to get out on the water. But I’d have you know that when I’m speaking to you I’m listening, too. I’ve learned…

SAIL DESIGNER, PRO SAILOR “Here, come on into my office, I mean, my hallway.” On this early morning in March, Mike Marshall, the 25-year-old sail designer from Jamestown, R.I., is hustling around North Sails’ Rhode Island loft, prepping a small outbound parcel. As I shadow him from the shipping desk to his designated, unmarked cubicle, he’s rushed. He has a lot to do before he’s on the road—again—for 10 days of back-to-back Lightning and J/22 regattas in Florida. The barren workspace is literally the hallway connecting cushier offices and the loft’s break room. His real office, he says, is at North Sails Design Services up in Marblehead, Mass., where he works alongside J.B. Braun, one of the best in the sailmaking business. On this day, he’s just passing through the…

The driver is constantly experimenting with sailing as close to dead down wind as possible without loosing speed. If it’s marginally windy enough to be in run mode, slightly hotter angles need to be sailed, or the boat stalls. As the wind gets strong enough to be solidly into the downwind mode, angles can be almost “DDW.” I look at my masthead fly to see if it the main is blocking the spin or not. If it is, I head up until the wind has a clear shot. My trimmer is usually barking, “Head up 5 degrees” anyway because what I see with my fly he feels as no pull on the sheet. Conversely, as the wind increases, the wind holds the spinnaker up better and we are able to…

HALFWAY THROUGH the first of two laps of which the new fleet of one-design Volvo Ocean 65s were designed to sail, there has thus far been a single dismasting. Keels have remained attached, and there are no incidences major structural failures. Compared with the previous edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, in which only three of six boats finished the first leg, it’s clear the reliability of the one-design platform has worked. Streamlining maintenance of the fleet with a shared “Boat Yard” servicing in the stopovers has helped, but hat’s not to say the fleet has enjoyed an entirely clean bill of health since the start. The first common failures were deck-mounted pad eyes. On Leg 1, Dongfeng Race Team had the first pad eye casualty, which resulted in a…

MEN’S 470 Stuart McNay and David Hughes Jordan Factor and Matthew Wefer Development: Russell Clarida and Ian Robinson WOMEN’S 470 Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha Sydney Bolger and Carly Shevitz Development: Alexia Fischer and Georgia Lomax 49ER Brad Funk and Trevor Burd David Liebenberg and Daniel Morris Development: Fred Strammer and Michael Kuschner 49ERFX Paris Henken and Helena Scutt Debbie Capozzi and Molly Vandemoer Development: Emily Dellenbaugh and Elizabeth Barry FINN Caleb Paine Philip Toth Development: Luke Muller LASER Charlie Buckingham Chris Barnard Development: Erik Bowers LASER RADIAL Erika Reineke and Paige Railey Development: Haddon Hughes NACRA 17 Michael Easton and Katie Pettibone Sarah Newberry and Matthew Whitehead Development: Jeremy Wilmot and Louisa Chafee MEN’S RS: X Carson Crain Raul Lopez Development: Ben Barger WOMEN’S RS: X Farrah Hall Marion…

EACH JANUARY, the San Diego International Auto Show features more than 400 vehicles from 40 global manufacturers. Whenever I attend the show, I know I’ve seen virtually every realistic option available, from Bentley to Buick. Yet, when I attend a boat show, I never have that feeling. And there are a lot of boat shows. I receive invitations to many of them, but I have only the time, money, and purpose to attend two of them: the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, because it’s so well attended by both the industry and consumers, and the Strictly Sail Pacific show in Oakland, mainly because it’s convenient. There are plenty of suppliers I won’t see at either, and plenty that I will see at both. Jeff Brown thinks there are too many…

PROFESSIONAL SAILOR, EAGER NIPPER When you’re a hungry, young nipper on Comanche, one of the most radical raceboats on the planet, there’s no job too miserable. What of the proven adage, “never do a shitty job well?” For one Weston “Westy” Barlow, it doesn’t apply. Today, at 7 a.m., the wiry 26-year-old is out of the apartment he shares with his girlfriend, to be at the boatyard by 8. The day’s work list includes running a new luffcable inside a storm jib, finishing custom helming platforms for the owner that’ll allow him to drive the beamy 100-footer, putting gas in the hydraulics, and of course, bailing the bilges. As the nipper onboard Clark’s Comanche, he’s sponged plenty of gallons already, but he’s never put air into hydraulics rams. “I know…

You’ve made a great decision. For many college sailing alumni, it is the defining experience of their college years. Every school, team, and student are different, but if you invest time and effort into college sailing, you stand to add a huge amount of value and meaning to your undergraduate education. Plus, you’ll graduate as a way better sailor than you were four years before. Assuming you know what a great opportunity college sailing represents, the question is: How do I go from an eager high school student to a fulfilled and successful collegiate student-athlete? More specifically, how do I navigate the college sailing recruiting process, and get off to a good start once after arriving on campus? It’s a tricky question, but I’m here to help. Let’s start with…

RULE 14, AVOIDING CONTACT, first appeared in 1997, the year the entire rulebook was rewritten to provide an improved, simpler and better organized set of rules. Before the rewriting project began, many competitors were consulted and asked what changes they wanted. Many requested rules that put increased emphasis on avoiding damage. Their requests led to the elimination of the right of a leeward boat to luff as fast and as hard as she pleased, even if her luff resulted in damage to the windward boat. It also led to the introduction of Rule 14, which applies to all boats at all times, whether they’re the rightof-way boat or the keep clear boat, and whether they are entitled to room or required to give it. RULE 14, AVOIDING CONTACT A boat…

IN 1853, THE 235-foot clipper ship, Flying Cloud, sailed from New York to San Francisco, around Cape Horn in 89 days and 13 hours—a record for a sailing vessel that held until 1989. In 2008, the 110-foot French racing catamaran Gitana 13, with a crew of 10 traversed the 13,000-mile-plus journey in 43 days and 38 minutes. It’s a record that stands today. There is no record for sailing non-stop on the old American clipper ship trade route singlehanded, but Ryan Finn wants to set one with his throwback 32-foot Polynesian style proa. “It’s not a very yachty type of thing that I’m doing here,” says Finn. “This is more of an American adventure. An American exploration of what is possible. This is an adventure, first and foremost. Finn first…

FOR TWO WEEKS in May, little ‘ol Newport, R.I., once home to the America’s Cup, will be overrun with an entirely different experience: the Volvo Ocean Race. There will sailors, sponsors, VIPs, and race fans pouring in across the bridges and onto Aquidneck Island, and that’s fine as far as local organizers and state officials are concerned. They’ve been planning and building for the better part of two years, and they’re ready for the arrival of the biggest international sailing event outside of the Cup. With hotel rooms at capacity throughout the state as of late April, they’re counting on day-trippers to tip the attendance scale. The more the merrier for the round-the-world race’s only North American stopover. There will be one massive family festival, there will be concerts and…

RACE OFFICER, NAVIGATOR, SPEED ANALYST Anderson Reggio doesn’t walk around with King Neptune’s trident in one hand and an Apple prototype VHF/computer/chart plotter in the other. It just seems that way because of his threepronged attack on professional sailing as a PRO, navigator, and data analyst. As a 12-year-old, his father dragged him around to worldclass regattas. His dad, Peter “Luigi” Reggio, is one of the alltime great principal race officers, and he’d take his son with him to work the mark boats. It wasn’t until the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Dubai in November 2010, however, that the younger Reggio could see himself following in the old man’s footsteps. “That was a game changer,” says Anderson Reggio, who’d been bartending in Newport for five years until that point. “It was…

EMERGING MEDIA Jen Edney is usually a red helmet bobbing near the committee boat. Sporting her signature head protection, she balances a heavy, waterproof camera housing in one hand while clinging to the anchor line with the other. As boats barrel down the line, she captures the action from her favorite vantage point, and while she immerses herself in the action, she’s careful to not get too close. She’s easy to miss in the water, but her photographs are hard to ignore. “I like to try to bring the viewer into the photo,” says Edney. “Whenever I can actually get onboard the boats I do, because I like to pretend I’m showing my family, which doesn’t sail, what I’m doing and bring them into the photograph.” Unlike most of her…

It’s March 11 at 3 p.m., on New York City’s East River, and spring is in the air. The sun is shining, and the temperature has climbed to a balmy 58 degrees. Alec Tayler is ready to return to work. “I’m excited to finally get back on the water,” says Tayler, a sophomore skipper on Fordham University’s sailing team, as he rigs up for the team’s first practice in 2015. Tayler and his fellow Fordham Rams are making up for lost time as they try to improve on a breakthrough fall 2014 season that saw them reach a bestever national ranking of No. 6 in Sailing World’s College Rankings. The team was supposed to begin sailing on February 24, but those plans were swept aside by a brutal winter that…

IN THE PREVIOUS ISSUE we visited Cornell University’s wind tunnel to see how wind flows around an asymmetric spinnaker. We learned a lot, of course, especially the importance of being dynamic with our trim, so we went back to the tunnel to explore some key points of symmetric spinnaker flow and trim. Before stepping into the tunnel, I had a naïve vision of attached flow on both sides of the spinnaker. What I quickly discovered, instead, was that the smoke showed large areas of stagnation and early flow separation. Thinking our 3D printed plastic test spinnaker was too rigid, or its shape flawed, we went out and placed telltales on my J/24 spinnaker. Our realworld tests confirmed our wind-tunnel findings: The flow is there, but it’s less than ideal. The…

FEW SAILORS would try what Andy Horton did. In the spring, he bought a Moth, one of the world’s most challenging boats. Over the summer, he trained on his own. The following January, he competed in his first regatta, the Moth Worlds in Sorrento, Australia. “I had never really sailed against another Moth before I got down there,” says Horton. “I was joking with my wife that I was going to a world championship halfway around the world, I’ve never sailed against another boat, I can’t tack, and I can’t jibe. Other than that, it’s all good.” Despite his shortcomings, he made the gold fleet, and although he was far from the top of that group, here’s how he approached the event. Given my limited experience in Moth racing, my…